Looking for some hints and tips here. We are with Argos Gold, had one claim (£750 for vet consult, x-rays etc in our first year, with a £50 excess). They paid out fine, no problems, no increase the next year. For those of you who don't know, Lilly had severe bilateral HD diagnosed at just under a year and has been on anti-inflammatory tablets since. We are based in Scotland. We paid £377 last year but this year up to £612. Bit of a hike, Lilly has just turned 5. They said the increase was based on age, breed, claim history, area, and vet costs. With my OH just having been made redundant this didn't exactly cheer him. We are by no means destitute, but are looking for the best way to optimise our situation with the insurance. So, with no imminently planned surgery and tablets costing about £60 every 2 months, what are are options? We are currently not claiming for her tablets (or the hydrotherapy which is more fun rather than therapy). Should we claim the medication on the insurance, or would the subsequent increase in next years premium just increase our costs further? We haven't claimed so far as we thought it would hike our costs up. But how much of a rise would this cause? We ARE considering just getting a prescription and getting her meds online as an option but haven't asked the cost of a private prescription yet. Any of your experiences on this would be good to hear to try and work out a plan. Thanks
This is a tricky one, I've been thinking a lot about it myself this week. We are with Petplan and they have paid out over £5k since Mabel was been diagnosed with ED (in May this year) as with Lilly's HD it's severe so we are expecting a massive increase next March as its a life long condition. I think I'd get a prescription for her meds and carry on with the hydrotherapy, and fingers crossed it keeps the costs down. Sorry I don't feel like I've been much help.
It's not possible to know by how much the insurance company would increase the premiums if you claimed - it's very bad of them to do this, and I know it's irrelevant to you now but other companies do not do this. It's also not possible based on the information you have to calculate what the best thing is to do. My own view is that with a dog potentially needing expensive surgery, I'd stick with being insured with a company that will pay out (a new company would not), and consider stopping the insurance after that. I'd also take the risk of claiming what you can, check your small print of the contract though....in theory, Lilly's risk is already known, so the premiums shouldn't rise (that doesn't mean they won't, but your current increase is nothing to do with whether you claimed the medication - you didn't and still faced the increase).
Petplan does not increase the premiums based on whether or not you claim. Only on breed, age and other general risk profiles.
It's difficult to know whether perhaps our increase has just been based on age. Our claim was put in during Lilly's first year, and 2nd/3rd/4th years premiums had not been appreciably increased, so Mabel's claim MIGHT not push up her premiums (yet). I am interested in what you say Julie - IS it really bad of an insurance company to increase their premiums if you make a claim? Maybe I am a bit naive but I kind of assume that happens anyway. Is it based on collective risk or personal risk? I certainly won't be changing insurers - once the diagnosis was made that kind of sealed the deal. Maybe we should do the op, claim the money, then abandon paying any more insurance if it goes over a certain threshold. I do think there may be an argument for that, but a crystal ball would be nice.
Crystal balls would be great.... Insurance is based on your risk profile and known risks are not covered. What has happened in your case is that a risk (Lilly's hip problems) has materialised. This is a risk that you insured yourself against - you paid to remove that risk based on the risk profile before the risk materialised. And as you rightly state, you are now locked into your insurance company as the risk is now known. In these circumstances, if the insurance company claws back its costs of your claims in increased premiums, and you have no other options, I'd say that's a poor deal and not a company I would want to buy insurance from.
I guess phoning up anonymously as a "first time insurer" with no hip problem, then pre-existing hip problem would give some clue. Trouble is they always need your postcode, so its never going to be anonymous.
I have been known to use a different postcode to get a quote . Insurance is such a pain and so difficult to decide the best way forward but the hike in premium in a year does seem a lot particularly as you haven't been claiming for the meds and hydrotherapy. We've sorted of decided that when we are again resident in the UK we're not going to bother with insurance for Juno, our French insurance wouldn't pay out for any of the costs as the condition was hereditary or congenital. As her ED will be excluded from any policy I'm not sure it's worth the cost particularly as the premium is likely to be raised because of her ED. We're just going to put the premium away each month and use it as necessary. Good luck with what you decide
