got pet insurance - vets still want payment upfront!

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Hi all, advice please! Just taken out a policy for my completely healthy six month old kitten (a lovely moggie - not a breed) with Bought By Many - £23 per month for up to £15k per year, lifetime policy includes dental illness. Job done - I thought. I don't need to make a claim but mentioned this to the vet at a check up. Vet now says the insurance company don't do claim forms so they ask for full payment upfront in case the insurance doesn't pay up. Insurance company say they are happy to pay direct to the vet. I rang another practice who said they have been so badly burned by companies not paying up that they ask for pet owner to pay up front, then claim back themselves. I'm getting really worried about this as I took out the policy in case my gorgeous little moggie has an accident or develops a serious illness. I'm a freelancer, so I might not be able to get my hands on £10k quickly if I need it. We're in London - is this typical?

We always pay ours & claim it back. I suppose if it was a large amount I would talk to the vet/insurance company to see if it could be done the other way (the form allows for it).

We've always had to pay and claim it back

Yes it's typical.

BBM have a good reputation for settling claims quickly, they also have helpline which their clients can ring if they want advice and can't reach their own vet - very useful as the beasts always seem to go off colour at weekends!!

If it's something with a huge bill, then you might be able to persuade the vet to accept a deposit and then get the rest direct from the insurers, but there's no guarantee they will. They can't really afford to give credit from the practice

The only company which seems to the one which many vets are happy to deal direct with is PetPlan

Our vet deals directly with insurance company (a couple of companies excepted) and we just pay an excess.

Very normal! No guarantee the insurance will pay out until the claim goes in - vets can lose thousands of pounds when the insurance won’t pay, then the owner won’t pay the vet! It’s happened at our practice too many times, so now we don’t do direct claims unless there’s a preauthorisation form completed. This is a pre-check to ensure the insurance will pay out, but it takes a few days to do, so not possible in an emergency

I'm with pet plan for my dog, even though they arent the cheapest -because of this. They are the only company our vet is happy to just take the excess from us and then claim the rest direct.

A colleague has a credit card just for dog expenses.

Completely normal I’m afraid, precisely for the reasons they said - too many pet insurance claims don’t get paid. My vet (apart from having known me for 20 years and so don’t require long standing clients to pay anything over GBP500 upfront) only allows direct claims for PetPlan as they are far more likely to pay out than a lot of other providers.

Yes completely normal. Too many vet practices spending admin time chasing debts as claims aren't paid by insurance.

This is so useful, thank you. I just assumed it worked the same way as private health insurance for humans. Sounds like it needs to be pet plan (double the monthly premium for not as much cover) or a naughty credit card! 🙀🙀🙀

We're with direct line and it is pay and claim, but they are very quick at reimbursing.
We use a credit card.

I disagree with a previous poster about bought by many as they managed to wriggle out of paying the first claim I made after insuring 4 cats with them for 3 years. £2000 paid in premiums for them to refuse a £450 bill.

But yes it is typical for that exact reason. The vets won’t take the risk that the insurance company will refuse the claim hence most vets will make you pay first. Petplan is the only insurer I found that vets will accept direct claims from.

We went with PetPlan for this reason. Yes it's more expensive than others but we can't put our hands on big sums of money quickly so it's worth it for us.