It's time to renew Ziggy's policy and I'm horrified to see Animal Friends have increased his premium by 70% on last year's price. He's had a couple of claims which means these are likely to be excluded if we moved to another company. Animal Friends told me they can cancel the policy and sell me a new one for a lot less but excluding: - anything relating to the stomach or digestive system. - anything relating to a laceration of the back leg (this is due to him being bitten - bizarrely it sounds as though if he is bitten on any other part of his body that will be fine. - most annoying, they would exclude anything relating to lameness. Now he had a painkiller injection at 5 months as he was limping after leaping off the sofa, a total overreaction on our part in retrospect but we'd only had him 5 weeks - new puppy parents and all that. This was not claimed for (the bill was less than the excess!) but my vet seems to have provided a full medical history along with another claim so he's now got his card marked. Presumably any sort of displasia or arthritis developing would be off limits which all seems to make an exclusions policy not worth having! Given these are likely conditions for labs to develop I don't doubt that is part of the reason for the massive increase in premiums. Can anyone advise me on that last condition - is it normal to have full disclosure of this supplied to the insurer and is there any possibility to have this sort of nonsense written off the insurers records? It's so frustrating that 2 of these 3 things is as a result of puppy behaviours that he has grown out. Thanks as ever.
Hi there, I'm sorry I can't really help,as we live outside the UK and insurance isn't available....but I'm still interested to see what some of our members replies will be to you.....it does seem harsh that the Vet supplied information that wasn't relevant to the claim you were making but that could affect your premiums going forward.....but I don't know what obligation a vet practice has to an insurance company .... I know from previous discussions some members choose to have a savings plan to anticipate Medical costs rather than lay the huge amount premiums can cost. My friend in the UK has a 20 week old puppy,that has had no health issues or vet visits apart from his puppy vaccines.She applied to her chosen insurer and out of interest ticked every box to see what the full cover would come out at ,£77 per month!!!!! I was astounded!
For insurance, full disclosure should always be the norm, both by your vet if they have been approached AND by you. If the insurers find anything at all out that hasn't been disclosed, they will wheedle out of paying unrelated claims.
I have Lucan with a new insurance company called Lifetime Pet Cover, they seem to be very reasonable, have several levels of cover and as a bonus will re instate previous conditions IF they have caused no symptoms or needed any treatment for 24mths. I can't fault them as both times I claimed they paid out within a week. TBH Insurance is a total nightmare, in my experience you're either priced out or the company stops selling pet insurance and you're left in the lurch that way!
My insurance company is really good. This year the price increased by a massive £15.80 a year!! In the first year we claimed for tummy problems twice -blood tests and was on a drip as in-patient both times - (we were in and out of the vets at least every other week for 4 months but didn't claim for that) and had pyometra so had an emergency spay all before she was one! She also had frozen tail that we didn't claim for. My insurance put a 12 month exclusion on tummy problems but nothing else. My vet did have to declare all medical history for each claim.
Most insurance companies will set an "exclusion" on previous conditions. They may place a time limit, eg 12 months or 24 months, at their discretion. It is worth ringing around various companies, and if you are sure that the limp was due to puppy adventures it might be worth investigating. We have all our dogs on Petplan. Benson had a minor eye infection as a very young puppy. He as on KC free insurance. When this expired we switched to Petplan. We disclosed the previous eye infection, and a 12 month exclusion of all eye conditions was placed, and lifted after 12 months. The insurance on all our dogs has not risen significantly, even with claiming thousands for our older lab Casper. I agree, an absolute minefield, and an expense. When you need it though, you won't begrudge a penny.
In Holland it is the same. Covering at least the most common thing you go to a vet for I ticked it on and the costs were very high! That made us decide not to have Finn covered by insurance company but pay out of our own pocket. So far we don't have high costs.... When Euan was stil alive we paid for his MRI and operation on a herniated disk. It costed us a € 4000,-......luckily we could pay this as we put aside some money monthly for those unforeseen expenses! When we wouldn't have done that I don't know what we had to decide..... What I am trying to say is that you can put aside a certain amount of money for the dog just in case something happens. And keep your fingers crossed that our furry friend stay healthy....
