Pet insurance, check the small print

[NorwichMom]

So after my older dog was poorly and had an emergency vet trip I’ve had the claim to the insurance approved. I knew I’d have to pay the excess but assumed as she has 7k worth of cover they’d pay the rest. Well they haven’t.

In the small print there’s a limit for everything. A limit for a consultation fee, limit for a blood test fee, limit for a hospital admission. We went over in so many sections. I’ve had to pay a bit under £800. They’ve paid a bit more than £800.

definitely worth bearing in mind when buying insurance. They’re possibly all similar but guess some may be better than others

They're not all the same but yes, check the small print.

Use Petplan
More expensive than others but they have been fantastic for me

Cats treatment cost 12k we had to pay 3k

Petplan paid the rest no issue

Vets will also not ask for payment for client but will invoice petplan as they trust them

It’s very common for owners to have to pay a fair amount above their excess for older dogs, sadly.

This was in addition to the 20% copay due to her age which I knew about.

I certainly hadn’t realised an insurance company might say that the blood test was too expensive and they’d only pay x amount. And then the bit they would pay I still had to pay 20% of what they agreed to.

The cheek of this is that every year, when they put up our premiums, they say it's because of rising vets fees

Yes, that’s always been the case unfortunately.

I think it depends on the insurance company but, for sure, after the age of around 8 for dogs at least, things go downhill.
We use Petplan the for life for everything insurance for our dogs and, after a certain age, it's not worth having it. The monthly premium creeps up a lot and the annual total cover goes down, although there is no limit per items such as blood tests like you mentioned. Add the 'you pay 20 or 25% of the bill.
If you end paying nearly 4k on monthly fees for the year and the cover is £4k, it's not worth having it.
A headache for sure.

If the Insurance Company think the services vets are giving are too expensive why isn’t something being dove about it? I thought there was an inquiry into vets fees what’s happened it’s gone all quiet.

I haven't come across this before. I wonder how they decide what the cost should be and if it's area dependant. My friends in Surrey pay a lot more for treatments than I do in North Scotland.

Animal Friends always had a bad reputation, due to refusing to pay out. I thought they had improved, but it seems not.

It's an enquiry by the CMA independently of insurance companies. They have published initial findings but a final ruling is yet to be made.

Sounds like a cheap policy tbh. There are a lot of smaller newer companies offering these very limited policies. Most insurance companies do not have these limits on fees, other than being limited by the amount of cover on your policy.
But of course you should always check the small print.

Jut made a claim with Animal Friends and they paid out (£2k) within two weeks no fuss. It is however a 12 month limited policy so won’t be able to claim again for anything related so maybe they see that as more straight forward than if it was a life long policy cover. Chances are something will reoccur down the line but we already know we won’t go down the route if further surgery or treatment is needed.

I've definitely seen that before, normally when i've researched a company after someone says they're getting 10k of cover for 10 quid a month or similar.

Animal Friends is a bit naughty with vet fee claims limits i think. This is their policy wording

"Other amounts you might have to pay Every year we use our claims information to review the prices charged by vets for some of the items most commonly claimed for. We use this information to set a maximum amount we’ll pay for these items. You can see the maximum amounts we’ll pay in the ‘Important information on vet fee claims limits’ document in your welcome or renewal pack."

You can't find out this info before you buy the policy it seems....

Who is this with? We have found pet plan were amazing.

Definitely worth checking the small print. We are with LV and they have always been great, even removing an exclusion once they saw medical files of my pet. Don't think I would go with anyone else now.

Just be aware if you decide to change insurer, anything already done would count as pre existing

Yes it was Animal Friends. It certainly wasn’t prominent on their website when I was looking at details when buying. Problem is she has lifetime cover so I can’t really move insurers now as any new one won’t cover her for this.

im also worried at her next renewal they’ll double the price

Wow. So if you live in an expensive part of the country, you're shafted.

I wonder if they alter their prices based on location or if it's a flat rate based on breed. Petplan is dependent on location. I pay less in Scotland than I would if I lived in Cumbria, for example. Be a pisser to be paying higher premiums, but not being fully covered as your vets charge more.

One thing I’m doing now is changing vets to one which provides their own out of hours service

Of course location is a risk factor, as it has a bearing on vet fees and therefore claims costs.

Yes. But if Animal Friends don't pay out the full amount for expensive areas, they shouldn't be charging people more for their policies.

It's priced on the cover given. I suspect they're significantly cheaper than Petplan.

They don't actually list what the limits are though, prior to purchase. So you have no idea what the true amount of cover is.

Yep I agree that's very naughty. I'm not defending them, I'm just making the point that it's cheap for a reason.

So is it a flat rate country wide?