Pet Insurance

[insan1tyscartching]

We had our annual renewal notice through today and again it's gone up 16% (we have premier lifetime cover)and have never needed to make a claim so thought I'd look on compare the market. I was more than a little pissed off to discover as a new customer I could have the same cover for £50 a year less than I pay so phoned up to tell them.
I had a load of bunkum about as a new customer the first 14 days wouldn't be covered so that was the explanation for charging me £50 more and Eric was now older( 2 years old to be precise) so I pointed out £50 was more than two months cover and I had put in Eric's true age as a potential new customer so I wouldn't be renewing at that price and would instead sign up with another company 14 days before the end of this policy so that we were covered.
At that there was a total turnaround and they decided my loyalty was worth £40 off the year so in fact only £10 extra to pay. Just a reminder to always make sure you phone and check before you automatically renew any policy dog insurance included.

[Roseberrry]

Who is your insurance with if you don't mind me asking? When I was looking at reviews of insurance companies this was a really common complaint.

[insan1tyscartching]

Ours is Morethan.

[Raia]

Same thing with my car insurance (sorry, not dog related, I was looking on here for info about pet insurance though!). My renewal notice came through and they'd whacked over £100 on the premium. I went on one of the comparison sites, and got a quote from the same company for £200 less than what they'd quoted me! Rang them up and said WTF, and they price matched the comparison site quote, no quibbles.

Makes my blood boil that they try it on in the hope that people won't be bothered to check.

Pet insurance is a total minefield though. Glad you managed to get it sorted without too big a hike in the premium in the end insan1ty!

[Lonecatwithkitten]

More than is underwritten by RSA they have added conditions to their policies about who your pet can be referred to.

[noddingoff]

Yep, not loving the new thing of cover underwritten by RSA having the preferred referral network. Basically, if your vet wants to refer you to a specialist who isn't on the list, you have to pay an extra £200 excess. The preferred specialist list doesn't mean the best specialists - it's ones who are cheaper (or have agreed to do the procedures more cheaply for RSA insured pets).

Be very, very careful about changing insurers, or even changing policies within one insurer though, as if you have to claim they can go through your dog's vet history with a fine tooth comb and slap exclusions on left right and centre. Best to pick one insurer and stick with them, or at least send your dog's entire medical history to the potential new insurer and ask what would be considered a pre-existing condition.

[Raia]

noddingoff, thank for that info and the tip about supplying medical history to a new insurer. We're in the process of rehoming a 6 yo rescue dog - only one previous home so the rescue has her full vet history.

[Perdyboo]

Hi, I know this is an old thread but if anyone is reading re insurance I transferred to Animal Friends insurance. Other companies just kept escalating the premiums up and up every year and then I found this charity. Hope it might be useful to somebody.

[2plus1]

I thought all pet insurance premiums increase each year. Does animal friends keep the premiums the same? Over the 13 yr life of my labrador the premiums went from £15 per month up to £56 per month with the same insurer Petplan. It is the one thing that really grates on my purse when they do this especially as she hadn't had a claim until she was 10 yrs old!

[Perdyboo]

I'm not sure - we paid same premium with them (9 quid a month) for a number of years until ddog became senior and then they sent us a letter apologising for the increase in premiums to reflect age - it went up to 10.63! They are a charity and we were lucky to have never had any bill large enough to claim for. Previous insurer before we moved was looking for 45 a month (large dog).

[toboldlygo]

Animal Friends are not a charity! They generally have a poor rep in the veterinary community - hiking premiums, wriggling out of paying on technicalities, near-pointless accident only and non lifetime policies with inadequate levels of cover.