Pet insurance - sorry ! Premium just shot up

[PollyPJ]

Morning all. Today's task is to sort out my insurance. I've been with petplan since we got our dog (medium cross breed terrier )
Started £21 and is now £68 on renewal. He's 5. No claims whatsoever in that time
But I hate insurance and sorting it out stressed me out insanely.
Can anyone recommend an alternative ? I've got so many quotes which are way way cheaper -like £20 a month premium including animal friends and a few others but are they ok? I'd like to benefit from your lived experience xperience please if possible. Thank you !

No advice sorry - but I've got to do the same; min has just gone up by £180 a year!!

Ours - also Petplan - has just gone up from £54 monthly to £65, but that's for a giant breed, 1 year old, no claims in first year.

From what I've heard and read, there are a lot of exclusions with Animal Friends and similar, so if you do go with it, make sure you read all the small print. The cover is nowhere near as comprehensive as Petplan, but you may not mind that.

We have a vet in the family and Petplan is the only one she would recommend, so we'll stick with that.

It's painful isn't it. I might try calling them and seeing if they can reduce it at all but don't hold out much hope. I'll try to do a quote as a new customer first and see what the price comes out at

We use Tesco but unlike @CoubousAndTourmalet done on cost grounds rather than vet family member . It easy to see what you are opting in and out from though.

No need to be snotty. We did shop around first. I was trying to be helpful.

We’re with Tesco and our insurance for our beagle has gone up around £10 a month - but he is seven now. We’ve never claimed.

I know you say you’ve never claimed but if you’re looking to switch, anything you’ve ever seen the vet for could be classed as a pre-existing condition - even minor things like ear infections, anal glands or runny poo and stomach bugs.

@faerietales good to know. He's been for firework anxiety meds, the "stealing of Christmas cake " incident but nothing else.

I’m with Petplan or KC (depending on the dog).

I’ve heard some horror stories from people with other insurers. Pet plan, I’ve found, are the best when it comes to being completely honest about what is or isn’t covered (and they do it in basic language rather than total nonsense no one can understand).

Honestly though, OP, insurance is the one thing you really can’t scrimp on when it comes to dogs - not unless you have £££ laying about. One of mine had an allergic reaction to something last year and by the end of it we’d spent over £5K on medication, emergency treatment and aftercare.

The fact is, there’s a reason some places are dirt cheap - because they don’t cover much (£20 isn’t going to get you £10K a year cover, is it?) and half the time they don’t pay out.

Search on comparison site.

Thing that gets me is they put our premiums up due to rising vet costs but the sum assured and how much they will pay out stays the same!

Definitely speak to any new provider then and just see if they’d provide coverage for those issues - many will just exclude them or let you re-add cover after a certain amount of time has passed.

I’d just hate for you to switch and find yourself with a massive bill because of it!

I'm with animal friends and I've claimed twice, once was a bit troublesome, the second smooth sailing and they're not too expensive.

First claim was for a horse and they did try to refuse paying, their grounds were non existent and when I pointed that out they paid up, took about 6 weeks, a few emails and a phone call with a threat to refer to the ombudsman but they paid.
Second was for my older dog who had mammary cancer and I got pre authorisation for the operation, the process for that was straightforward and they paid the vet directly and I paid the 20% co pay and the excess. The premium doubled to around £25 a month (JRT).

And I pay around £12 a month for my 5 yo spaniel and she's covered for £2k vet bills.

A family member has unfortunately just lost their dog to an emergency illness and they weren't contacted until after the dog was PTS, but they've paid the vet directly within about a month with no issues.

So on balance I'd say the prices are reasonable compared to others and the service is quite good when you need to claim.

It's great that this works for you, but just to point out two important points for the OP @PollyPJ :

You are only covered for £2000;
You had to pay 20% of the total cost on top of your excess.

I work in a veterinary hospital and the amount of people who find their insurance is basically useless when they're hit with a bill that exceeds their limit is very upsetting.

We have a 11 year old shih tzu insured with animal friends. We pay around 25 a month. Have claimed in the past for an operation which would have cost over 2000 and a few other small things. Being an older old the excess is higher now I think and we have to pay something like the first 30% of any treatment, but I can’t fault them as an insurer. They’ve always paid out straight to our vet practice for the treatment. Had another shih tzu now passed away and had a claim or two for her and service was just as good. I would be wary of switching as pp said. Anything in your vets record (a tummy bug etc) could cause exclusions on a new policy you take out

We are with Tesco currently. Labrador who is 4. Only claimed once since we’ve had her and that was within 3 months of moving to Tesco. 2k bill settled immediately, no quibble. Vets were happy to deal directly.

@PollyPJ it's definitely worth shopping around but you have to be really careful, pet insurance is a minefield. You won't be covered for anything your dog has been to the vet for before, and they will try desperately to link anything that happens in the future to what he's already had.

You'll find companies who can do it for £10/£20 a month, but they'll add all those costs on in the T&Cs. High excesses, co-payments where you have to pay a percentage of the total claim, low claim amount limits, only being able to claim a couple of times a year, common conditions not covered. PetPlan are 100% the best insurer, but unfortunately they know that and price accordingly.

Just thought of another thing to check - some insurers will let us claim the amount directly to them (including PetPlan). Others will require you to settle the bill in full and then claim the money back.

Direct line is £45 for example. I'll need to check cover levels there
I'll also try pet plan as a "new" customer to try to argue the loyalty aspect. Going up by 50% just seems mad. The earlier increases I just sucked up but this made me raise my eyebrows

I’m a veterinary nurse and I would say from my experience of insurance, avoid Animal Friends.

The two companies that seem to pay out the most reliably and with the least amount of loopholes are Petplan and More Than.

So many of them have hidden caps on things they will pay for and sneaky exclusions. I do agree Petplan are expensive but they do seem the most
reliable when it comes to honouring and settling claims

Just make sure it’s Cover for life, and that the amount renews annually, and isn’t a pot you use up and then are left with nothing.
4 grand a year is quite a common annual limit but believe me that won’t cover the sides if anything serious was to happen.

We moved to Direct Line from Petplan after years of no quibble payouts on several dogs (we always have older rescues and they often have issues!), including paying out nearly 9k in one year for one dog. They finally decided we had too much of a track record and quoted a ridiculous amount for our last dog, so we went to Direct Line as all our other policies (house, car etc) were with them.

They've been OK but we did have some issues with them which seemed to arise from their staff not being as knowledgeable as Petplan's - they ended up giving us a cash "goodwill gesture" after an operative threatened to cancel the policy because she claimed our dog was a 'breed they didn't cover' (she was an American bulldog cross and she didn't realise that is not the same as an XL Bully). It caused us a lot of distress at the time but they did - as I said - put it right!

I've just cancelled our policy for our 14.5 year old dog after it's jumped up to £80 a month. We've never claimed. The policy excess has jumped up to £500 plus we have to cover 25% of the treatment costs. I have a credit card I can use for treatment if necessary but to be honest he's at the age I wouldn't put him through a lot of treatment.

This. And get a lifetime policy with a decent vets fees limit. Preferably £10k. Lots of decent insurers, Petplan aren't the only ones who pay claims.

I'm with PetPlan and have claimed £1000s over the last three years with no issues. I have gone over my £7k limit, so make sure you insure for as much as you can afford. £2k will barely cover a specialist consultation and MRI if needed.

Does 'the Christmas cake incident' means he eat some and needed treatment to make him vomit? If so, check that this doesn't count as an exclusion. One of mine eat a Nerf gun bullet - PetPlan has excluded anything to do with the digestive tract.

@SpanielsGalore he went to the vet code induced vomiting but we paid. No claim made