Tesla Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Me and the OH are looking to get a puppy. Anyone had any bad (or good!) experiences with any particular insurance companies? Looking at life cover. Thanks!
munster23 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Hi there. I have 2 dogs and a cat and they are all with separate insurance companies. I tend to go for the cheapest. My dogs are with 'Tesco' and 'help you cover'. My experience with Tesco is good and I have put one claim in with them and had no problems when receiving money back, but they are steep on prices when it comes up to renewal, hence why I am with 3 different ones. I've only recently joined help you cover so haven't had many dealings with them, but there price was really good and straight forward. - Both are lifetime cover. My advise is to use a comparison website where you can untick and tick the different types of cover. Hope this helps 1
Tesla Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 Tesco is the one we are looking at for the moment, coming in at around £20 for life cover covering upto 7500. Glad to hear your experience with them has been good so far!
munster23 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 That sounds about right if your puppy is a full breed. Mine are mixed so I pay £14 for the same cover.
Tesla Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 Yeah, Golden Labrador we are looking to get.
manc_techie Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 I've had no issues with Direct Line I was able to claim for the cost of kennels during an unexpected stay in hospital. Paying £19 monthly for a Beagle 1
mowgli82 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 My wife runs a vet practice, PetPlan (Not Cheapest) but she swears by them, Tesco and Direct Line seem ok too. Check whether the insurance covers certain illness for life or only up to a certain amount. 2
DJ-1701 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 I've got my dog on a PetPlan policy due to high recommendation. Haven't had to use them yet though, thank goodness. 1
AJWhite1970 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 My mini wire haired Dachshund qualifies for Crufts every year (and all the fun and expense that entails) and she is insured with Tesco. Not had any issues with them thus far when we've needed vets etc. 1
Tesla Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 Would Tesco et all pay the vets directly, like petplan does?
ECC_1 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 We have two dogs and don't bother with insurance anymore - each time we made a claim, that particular thing got excluded! We joined the dogs trust for £25.00 per year, which gives us the 1 million pounds worth of 3rd party liability we thought was essential - just i case one of the dogs caused an accident or similar and the then joined the local vet's healthy pet club which gives us discounted treatment, all jabs and flea/worming treatment for two dogs for £20 for both
DJ-1701 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Would Tesco et all pay the vets directly, like petplan does? From memory with Sainsburys, they do pay the vet direct once you provide them with the information, though I believe this was minus the excess which you have to pay the vet yourself. 1
munster23 Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 I got my money from a claim with Tesco, sent straight to me in the post in the form of a cheque
StevieM Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 My experience with Tesco is good and I have put one claim in with them and had no problems when receiving money back, but they are steep on prices when it comes up to renewal, You ain't kidding! What started as £5 a month with Tesco has escalated to >£40 a month (almost twice as much as my own life insurance that would pay off my mortgage!). OK, so she's 15 now, but there is a claim limit of £2000 on her policy. It really does feel like I'm throwing good money after bad, but I can't bring myself to cancel it now. I dread to think how much more it would go up if I ever had to make a claim.
ChickenDhansak Posted January 6, 2017 Posted January 6, 2017 (edited) When we got our last (rescue) dog I shopped around and went with Direct Line. The limit per claim, length of time you can continue to claim for an ongoing condition and minimal policy restrictions were what we wanted. In addition, our vet is happy for us to just pay the excess and they deal directly with the insurers - never had an issue and we get texts from Direct Line when claim forms have been processed and payment sent. We got badgered by PetPlan who gave us a month's free insurance on the new addition as part of the adoption package but their policy was nowhere near as good, and more expensive than DL. A downside is that the excess increases every year by about 7% but I'd rather that than one of the dogs have a serious injury and we find that the claim limit is nowhere near the total cost of the treatment. One of them is being treated for a slipped disc right now and I would imagine that the 2 overnight stays, pills, tests and consultations etc are mounting up already. We pay £50 a month for 2 elderly dogs and that has gone up from an initial £35 a month 4 years ago. Edited January 6, 2017 by ChickenDhansak 1
fiendishlyclever Posted January 6, 2017 Posted January 6, 2017 We used the PDSA sponsored cover. Claimed once and took about three or four weeks including Christmas. We wanted a large amount of cover (£8k per year) but we pay 10% with the excess. This cover cost us under £300, half the cost of Pet Plan who I moved from (and the annual increases were huge). Pet insurance doesn't come cheap but we paid £4500 in vet fees in the last few months of my last dog's life.
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