Insurance

[miche]

Argos were pretty cheap for my collie, but they will not insure Mikey as he suffered with Giardia in the past although Direct Line insured him for just over £10 a month, they also give a discount for more than one pet.  Very interesting to hear about M&S though, will definately give them a try when insurance next due - especially if they reduce cover in the 2nd year.

It's a good idea to keep this thread running

[Jan/Billy]

After ratteling through all his policies, the then proceeded to tell me about their budget policy (which is not worth the paper it is written on) and that came to £15 per month with £50 excess but there was hardly any vet fee cover, and almost nothing in the way of loss, death, etc....

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The petplan cover you mentionhere  is the one I have, i an intrigued as to why you think its not worth the paper its written on?? Am I missing something??      

Yes  you don't get anything should your pet die but to be honest that didn't bother me in the least.  I mean what would we do with the money?  they money you receive from the death of your pet? I am more interested in the things my pet gets whilst he is alive.


 £4k per year benefit, not per ilness which is essential    £250 boarding fees, £250 advertising and reward should he go missing. Plus £1m 3rd party ins.

I also receive free annual petsafe membership, which i like   .


I haven't shopped around to be honest. My vet recommended the policy when we got Bil as in his opinion it was the best on the market at the time. I haven't since looked elsewhere because at £15 per month i didn't think i would save much as theres not much revenue there in the first place to play around with.

I have claimed once and they were fantastic, if i move elsewhere other companies may not cover me for the illness which I originally claimed for??? Plus we now have behavioral problems....


Am I being ripped off??? If so perhaps it is worth me looking elsewhere???

[Jan/Billy]

ooohhh I looked at the M&S policy and it does look good   , much cheaper. I then  looked a bit closer at the section which talked about vet cover and if it covered illnesses for life etc  and it said this:-


However, some policies automatically exclude cover for illnesses 12 months after their occurrence. Please check all policies carefully.


Don't get caught out on this!! It may be nothing of significance but you never know!

[PennyB]

Last night a chap from PetPlan rang me to advise me that Dillons 6 weeks free insurance is about to run out and that I need to renew.   He started quoting me their top policy, with I think £50 excess for something like £30 per month.   Cut a long story short, when I mentioned that I could get it cheaper at M&S he got a bit panicky, as if he was desperate to sell me a policy there and then!!    After ratteling through all his policies, the then proceeded to tell me about their budget policy (which is not worth the paper it is written on) and that came to £15 per month with £50 excess but there was hardly any vet fee cover, and almost nothing in the way of loss, death, etc.... When I told him I could still get it cheaper elsewhere he got really stroppy and hung up on me    He seemed under sooo much pressure to get me to sign there and then...!

Anyway, M&S are going to give me a great level of cover, no excess for £14.30 per month, and I am happy with that!   They said the policy docs would be with me in 5 days - will see if they arrive!!

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I have the Petplan budget policy and its been worth it as they paid out nearly 3000 without a quibble within the 1st 8 months of Wilf's life.


If you change to M&S when you're dog is older they are quite strict about exclusions as in say when Ruby was attacked by 2 staffies (unprovoked) and needed to go to the emergency vet M&S would put dog bite as an exclusion if I changed to them now (I knwo soemone this happened to). Yet we all know with the best will in the world we never know when our dogs may be attacked and injured. I wonder what sort of exclusion my cat would have for colliding with a greenhouse and slicing though his tendon (apart from further problems with his leg, which he doesn't have).

[Petra]

Oops, didn't mean to upset anyone - the way the PetPlan guy described it to me was that once the 4,000 was used up, that was it - there was no more, which worried me as I think 4,000 isn't very much - plus their premium was high even with excess....
I suppose they are all  much for much-ness whichever one you choose, it is all in the smallprint...

[Jan/Billy]

Oops, didn't mean to upset anyone - the way the PetPlan guy described it to me was that once the 4,000 was used up, that was it - there was no more, which worried me as I think 4,000 isn't very much - plus their premium was high even with excess....
I suppose they are all  much for much-ness whichever one you choose, it is all in the smallprint...

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No don't worry you didn't upset me, perhaps my reply wasn't written so well. I thought you had discovered something bad about Petplan and i was a bit panicky!!

 

[Babylonian]

Jed is with M&S but for all things £ I always research via www.moneysavingexpert.com

- if you haven't heard of the site before, take a peep, I don't buy anything without researching via the site first  

[PennyB]

Oops, didn't mean to upset anyone - the way the PetPlan guy described it to me was that once the 4,000 was used up, that was it - there was no more, which worried me as I think 4,000 isn't very much - plus their premium was high even with excess....
I suppose they are all  much for much-ness whichever one you choose, it is all in the smallprint...

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That's 4000 per year, and its only if you use up 4000 that year that you'll find you don't get any more that year (until the next year that is)! While I received 3000 from Petplan the other year when I renewed my policy the next year I have another 4000.

[tiggerbabe]

Just found this for anyone who is interested  

http://www.petpalsdirect.com/landing01.html

I am with E & L Insurance - but I can't remember exactly why I chose them, I think they were recommended to me by someone.

[debbie321]

Have a look at this site www.healthy-pets.co.uk I have insured Ben on their Gold Plan and it costs £5.10 per month!  I have only had Ben for 3 1/2 weeks so not had to claim yet but the policy looks really good.

If anyone else has used them - let me know how you got on.

thanks

 Debbie (and Ben)

[grahamturner]

i just kept the kc going it costs about £25 a month i didn't realise there was such a big difference in price i would also have to pay the first £50 and 10% of overall vet bill.now i think i will go and look at whats about starting with m&s.
thanks for posting you just may have saved me loads of money

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i use more than £9 per month never had any problems but it is £70 excess

[PennyB]

Have a look at this site www.healthy-pets.co.uk I have insured Ben on their Gold Plan and it costs £5.10 per month!  I have only had Ben for 3 1/2 weeks so not had to claim yet but the policy looks really good.

If anyone else has used them - let me know how you got on.

thanks

 Debbie (and Ben)

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Had a look at its policy and wonder what this exclusion means:

"Preventative and elective Treatments, routine examinations and Treatment including but not limited to routine spaying or castration, whelping or kittening or to any treatment in connection with pregnancy or parturition. "

Apart from obviously excluding 'routine spaying or castration, whelping or kittening or to any treatment in connection with pregnancy or parturition' wonder what else it means by elective treatments (I assume the 'not limited to' means other conditions)

[Cob-Web]

Had a look at its policy and wonder what this exclusion means:

"Preventative and elective Treatments, routine examinations and Treatment including but not limited to routine spaying or castration, whelping or kittening or to any treatment in connection with pregnancy or parturition. "

This sounds like the same exclusion as Direct Line added - it seems to limit the cover to treatment or diagnosis of a specific condition and excludes "incidentals" like routine blood tests prior to an operation for instance  

Having had a dog that needed treatment for cut paws on more than one occasion, these optional incidentals add up - and if they are recommended, its not easy to say no.

[Sue H]

To Isla and Jan/Billy - do look at the part of your insurance cover which says whether an ailment or treatment will be excluded if it lasts longer than 12 months - this means that if your doggy comes down with something one month before your renewal is due, they won't pay for it during the following year (or, indeed, ever again).

M & S cover gave 7,000 of Vet's bills and promised no exclusions if the condition was chronic ....

I don't care about death benefits/3rd party insurance, but as it happens, these were also as good if not better than PP ...

Think of it as your car insurance (except you can't just trade in your Cocker if things get tough!) and shop around - M & S, Sainsbury, Tesco, MoreThan ... whatever - make sure that there are no exclusions after 12 months of illness, and that there is either no excess or maybe a 50.00 excess if that makes any difference ...

I am going to be saving more than 8.00 per month for even better cover really, so why chuck that away - why just hand it over to PP just because ....??