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 !

Ha, my dog's went up to £369 PER MONTH last year (he's no longer insured).

Anyway, when you move insurer, likelihood is you won't be covered for existing conditions. And always check the level of cover. Our vet recommends £10k minimum. We had £15k and used it all one year (hence the huge renewal rate). It's easy to go over if your dog needs says big op then ongoing treatment.

Sometimes they will reduce the premium if you agree to a bigger excess. You can also sometimes get them to remove unnecessary stuff cover from the policy.

we are with 4 paws. Started at £36 a month & currently at 6 1/2 years old is £143. However he has health problems so we claim every single month. Last year he had around £8k of tests at a specialist vets. They have always paid out with no problems, in fact we currently have 4 claims running. They did say this morning they weren't going to pay for his physio claim as it was less than the excess, I rang them up & explained the injury happened in January so I have already paid the excess & within half an hour it was sorted & they are now going to pay. He's on £12k lifetime cover. We are currently claiming for IBD, allergy medicine, Back end weakness & pain & shoulder injury which happened in January. Also as he is 7 in July we will have to start paying a percentage of each claim. It seems to go up on average £35 a month each year when you claim

I was with Tesco for ten years - I have a 'frequent flyer' goldie who has had spinal issues, cancer and various other issues in her life for which I have claimed thousands - way more than I paid in. Tesco were absolutely fabulous until this year, when I believe they were sold and they immediately were horrible to deal with. My premium, which was already eyewatering (£275 a month), was increased to £475 a month and this year they wouldn't budge, when in the past, they have helped with increasing excesses or something on renewal.

So, I moved to ManyPets - am paying £132 a month with £12000 lifetime cover (more than I had before) and they have said that if she has not had any treatment/vet visits for any pre-existing conditions for 6 months, then I will get limited help with vets bills (I think up to £1500 or something). For anything new, she is covered. A friend recommended them to me, and we both got £20 Amazon vouchers.

I see someone else has recommended it but wanted to recommend LV. We had them for a car insurance and they were great with a car payout so decided to use them with pet insurance.

I have cats and one of mine got ill and they were great. Then another needed treatment and he had an exclusion of gastrointestinal because when I bought the insurance they asked if he had ever been to the vets and I said yes with upset stomach (turned out to be nothing). When they put the claim through and got his medical history, without me even mentioning they removed the exclusion and paid out the £4k claim in full.

Honestly having claimed 2 large chunks on pet insurance from them and 1 from our car, I can honestly say its who we will stick with from now on. Everything is dealt with so fast, they pay the vet direct and its so straightforward.

As an added bonus they are almost half the price of petplan too because we have both car and pet insurance with them, they give a discount for having both.

We are with LV and ours didnt go up by much at all considering last year we claimed £5k

Please be careful about changing. Lots of people think it’s only about what they have claimed for but in reality it is about ANYTHING that is on your vets notes and any body part that might be related. Now you can have things removed after a period of time like all digestive issues excluded due to diarrhoea of no known cause after a set time but you do need to check what is excluded and understand any time period and how to get it removed. I think most people who complain about insurance not paying out don’t read the T&Cs and don’t declare any minor thing they asked the vet about since they got their dog.

I had a bad experience with animal friends. My vet was appalled. Petplan are pricey but fair and the admin is efficient.

We self-insure. We are on dogs 3 and 4 and so far are quids in to the tune of between 13 and 25k (depending on the highs and lows of premiums, excesses and co-pays I see quoted here).

I accept that vet prices have gone through the roof since we last had a dog need an op, and that one day we'll get a big bill for something like a bowel op or adder bite or broken leg. But so far, so good. It's what I'd recommend to anyone who has a chunk in savings that could be thrown at a hefty vet bill.

This may have worked before private equity took over vet surgeries, but the costs are eyewatering now - even 5 years ago when my goldie had cancer, her chemo treatment was over £600 a month - and it cost about £5,500 for the diagnosis and scans. When she was diagnosed with spinal degeneration (thought at first to be cruciate ligaments) that was £7,500 for diagnosis, scans and treatment. Recently she had to have emergency abdominal surgery and as my vet doesn't do overnight nursing any more, I had to collect her at 1 am when they finished operating, and drive her to the OOO vet - by the time the paperwork was done it was 2am - and they wanted me to collect her at 7am - £1,000 for the privilege.... even a simple blood panel is now over £300 at my vet.

There is no way that saving even £1000 a month from puppyhood would have covered us for the amount our insurance has paid out over the 10 years we have had her (although I accept she has been somewhat unlucky with her health).

Was the £21 premium last year or when your dog was a youngster?

You have to look through what's covered by the policy details and also the company reputation when looking at insurers as you will end up stuck with them long term to get the lifetime cover benefit.

The insurer usually requests all prior vet notes (lifetime) on initial claim (so it doesn't matter if you didn't make a claim) therefore it's a good idea to get copies yourself if plan to switch be know what may come up. With exclusions they tend to group so it's more likely you'll end up with a whole system like all lumps/ bowel/digestive/urinary conditions excluded but sometimes if minor they'll agree to reassess if been no reoccurrence in a set time period and the underwriter can add to the cover. If the vet just mentioned possibility of a condition on the notes whether treated or not it maybe used to wriggle out of paying by some of the crap insurers. My vet friend spends a lot of time writing letters to some of these insurers for clients as they try and wriggle out of paying their claims, understandably they expect clients to pay upfront and claim back when known to be slow or difficult.

My last dog was covered by Petplan till they passed at 17 and I saw a lot of other owners find they were being priced out by their insurers once their dogs hit senior years or had a large claims and that's usually when you need the cover the most and can't switch without a lot of exclusions or only the 12m cover types accept with age.
The good thing with petplan is that your own claims don't effect the premiums its spread over a group therefore you can put through everything without worrying and don't end up paying more bills out of pocket to avoid the premium hikes as then end paying out way more than the bill cost over a lifetime.

My dog had typical older age arthritis for many years but it's still expensive to manage well, petplan paid out for various treatments including stem cell which some insurers wouldn't cover because its very expensive. The vets & specialist were always happy to claim direct as petplan would pay up within a week so I only ever had to pay the excess upfront.

I insured my first dog with Tesco. Only one condition claimed (allergies), but regular meds, some appointments and swab testing. Claims are approved a day or two after I submit them and payment received within a couple of days. No complaints and so far we are reimbursed more than we claim for a 5 year old spaniel/ terrier mix. Despite the annual increases, at 5 years old we are paying less than PetPlan quoted him as a healthy rescue puppy at 10 months old.

I have 3 other rescues with Many Pets, all insured from 5 - 18 months of age. The Tesco website wouldn't quote for my second dog with a preexisting condition and needed me to proceed by phone, so I continued looking online. Many Pets have a slick website so my others went through them as it was easier than calling Tesco.

With MP I have only claimed for 1 dog with 2 conditions - cruciate surgery and anal glands (several expresses, flushes under sedation, swabs, meds, and surgery for the cruciate was dependant on clearing the persistent infection).

Despite Many Pets eventually approving both claims, it feels like pulling teeth to be reimbursed for follow on invoices.

Every claim I have submitted clear itemised invoices that specifically name the dog and state "anal glands" etc, but after several weeks they are queried and further information requested from the vet.

Reimbursement from MP generally takes from 4-10 weeks. The main surgery invoice was submitted directly by the vet and paid in about 2-3 weeks. I'm still waiting for the follow-up xray to be reimbursed weeks later, but the claim is still showing as "awaiting information from vet" grrrr!

MP did impress me with their stance on preexisting conditions, which is why I went with them. My 2nd dog had Demodex Mange when we got her, which is why I couldn't continue on the Tesco website. So skin conditions were excluded for 2 years, provided it was resolved and no further treatment required.

I understand your point, I really do. The reason that insurance premiums have shot up is because vet costs have: the insurers have to cover what they pay out in claims, plus their overheads, plus their profit. So, on average, a customer will pay out more in insurance premiums than they all reclaim.

That is the punt that we have taken. We have fairly clear views on what we would or would not put a dog through, especially towards the end of its life.

If you have really paid £120k (1k a month 12= 12k x 10 years) in vet bills you have been exceptionally unlucky. Over 40 dog-years, IFSWIM, we've paid out perhaps £3.5k tops. Even if we double that to account for current insae prices, we're still well and truly quids in.

We're also with an independent vet, which was a deliberate decision after our last vets went corporate.

We had to cancel our dog's insurance when it rose to £349 per month plus we had to pay 20% of everything. He has lymes disease and it has cost an absolute fortune.

Anyway, we joined Dog's Trust Companion Club which is only £25 pa (half that if you are over 60) and it gives you 3rd party cover in case your dog causes an accident, bites a person or dog and you are sued etc.

Our house insurance covers us for third party for the dogs - might be worth checking if yours does.

I’ve a 7 y o crossbreed. Have claimed for grass seed in eye, grass seed buried under front leg (surgery), cruciate repair last year and the other cruciate this year (each £4k). Moved from Sainsbury to John Lewis after second grass seed, and stayed despite increase as no other provider would cover the second cruciate if it went. Current premium £79 per month.
Overall I’ve definitely had my money out of the insurers and am v grateful for insurance. Sainsbury were good over the grass seeds, but the customer service at John Lewis has been really excellent, from setting up to discussing policies through to notifying claims and getting a quick settlement. Can’t fault them.

I've just received renewal documents from Pet Plan. I am paying now £ 103 for 2 cats. I've been with them for 5 years, the first year with them I paid £ 46 for both cats. What really is annoying that vet fees cover is still the same as 5 years ago, up to £ 7000 a year so I am really getting less and paying more. They should also update and increase the vet fees because vet's prices gone up in the last 5 years.

We’ve cancelled tesco and rejoined as new customers before due to premiums rising, Tesco itself has been great, you can submit your claims yourself and they have paid out in no time

You could maybe downgrade the cover from say, gold to silver (or top to middle range). I always go for the best I can afford initially and it has paid dividends for me as 3/4 of my dogs have all had atopic dermatitis (different breeds/bredders); all have needed Apoquel which very effective but is like buying diamonds every bloody month. All on it for life. I’m not being funny but I am so gobsmacked by the price and the (almost monopoly) the company who make it, that I’ve now bought shares in it 🤣. Both my policies have doubled this year. I’m stuck with my Newfoundland because of her skin problem (£140 pcm-she’s 5) but I have a one year old Labrador who I’m going to shop around for again as she is really healthy so I can move without her having a pre-existing condition. I have just cancelled my 12yr old Pugs’ insurance as his medication is now cheaper than the actual renewal quote and I wouldn’t put him through any sort of surgery now. (£120 pcm) That’s always my deciding factor for an old dog. And PetPlan is the best, but also the most expensive. Good luck. It’s a minefield.

Just before Ddog died in April, her insurance was over £120 a month!! We got another dog last November and because he was a rescue who had experienced skin and tummy issues - no insurance would cover any skin, stomach or ear issues.

We decided to put a good amount away a month instead. I know that might not be an option for everyone, but the cheapest quote I got was £40 a month and it didn’t cover a lot of things and only likely to go up every year, so we went with just putting money away in a different account (with interest)

Absolutely this

they tell us they are increasing premiums because of increased vet costs but keep our cover the same price it was 5 years ago when we took the cover out

this surely isn’t fair!

We are with Petplan and the have paid up for 3 making vomit incidents (dont ask just say it was a labrador!) and have paid up for all of them. It does not count as an exclusion on our lifetime policy.

Other things to note some of the cheaper insurances will only pay out on one limb eg dog has cruciate on one leg they will not cover the other - pet plan does.

The cheaper policies are cheaper for a reason.

@lionbrain Hot cross buns are banned in our house for the same reason, also a lab! (And only afterwards I realised he’d eaten my muesli several times and been fine. Muesli also banned now).

But did you take out the policy before the first vomit making incident?
I didn't as puppy was still covered by the 4 weeks of free KC insurance, so Petplan listed it as an exclusion.
If OP switches to a different insurance provider, it may be listed as an exclusion on the new policy.

We’re in the similar dilemma with the continual rising cost of insurance cover for our 2 dogs in addition to the uplift in excess and exclusions.
Our Policies up to this month were with Animal Friends; however they recently only paid approximately 30% against a claim for our lab on the basis it was an emergency out of hours appointment.
I do think vets in general have a lot to answer to (accepting, not all) as they seem to work with an open chequebook and majority of treatments always result in astronomical costs); subsequently, this has a knock on effect on insurance premiums.
I have no issue with businesses making a profit, but do with the apparent profiteering of some of the vets operating nowadays