More insurance advise please

[billybagpuss]

Just need a little moan.

A couple of weeks ago you guys gave me some great advice on insurance for Billypup as direct lines renewal seemed excessive to me.

So I applied for pet plan and it just seems so much hassle. I've had an email today asking for clarification on some history from the vets.

I called them for advice when she hurt her paw playing with another dog last year, it was only a phone call from a paranoid puppy owner she was fine after a couple of hours.

The second issue was that I'd gone in with the cats for their yearlies and in passing just asked for training advice as my 4 month old pup had growled at me over a bit of food, the dog was not present just the cats. It was a one time only growl she never growls at so much as a spider and I just wanted training advice for if it happened again. Today I get an email saying I understand Luna is lame which leg please and asking for details of any outside aggression.

So I email back and say that no, she's not lame she basically stubbed her toe and I asked for advice and no she's not aggressive again I asked for advice.

They've now accepted the policy and it will come into force later this month but I haven't cancelled the old direct line one yet and now I'm worried that if she does something to her leg in the future they may refuse to pay out or similarly if she is ill and turns on us (god forbid, she's lovely) it could cause complications.

The biggest issue though is things like this would make me think twice about asking for advice from the vet and thank god I've found MN.

So what would you do, take out the slightly cheaper Petplan or stick with the DL one. The payouts on DL are slightly higher.

[BiteyShark]

This is the reason why I try and stress that anything you ask your vet about and they record it can be deemed to be preexisting issue when you come to claim.

Have you got confirmation from petplan that there are no conditions on the policy from your vets history. The answer to that would sway me one way or the other.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

As BiteyShark said get PetPlan to confirm if there are exclusions on the policy if there are not get that in writing either on the policy or in an email.
If they apply exclusions you may be better staying with direct line.
Pet Insurance is one which is very, very hard to switch and not gain exclusions.

[billybagpuss]

Its crazy isn't it!!

There are no exclusions listed and the vets have said they often write letters to query when they refuse to pay out, but my instinct at the moment is to stay put.

[pigsDOfly]

If there are no exclusions on the policy then you won't be affected by the things they've asked about. If i remember correctly exclusions are written on the back of the policy form so you need to make sure you read every bit of every thing they send you.

I had an exclusion on anything stomach related when I first took out the lifetime policy for my dog as I'd had a yearly policy for the first year of her life during which time she caught a stomach virus that was going round.

By carefully reading the policy I realised that I could apply to have this exclusion removed after two years, which I did.

They don't make all these things easy and I know that every time I make a claim for a new condition my vets have to submit her entire history, at least they did, I assume that still applies.

Insurance is all a bit of a minefield but pet insurance is one that you really need to get right at the start because after a few years, if you make any claims, it's almost impossible to change to a different company.

[billybagpuss]

Oh dear, I've found the exclusions and they're ridiculous. I will be staying with Direct Line.

How an innocent request for advise results in an exclusion on a future policy is utterly ridiculous.
I will be cancelling the policy in the morning.

[pigsDOfly]

Good thing you sorted that out before you went ahead.

Agree, it is utterly ridiculous that asking a question can result in exclusions. I often ask questions about little things I have concerns about when I'm at the vet. I'm surprised the vet even bother to record them.

Shall be careful in future about recommending petplan if they're so tricky with their exclusions.

[BiteyShark]

At least they listed them upfront so you can see and cancel.

My concern would be if you moved to a different provider and they only came to light when you claimed.