Life In Practice

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:04:45 GMT

Just a note of caution - a lot of household insurance policies do not offer 3rd party cover for pets as standard.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

emerald — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:31:32 GMT

Kirsten Simpson:
Does anyone know how much a discount Petplan give Vets as that could be a swaying factor?

I got 10% discount with PP

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

alex gough — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:35:22 GMT

We had a case of facial paralysis where they have settled up for investigation but not for any treatment because we havent reached a diagnosis. Have now re-submitted the claim form with the diagnosis idiopathic facial paralysis!

Alex

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Clive Ansell — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:19:54 GMT

I would not touch them with an extremely long barge pole, they are sh-eye-te.

I had a client where they would not pay for treatment for prostate disease. Initial diagnosis was of BPH and/or prostatitis based on physical exam, treated with Tardak and Baytril. When it was discovered after no response to treatment that the dog in fact had a prostatic carcinoma, they refused to settle the claim because "the treatment given is not recognised for prostate cancer". The client took them to the small claims court and won his case.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Niall Taylor — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:07:15 GMT

alex gough:
Go look here
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews57547.html

These reviews are in date order with the most recent ones this week. Choice quotes include:

Interesting quotes - I'm certainly going to add that link to our web site

Niall

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:48:45 GMT

E&L have, to the best of my knowledge never paid up in any claim I have been involved in. (We do not have anyone insured with them here).

They refused an equine claim for COPD because it was a hereditary disease and as a result not covered! I no longer do equine work but this is the only time I have seen it described as such. I was under the impression that it is a managmental disease although I am sure any condition may have some inherited risk factors.

By this definition they could exclude most conditions!!

The most worrying thing was that someone came in with a puppy last year that had insurance from the breeder. I looked at the policy and read it as Dog Breeders Insurance and therefore probably an OK policy. However it turned out to be a very similar named policy but underwritten by E&L. As we are unable to give specific insurance advice I suggested they checked the above reviews site. Magically by second vaccination they had changed to another insurance company!!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

alan hough — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:43:47 GMT

I would always advise against anyone using E & L. They are without doubt the worst insurance company I have ever had to deal with. The stunts they have tried to pull with claims is not even funny.

One poor client was on the edge of a nervous breakdown because of the way they handled her claim. I wish the likes of Horse and Hound etc would do the decent thing and stop running their advertisements as unfortunately people do get sucked in by their cheap costs.

Also they have no veterinary advisors in-house instead they have veterinary advice information that has been supplied to them by a contracted veterinary practice and some of advice (or maybe E & Ls interpretation of the advice) is shocking. One example - approx 2 years ago this is-is that they ( E&L) were advised by their veterinary advisors that if a horse has ever suffered any form of colic ever in its life including spasmodic then they should exclude all future colics as" that horse will definitely have another bout of colic in its life" !!!!! Again they claim this is the advice recieved from their veterinary advisors -whom I will not name as this is a public forum so please dont ask.

Alan

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Louise Buckley — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:52:22 GMT

Does anybody have any experience of E&L's small print? We have had a client in recently who mentioned that the terms and conditions included not paying out on animals that have self-harmed. The animal in question came into contact with common toxin in the house (sorry to sound so vague but E&L might read this!) and E&L have now requested the client answer the question: "How did the animal come into contact with the toxin?"

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

alex gough — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:08:12 GMT

You're the first vet I've ever heard of to insure their own pets with E & L. They aren't getting their act together, they are still appalling and I dont understand how they havent been prosecuted for their behaviour.

Go look here

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews57547.html

These reviews are in date order with the most recent ones this week. Choice quotes include:

Very slow to settle valid vet completed claims, typically two months. Difficult to get through to customer service, often diverts to voicemail, then you are told "there is a claims backlog we are only a small company and can only process a fixed number of claims per day". Don't bother and find someone else.

DONT USE E&L - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHECKED WHO THE UNDERWRITTERS ARE ON YOUR INSURANCE!!!!

My 4 yr old pony died recently, he had a hole in the heart. This should be a simple straight forward claim - but oh no - they are not paying. Reason they give is that I did not get a vet to certify the death - even though I paid for a post mortem out of my own pocket to find the cause of death.

Oh my god where do i start with what i think of this company,i am currently waiting for my 2nd claim with this company to be settled after 3 months of phone calls and letters including letters from my vet,they are terrible at paying out and will try to wriggle out of paying out for everything,and if they do pay out they take forever to actually send you the cheque whilst still collecting there monthly direct debits obviously,they also slap exclusions on things without any good reason

DO NOT GO WITH THIS INSURANCE COMPANY!!!!! They just make stuff up to get out of paying out for a genuine claim... they have denied receiving documents from our vets, even though I KNOW they were sent and received. When they eventually admitted they had the documents, they said that the vets had not sent thenm in good enough time (i.e. within 3 months of when the claim was made). Again, I KNOW this to be a lie. E&L agreed (after months of constant phone calls that I have had to pay for) that they would pay out for our claim as a 'good will gesture'. They have STILL not sent the cheque for this but I am not too bothered as it is only £24 of the almost £600 vet bill!!! AVOID AVOID AVOID!!! P.S. my rating suggests I have awarded E&L stars - this is only because the website won't let me leave a rating of ZERO!!!!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Vikki Halliday — Sun, 09 May 2010 08:26:07 GMT

Kirsten Simpson:
Does anyone know how much a discount Petplan give Vets

Petplan offer 20% discount to veterinary staff.

Kirsten Simpson:
I know to avoid E&L

I think they may be starting to clean up their act though. I've just insured our 3 gundogs with them, got 25% discount, and a lifelong policy on all three costs me £21 per month.

As I only need catastrophic cover, (i.e. bad fractures that I can't fix myself), I think this is a pretty good deal, although I guess time will tell if I have to use the policy..........

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Kirsten Simpson — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:35:39 GMT

Sorry to bump this thread a dillion. I'm looking for insurance for my kitten (that I rescued from work and got its fractured leg fixed at 8 weeks old etc and first pet above a hamster and rats that I have had!). Looking around i've kinda narrowed it down to LV and Direct Line BUT they don't cover veterinary diets which is very annoying (LV does if its shown to be an alternative to medicine). Petplan looks good but its DOUBLE the price of these two. More Than and M&S are also good but I don't want a policy that has an excess plus % of the bill. Does anyone know how much a discount Petplan give Vets as that could be a swaying factor? Thanks! I am totally new to his Pet Insurance malarky so any help would be great! (I know to avoid E&L )

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:24:49 GMT

This must be a first - over the years none of my clients claims have got to this stage with E & L. They have a great line in 'this is a hereditary condition and is therefore excluded from your policy'!

they are probably figuring out how to write a cheque because they do it so rarely!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

alex gough — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:56:41 GMT

A client of ours just received this message from E & L when they were chasing up payment.

"Thank you for your recent email, the contents of which have been noted.

I can confirm that your claim has been successful and is currently in our payment system where your cheque will be printed signed and then dispatched.

Due to the high volume of claims in our offices at the moment it is unfair to give a specific timescale."

Heaven forbid they be unfair!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:48:58 GMT

You mad fool!! Sons cannot be trusted with money at any age.

Cats are very conservative in their spending habits. Every decision has to be slept on!!!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Malcolm Ness — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:37:40 GMT

Robert Russell:
My cats have a credit card

.......and I thought I was being progressive letting our son have a bank account at 14!

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