Insurance - Pre-Existing Conditions - do I declare? Will price shoot up?

[maeb]

The renewal price for insuring our 5 year old healthy cocker has risen from £360 to £560 with a new co-pay excess of £125 plus 20% - so I'm looking around for a better deal. FYI The existing cover is for Lifetime Benefits up to £12K with excess of £125

I'm unsure about pre-existing conditions though. He is a very healthy dog but in the last two years has had a broken claw and a couple of non-specific stomach upsets ,all of which just required painkillers and/or antibiotics. We also discovered a grass seed in his ear (while already at the vets!) which they just removed with tweezers in front of me.

Should I declare theses pre-existing conditions so they're covered? Will the price shoot up? Would they exclude all paw / stomach / ear related issues if I didn't?

It's all so expensive so I want to get it right.

Yes, declare

Minor conditions like that drop off ‘pre-existing’ after a couple of years (assuming no further claims) and what you describe isn’t really an unusual level of claim and I don’t think it would cause exclusions or too much on the premiums

But if they find out that you didn’t disclose something (eg you did need a further claim for a stomach upset and the vets answered question on history of previous upsets, and it did not match what you declared) then it could get v expensive indeed

Yes, you need to declare them.

Believe me, you don't want a bill for thousands of pounds because you didn't!

Declare everything

If you don’t declare the insurance just won’t pay out when you claim so there is little point .

You must declare everything. When you make a claim the insurance company is likely to ask your past and present vets for their clinical notes and will look for any reason to say that the illness is pre-existing and therefore void.

Thanks for the advice.

I've just gone through everything with the insurer, premium gone up by £250 but best to be safe than sorry. He's an expensive little thing, but worth every penny😘

I don't what we would do if we couldn't afford it - doesn't bear thinking about.