Grace has been insured with Animal Friends for 8 years, I received her renewal documents in February of this year - her excess is £99 and for renewal there was to be a co-pay of 20% due to her being over 8 years old.
Sadly, whilst I knew her premium would increase, I did not expect the increase to be 400%! I was paying £55 per month and at renewal they wanted £221 per month!
During the past year Grace was diagnosed with MVD which is an ongoing condition, she has also suffered from skin issues that involved her lip folds but this is now resolved (she had a pseudomonas infection of the lip folds and it took some time before we finally found a treatment that killed the bacteria that were involved).
I contacted Animal Friends and reminded them that when I took out the policy 8 years ago part of their marketing was that they would not punish those unfortunate enough to need veterinary treatment - sadly this was just part of their advertising to get you to buy into their insurance in the first place - and as we all know, with a lifetime policy you are stuck with who you start with, as to move insurance gives the opportunity for claims to be refused due to whatever is considered to be pre-existing!
I also suggested that they should stop donating to charity and telling everyone how wonderful they are for doing that - if their paying customers are then priced out of the insurance just when they really need it!
At the end of the day, Animal Friends stood by their premium increase as I had claimed on the policy - which is what I thought the policy was supposed to be for!!! They also said that if I did renew at £221 per month and made a claim during the year that they would increase the premium again!
I now have no insurance for Grace and that is a very scary place to be!
I have heard many people say that their insurance is great because when they have claimed it hasn't been a problem - and until now I did not have any issue with Animal Friends, but I had no idea that they would impose such an astronomical premium increase which left me with no choice but to cancel and lose my lifetime cover!
As it is, I paid extra over the years for a lifetime policy - I had one bad year and they then priced me out, so I would have been better off paying for a 12 month policy which would have cost a lot less!
When it comes to lifetime cover I think it is not about how the monthly premiums compare, or whether claims were paid without an issue, it is more about what happens at each renewal of the policy. I have read that some companies will only increase premiums by inflation and not because you have claimed or have a dog with an ongoing condition. I think that is the most important aspect to look at, as a lifetime policy is worthless if they can increase your premiums to a level where you have no choice but to cancel.