I have just got a cat. He's on 6 weeks free insurance. When that had expired I was going to move him to M&S which is what my dog's on.
Well I just joined a cat site and they are reporting that AXA will be pulling out of M&S at the end of the year, which could mean a large price increase in premiums. I've not seen this mentioned on any dog sites like what happened when they removed their no excess.

I was wondering if anyone else had heard of this and if anyone know's what effect it will have on policies. I've got a renewal coming up soon for the dog and the need to start a new policy for the cat. I've looked into Pet Plan for the dog, but they are quoting double to triple of what I'm paying now (depending on coverage) with an £80 excess. The double quote covers less than what I'm getting currently. I don't know whether to stick with M&S or switch to AXA. At the moment I've got no problems with M&S.

Insurance is complicated

I was with M&S and they put my premium up from £15 per month to £25 with no explanation and on top of that they ditched the no excess (that I had been paying extra for) and slapped on the 15% of total fee rule on any claim made.  They said it was because my dog was now 8 years of age and he was becoming "high risk".  Don't we pay insurance companies our premiums to carry risk?

Anyway I switched to AXA themselves and pay £14 per month for the top grade of insurance with £50 excess.  It's the same policy as I had with M&S.  I'd advise you to switch before you ever have to make a claim.  More and more insurance companies are putting VERY strict rules on what they will and will not cover.

CG

It might be that M&S are dumping AXA.  Perhaps they have noticed a loss of business with the premiums going up so much in the last year or so.

That could be good news for us with M&S.

I have two bitches and a cat insured with M&S
when I applied for a quote for our pup the quote was over a hundred pounds more than it was for all the others so i got a quote off Axa and it was loads cheaper-
for the SAME policy

Just thought you all should know that this is true. Axa has pulled out of m and s and it is now royal sun alliance (also underwrite more than) which are absolutely rubbish! The excess is now £70 (on renewal) they won't cover hydrotherapy for arthritis, general mobility or obesity, they won't cover prescription diets for ongoing conditions and if you need to phone a vet out of hours their conditions state you MUST phone their vetline first, which is 2 vet nurses who if busy will phone you back in 10 minutes (at which point your dog may have bled to death) to let you know if you may contact your ooh vet and be covered.
Its absolutely ridiculous and i am angry that i am not getting the cover i originally chose m and s for. They have also put up their prices again with someone being quoted over £1000 for a pyranean mountain dog on another forum.
Everyone who is with m and s needs to look at their new policy booklet on the website, and if you can i would change as iunfortunately i am stuck with them having already claimed.

The problem is though, is it ridiculous.. ??

I wouldnt go into pet insurance as a business.   Vet fees are far too high and getting higher and insurance claims are massive.  Said it on another insurance thread alround insurance is not that expensive in the UK.. 

It is tough when terms change yes for sure but the previous fees were probably too low.  M&S were mad to get into the pet insurance I thought when I heard it .

[ttEveryone who is with m and s needs to look at their new policy booklet on the website, and if you can i would change as iunfortunately i am stuck with them having already claimed.  ]  Is the total claim greater than the payments made so far?? look at it positively :-)

>I wouldnt go into pet insurance as a business. <

Neither would I Blue. I thought about this when I put in our claims. So far MoreThan has paid out about £4000 for my 2 YO dog. I only pay about 15 quid a month for him. Even if I add the new puppy in that's only £30 a months. I'll still be money ahead after 10 years! And I don't put claims in for anything but the large stuff like his TPLO surgery. Anything under £100 I just pay myself.

I am the same. First time in my life I have claimed on my house insurance after my new bathroom was fully done and finished only to find that 4 weeks later the new shower value was leaking ,  no kidding walls damaged, floors, my oak floors in my bed room next to the bathroom and the hall etc. First company that the insurance set out quoted £6200  , we have had our own guys do the work and good news for the insurance that work cost £1600 to put right by managing it myself.    Insurance companies are getting robbed. This has to be off set some how.   My one claim takes up 5-6 years of premiums paid to my house insurance by me.

Im the first year i claimed back over what i had paid with the 0 excess, i had no problems then. Then it went up but i didn't mind as cover was so good, but hardly claimed at all. Then they introduced the 50 excess and it went up alot. I paid over £700 for three dogs and as yet have not claimed anything. Next year when i renew i will have a 70 excess, it will cost more and there will be lots of things i won't be able to claim for. It is ridiculous as i am tied to an insurance policy which is nothing like i originally signed up for. Yes i agree that they probably were too cheap to begin with which is why i didn't mind paying more when it went up, but when they start messing around with the actual policy then it seems even more unfair - although i know they have a right to. Surely they would have done the research in the first place and would know how much everything costs and what people would claim for?
I have been working in a vets since this policy began and actually i would say the cost of veterinary care hasn't changed much at all!

I work for AXA and we only found out a while ago.

but AXA are doing their own dog insurecan now.

ui bben with m/s from the start 5 year ago,

chase is due dec 8 th and i got the old cover still untill next year then £50 ecess

so when are they changing over and can they change agreement half way though a poilcy

It's depressing. I took a very long time agonising over which insurance to go with and no one had faults with M&S. There is no way I'm sticking with M&S, not with that policy that excludes everything. I wouldn't have minded if the price went up, the amount they are exluding is the worrying part.

I'm now debating and think I shall put the cat on AXA and move the dog onto AXA when her policy runs out. I'm just concerned about one thing. I made 2 largish claims on M&S, the vet described Molly as having a 'gay gait' and was pretty sure it was her hips. I ended up having xrays of both hips from varying angles, her knees and spine from varying angles, I had specialists look at her and they concluded there is nothing wrong and it's just the way she is. Since there was never an actual condition, ie nothing could be diagnosed or fixed would lameness/knee/hip problems/arthritus be excluded. It started off that there might be something, then it ended up exploritory. On a plus side her hips are perfect. That's such a large chunk to be excluded for future considering she's just under 2 and a half.

The change has already happened and will affect all m and s customers on renewal. SOmeone has asked if m and s customers can just change to the axa policy without restarting the insurance and incurring exclusions but unfortunately not.

>AXA has pulled out of m and s and it is now royal sun alliance (also underwrite more than) which are absolutely rubbish!

As insurance companies go, there is a lot worse out there in the market place, believe me. ;-)

M & S is a branded service which means they use another company to administer and underwrite their policies.  They can, of course change which company they use, usually when the contract comes up for renewal. 

This means that it is likely benefits, prices, excess's etc, etc will change too for existing customers which may be no fun for those who have pre-existing conditions. :-(

Insurance companies can change the policy cover at renewal, they can exclude conditions and they can cancel the policy too and no longer insure, if they wanted too. :-(