.

Weird. Both times I've had to claim from pet insurance, I've paid the vets the excess and they've claimed the rest back directly from the insurers themselves.

Once was with direct line, and another with pet plan.
 
Pet Plan,

We had to pay the vet in full £330 at the time and then sent the bill to PP and full payment given. Really annoying way of doing it as we were out of pocket £330 until payment received from PP.
 
We're lucky in that our own vet offers a comprehensive health care plan of their own that includes everything you can think of at a very reasonable price. Also means that when we need to use the plan we don't have to pay anything to the vet or claim anything back from anyone. The only insurance I pay for is 3rd party cover to pets, people and property for our dog and I get that via the dogs trust for £25 a year. So it's well worth phoning around vets to see if they offer their own health plans and how they compare to insurance plans.
 
Direct Line. Policy has been going nearly 14yrs since when my boy was a pup. Premiums started at about £6 per mth and are now £26, every year there are more and more exclusions on the renewal.
 
I'm with Debenhams and have renewed with them for another year.

One of my cats got badly insured last year and damaged his back leg quite badly. Overall cost was about ~3.5-4k to fix him rather than amputate. Only had 2k on the limit but they paid in full. I paid the rest and was very thankful they were insured.

Only slightly miffed because the first two years I had full premium 7k cover but as they hadn't got in any scrapes or developed any problems early in life I lowered it!

That 2k has basically paid the worth of the insurance payments for the next 10 years for both at least!
 
Any good fully comprehensive (whatever its called) insurance for dogs?

Parents got a new puppy and they were considering it but my dad was saying the cost was obscene? (around 500 a year I think).

For what it's worth he could be able to pay any cost (thousands) (under my mum's orders!)

Just wondering if it's worth it, he's very well bred dog (got like 5 different types of dog in him... Think that's called pedigree?)
 
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Pet plan when I lived in the UK, they were brilliant. Had a 4000 bill and all we paid was the excess and they paid the rest direct to the insurer.

Whether or not you have to pay first and claim later or the vet claim direct for you seems to be a vet issue rather than the insurance company.
 
Pet Plan - the first month came free when we picked them up. We have to stick with them, as one of our cats has epilepsy and if we go elsewhere it will be classed as a pre-existing condition (i.e cost a fortune). Pet plan were a little difficult to begin with, but ever since have been brilliant.
 
knip said:
Weird. Both times I've had to claim from pet insurance, I've paid the vets the excess and they've claimed the rest back directly from the insurers themselves.

Once was with direct line, and another with pet plan.
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We have two cats in our household.

Mittens is the older cat and currently insured with Argos at their top coverage.

She was recently diagnosed with an over-active thyroid. She had lost weight, couldn't hold down food and all her organs were working overtime.

She was initially put on tablets which she didn't enjoy taking.

She then had an operation this week to have it removed. She's looks great and has a post op check today.

On two occasions, I had to pay and then claim back, but this op was on a direct claim.

Don't be without insurance. Or at least have a slush fund to cover them.
 
sallyj17, you may wish to familiarize yourself with the forum rules:

"No promotion of business interests

You may not promote any website or business you have a financial or other interest in, or use the popularity of this community to help build one of your own. The forums are here to allow people to freely share knowledge, not provide them with personal financial gain, or free advertising."
 
As a postscript to my comments earlier in the thread, after further tests at the specialist vetinary hospital *finally* identified our cat as having some sort of obstruction or abscess within the intestine (which we had actually been saying all along, not pancreatitis, FIP or similar). Operated on yesterday with part of the intestine being removed then sewn back together again. That alone has cost £2k on top of the hospitalisation fees and there will be several more nights in the hospital before being discharged. We'e expecting the final tally to be in the region of £4k - £5k.

After an anxious night last night very relieved to hear this morning doing well and fever finally responding to antibiotics. Worth every penny so far as we are concerned, but given this is probably down to the cat swallowing even something as innocent as a bit of thread or maybe a bird bone, something quite routine, absolutely essential to have that sort of cost covered on insurance.
 
Just goes to show that even something that seems very minor like swallowing something can be very costly indeed. Definitely worth the peace of mind insurance brings in case something like that happens.
 
Just to add, as noted earlier in the thread, once a pet has undergone a major procedure they become virtually uninsurable. As she is now home and recovering well, decided to sign up with Petplan full cover. Might as well not have bothered as it has come back with so many exclusions - many which seem to have no relation to the actual problem (for example no infectious diseases covered) as to be pretty much worthless.

FWW I've written to Petplan asking them to review the policy, but expect one of three answers:
1. FIFO.
2. Take out a cheaper injury only policy.
3. Slap a huge excess on any of the excluded items they might decide to include.

Also no mention anywhere on the policy, as alluded to earlier in the thread, of the exclusions being remitted after the cat has remained in good health for a period of time.
 
My vets have just written a letter confirming that my cat has not had any tummy problems for over 12 months now, this was an exclusion on the policy as it happened before I was insured with them. Pet plan told me that if the vets would confirm this they would remove it as an exclusion.
 
Dimple said:
A little lesson for those with a dog without insurance.
Last night we were about 15 minutes from going on stage when my lead guitarist got a phone call saying that his 10 stone dog had ran at something on the lawn but the patio doors were in the way.
He hit them hard breaking a door off, smashed the glass and the door had ended up on top of him and he was crying his eyes out.
My mates girlfriend then drove the 30 miles back home with Mrs Dimple and the vet had been called where they took him to a special vets in Nantwich (about 20 miles away).
Overnight he has lost the use of his back legs which could be a spinal injury and so far the bill is around £1600 :eek:
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Dimple said:
Update on this:
The total bill was £3,100 and it was actually his girlfriends dog and nothing to do with him. She has now got a 3 year old dog that will never be able to get insurance and is going to have loads of problems all it's life. The other sad part is that they have broke up because the dog has to be dogsat all the time which has ended their relationship.
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And another update:
The dog took a turn for the worse the other day and the bill had reached £1900 when it was decided to let him go :(
£5000 because they didn't have insurance.

HOWEVER, I was telling a colleague about the incident when he said that his bill for his recently deceased dog is £5,100 and that's with insurance because it only paid the first £3000.
Christ on a bike:eek:
 
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