CockersOnline Forum

Cocker Specific Discussion => Health => Insurance => Topic started by: ~Jilly~ on June 21, 2005, 11:12:22 AM

Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: ~Jilly~ on June 21, 2005, 11:12:22 AM: With pet insurance are you penalised for having made a claim as you are with car/home insurance etc?

I was discussing the M&S insurance with hubby and considering the no excess option - does this mean you claim for any medical treatment, even if it was only say £40?? Or is it a case of not claiming if it's only a low amount because you don't want to affect future premiums?
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: suki1964 on June 21, 2005, 11:31:57 AM: I have the no excess with M&S and am just putting a claim in today as it happens.

Alfie has had two seperate problems lately that have needed the vet. For his kennel cough and infection Im claiming as he had loads of treatment and a huge bill. For his ears - well the bill was only £20 (consult and treatment) so Im swollowing that one.

I know when I had Gunnar on Pet Plan years ago the insurance went up so much after two claims we had to cancel. Alfie hasnt been with M&S a year yet and this will be the second claim so Im waiting to see what happens come september

Edited to add: Pet Plans premiums were just too high for us to use, having a south london post code is a killer, apparently my dog is more liable to be stolen,need vet treatment etc then a dog in any other part of the city or indeed any other city in the UK :rolleyes:
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Em - Oscar's mum on June 21, 2005, 12:15:33 PM: Quote
Edited to add: Pet Plans premiums were just too high for us to use, having a south london post code is a killer, apparently my dog is more liable to be stolen,need vet treatment etc then a dog in any other part of the city or indeed any other city in the UK :rolleyes:
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We had the same thing living in West Sussex with Pet Plan! It was sooooo expensive!

So I have just insured Oscar with Tesco's as our six weeks free insurance runs out on sunday.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: paulb on June 21, 2005, 12:17:12 PM: has anyone had experience with the kennel club insurance after the free 6 weeks?
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: ~Jilly~ on June 21, 2005, 12:31:57 PM: I know the pet plan quote was about twice the price of some of the others for us, as was the kennel club one.

I'm not sure what to do, we're not entirely convinced whether to even have insurance or not but we feel we probably ought to to be on the safe side.

More Than have only quoted £10.99 for us and that has a £70 excess or 15% whichever is greater.

M&S have quoted £14.39 with no excess, £13.85 with £60, £12.81 with £70 or £11.77 with £80.

Sainsbury's were £13.35 but I'm not sure what their excess is.

Tesco quoted £13.27 but from what I could gather from their info they only pay up to £2,500 and up to 12 months? so this doesn't seem a very good deal compared to the others.

:blink: Oh, it's tooooo confusing - I thought car insurance was bad! :ph34r:

and Bella's 6 weeks ends on Friday..........
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Em - Oscar's mum on June 21, 2005, 12:49:05 PM: Quote
I'm not sure what to do, we're not entirely convinced whether to even have insurance or not but we feel we probably ought to to be on the safe side.

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I was confused as well Jilly with the whole insurance thing as Pet Plan and the Kennel Club seemed very expensive to me so when we last took Oscar to the vets I asked him who he would recommend and he said either Tesco or More Than as I was choosing between Tesco, More Than and M & S.

I definitely think you should insure Bella though as you never know what could happen!
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Cob-Web on June 21, 2005, 01:04:48 PM: Like all things - you get what you pay for with pet insurance :rolleyes:

The cheapest policies tend to only pay out for each condition for 12 months - not good if your dog suffers from a chronic condition, because 12 months after diagnosis, you're on your own financially :huh:

In-between are the policies that cover conditions for as long as the condition lasts, but "cap" the amount they will pay for each condition, so if you claim the maximum, they won't pay any more for that condition <_< .

The most expensive policies tend to offer cover for as long as a condition lasts, with no cap, so will pay up regardless :)

Most companies offer different options of these; and also might offer different levels of excess - the lower the excess, the higher the premium - as you're likely to claim more often :ph34r:

I'm a sad computer geek, and set up a spreadsheet to compare policies when we were shopping for insurance :lol:
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: suki1964 on June 21, 2005, 01:10:51 PM: You need to weigh up what you can afford and what is actually being offered.

When Gunnar's insurance went from £7.50 to over £20 a month (10 years ago) we didnt think the payments were justified so cancelled. We just put £10 a month into a bank account to cover vet bills. It worked for us. Gunnar was a pretty healthy dog so most years we only had his vaccinations to cough up for which wouldnt have been covered by insurance anyway. On top of that he probably had four ops to remove grass seeds. his last two years he was ill and the vet bills started to creep up but we still had credit from the years he never needed treatment so we never had to penny pinch ( and to be honest I would have remortgaged the house if there was anything that could have been done)

I have gone with M&S because they were offering a good level of cover against a premium i was prepared to pay. if I get hit with higher premiums I will cancel and go back to the puppy fund.

As an aside when vets have started to list tests etc that are "needed" as soon as I have said Im not insured, the "needed" tests have become not nessecary and the final treatment plan has been the same :)
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Em - Oscar's mum on June 21, 2005, 01:11:00 PM: Who did you insure Molo with then?

After reading what you have just said I didn't realise that they paid for the first 12 months only and then you our on your own. I wonder whether I have done the right thing? :unsure:
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Em - Oscar's mum on June 21, 2005, 01:12:57 PM: Quote
We just put £10 a month into a bank account to cover vet bills.

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What a brilliant idea!!!
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Mrs smudge on June 21, 2005, 01:25:32 PM: I'm with M&S, i pay £10.12 with no excess. We didn't know if we should claim for something it was about £40, so when we phoned for something else we asked them and the lady we spoke to said she has had people claim for about £14 before.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: suki1964 on June 21, 2005, 01:51:04 PM: Sure you should claim, thats why you are paying premiums :)
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Annette on June 21, 2005, 02:05:41 PM: Quote
has anyone had experience with the kennel club insurance after the free 6 weeks?
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We looked at it, but tbh it seemed pretty poor cover for quite a high premium. We went for Sainsburys in the end because they seem to offer fairly good cover for the price.

Pet Plan was our initial choice, but here in Reading the premiums are way too high.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: ~Jilly~ on June 21, 2005, 03:05:02 PM: I'm useless, I still don't know :ph34r:

We were originally going to do the £10 a month into a pot plan, that's why we weren't sure about insurance :unsure: but we figured that you'd only be saving £120 a year so after 10 years you'd still only have £1200 if you'd never used it so if Bella needed something expensive (I'm guessing some things must be or they wouldn't have caps of £6000/7000 on insurance covers) you wouldn't have enough.

Having said that I'm with Suki in that if something needed doing you'd find the money somewhere even if you did have to remortgage.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Jo & Dennis on June 21, 2005, 03:38:13 PM: The other thing to consider is that if your dog caused an accident you are covered for that also, my daughters dogs got away and knocked a lady off her bike, she broke her leg and claimed damages off them!!

We use Saga for Holly we have paid £120 for the year it give life cover for any condition which was important to us because our last dog devloped a condition and she needed permanent medication from 3 till she died at 13 it cost us aroun £20-£30 per month, adds upto a lot of money, ofcourse you find it but its hard sometimes. Only draw back with Saga - you have to be 50 !!!!
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: suki1964 on June 21, 2005, 04:21:36 PM: Quote
I'm useless, I still don't know :ph34r:

We were originally going to do the £10 a month into a pot plan, that's why we weren't sure about insurance :unsure: but we figured that you'd only be saving £120 a year so after 10 years you'd still only have £1200 if you'd never used it so if Bella needed something expensive (I'm guessing some things must be or they wouldn't have caps of £6000/7000 on insurance covers) you wouldn't have enough.

Having said that I'm with Suki in that if something needed doing you'd find the money somewhere even if you did have to remortgage.
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I would say give M&S a go, dont forget if premiums go up or too many exclusions occur, you can shop around and find a better deal.

Heres a run down of the cover I have

Vet fees including £7000
complementry treatment £750
Behaviourist £250
Cremation/funeral £100
Dietry foods £200
Third party liability £2,000,000

This are all for the period of insurance -ie paid to that amount per year for every year you take out insurance. Then on top of that I have all the other things such as holiday cancellation, quarentine, theft and straying etc and even £750 accidental damage to OWN property. All this for £15.81 a month and NO excess.
This is less then half of what Pet Plan wanted and they also had a £60 excess

For this area thats a bargain and as long as they dont start adding stupid exclusions Im happy
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Cob-Web on June 21, 2005, 06:32:16 PM: Quote
Who did you insure Molo with then?

After reading what you have just said I didn't realise that they paid for the first 12 months only and then you our on your own. I wonder whether I have done the right thing? :unsure:
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I eventually opted for Direct Line - capped at £6000 per condition, with the lower excess (£35 I think) and the additional cover options, for £17 per month.

For our requirements and budget, Direct Line and More Than both offered the best deals; I chose Direct Line as I get a further 10% off because I have a car policy with them :)
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: celticdreamer on June 21, 2005, 06:34:15 PM: try this one www.eandl.co.uk i have been looking to change now i have 2 dogs and this one looks good for what it costs. :)
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Cob-Web on June 21, 2005, 06:43:22 PM: Quote
try this one www.eandl.co.uk i have been looking to change now i have 2 dogs and this one looks good for what it costs. :)
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I found this one and thought so too; until I saw the fact that there's a 12 month limit on each condition hidden in the small print <_<
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Annette on June 21, 2005, 10:00:02 PM: Quote
........ dont forget if premiums go up or too many exclusions occur, you can shop around and find a better deal.

Be careful though, with new insurers you might find that they won't cover pre-existing conditions.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: *Jay* on June 21, 2005, 11:04:59 PM: Quote
try this one www.eandl.co.uk i have been looking to change now i have 2 dogs and this one looks good for what it costs. :)
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Personally, I wouldn't touch E & L with a barge pole. They are notorious for not paying up
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Em - Oscar's mum on June 22, 2005, 09:43:56 AM: Quote
try this one www.eandl.co.uk i have been looking to change now i have 2 dogs and this one looks good for what it costs. :)
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One word of warning my vet told me not to go anywhere near E & L.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: lynsay_wag on June 22, 2005, 11:05:30 AM: Hi we ended up going with pet plan for Oscar. We live in Troon (Ayrshire, Scotland) and I think its about £15 a month. The only reason we went with them was because our vet recommended them as they are good at paying out and because they covered illnesses for life, not just for 12 months. I know someone who is with More Than (she also has a CS), she pays £9.99 a month and with their policy there is a limit on how much they will pay out. I recommend you just shop about and find the best policy that suits you and your dog. :)
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: Caz on June 22, 2005, 12:38:08 PM: Pet insurance is a mine field. My lot are with sainsbury's which I have found really good also you get a small reduction each month on each additional pet. For the old boy (aged 12) it's £13 a month and Della & Danny are approx £8 per month which is far better than my old insurance which was Pet Protect. They started at £13 and gradually increased to £32 which was ok as my old Sam was diabetic and I was putting in a claim once amonth for six years. Then when he reached 10 years old they requested an amount of £150 per month + I would have to pay 50% of each claim! :o At this stage I looked for another insurance co and sainsburys would even take an older dog which alot will only take upto 8 year olds. At age 10 Scampi was also transferred to sainsbury's he is also diabetic and no troubles with the claims they are well worth considering.
Title: Another Insurance Question....
Post by: s baxter on June 22, 2005, 01:16:49 PM: E and L ,dont touch them, again i`ve heard they dont pay up ,hubbies an underwritter( for commercial ins) and has heard nothing but problems with them.