What pet insurance do you use?

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:04:45 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 22:31:32 GMT

[quote user="Kirsten Simpson"]Does anyone know how much a discount Petplan give Vets as that could be a swaying factor? [/quote]

I got 10% discount with PP

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Alex Gough — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:35:22 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 17:19:54 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 16:07:15 GMT

[quote user="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:[/quote]

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 13:48:45 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 11:43:47 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 20:52:22 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 20:08:12 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 LLB — Sun, 09 May 2010 09:26:07 GMT

[quote user="Kirsten Simpson"] Does anyone know how much a discount Petplan give Vets [/quote]

Petplan offer 20% discount to veterinary staff.

[quote user="Kirsten Simpson"]I know to avoid E&L[/quote]

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 20:35:39 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 15:24:49 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 09:56:41 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 12:48:58 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 12:37:40 GMT

[quote user="Robert Russell"]My cats have a credit card [/quote]

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

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Bob Russell — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:25:31 GMT

I am afraid E&L is the only insurance company that stand out for exceptionally poor service. I do not give specific recommendations to clients but I suggest they google E&L complaints - hopefully this is sufficiently vague to prevent me getting in trouble with the regulators.

My dogs have basic cover with Tescos (£4000 per condition - not time limited) - very inexpensive, not been any particular hassle with a couple of claims.

Expect some limitations if you go for a cheap policy - they have to make savings somewhere. I no longer look down my nose on these cheaper policies as long as people go into them with their eyes open. You get what you pay for but any insurance is better than none.

My cats have a credit card that sits in my desk drawer for emergencies but we live a long way from any roads - lucky us!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Alex Gough — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:11:55 GMT

My old dog's bill for its phaeochromocytoma came to £4000, and at that time it was a 50% discount from the RVC for vets, and a lot of the work up had been done by myself.

Now, working in a referral centre with access to MRI and high quality surgeons, I still insure my pets with Petplan. Chemotherapy, major surgery, drugs etc are expensive. And doing things for yourself at "cost" is actually pretty expensive when you factor in what bringing your animal into the surgery really costs - staff time, overheads etc. There is an interesting thread on VIN for those of you who subscribe regarding vets insuring their pets in the States. The insurance market appears to be starting to take off over there, and they are encouraging vets to insure their own pets, but one company as p***ed off the solo practitioners, and most of the rest of the profession, by refusing to allow vets to treat their own pets (presumably in case of fraudulent claims)! Interestingly though, they sold the policies to vets in the first place by discussing the real cost of treating your own pets.

alex

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

lisa phillips — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:30:47 GMT

I love petplan. So far have paid them £360 (2yrs premiums) and they have paid out £6000 in referral fees in return - better than any investment I've made!!!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

emerald — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:34:53 GMT

I insured my dog with PetPlan, even though would get staff discounts and drugs at cost price, still can be very expensive for lots of conditions! I took out 4 weeks free with PetPlan and she got a skin condition, which she still has, so glad I've carried it on!!

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Nixthevet — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:29:00 GMT

I'd mirror the comments above. Petplan would still be my preferred insurer. Had my two dogs insured until very recently. My older dog ( 12yrs in april) had spinal surgery when she was 7 yrs old- the local referral centre gave me a discount so bill was something like £1500 and petplan didn't bat an eyelid. They also paid for her to have around 25 hydrotherapy sessions in the first 12-18months post-op. I think they are a bit stricter now, but this was very easy to claim for.

The reason I went for insurance was for complex ortho or spinal referrals- as these are not surgeries that I would do myself. In the end it paid off- I probably paid roughly the same in premiums as petplan paid out- but i got the equivalent of a 6 year payment plan.

Have cancelled their insurance now as at 10 and 12 I wouldn't put them through major surgery and the premuims, excesses and other T&C's just meant it wasn't worth it when I can do most things at cost price myself.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Jacquin Mitchell — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:23:45 GMT

[quote user="Gareth Dowdeswell"]RVC discount is 20%, so referral there is still a rather expensive business. Our nearest referral centre does a 50% discount for referring vets, which I think is very generous, but does mean that if my cat did need to go there, I could just about find the money without needing insurance.[/quote]

My old dog ended up at the RVC with a FCE a couple of months ago, and we received a 20% discount. Still cost £1400 odd though, with the MRI. Someone I spoke to indicated that this discount may not be around much longer, but don't quote me on it.

Jacq

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Gareth Dowdeswell — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:04:52 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

I'm just a little surprised that as vets we have our pets insured. Services for free, drugs at cost, even Idexx do lab fees half price for vets.(Think RVC do a hefty discount for vets pets if it was to come to that....)

[/quote]

I see your point about not insuring, if my cat was insured I think I'd only ever use it for referral or on-going conditions. If you've got a dog likely to develop skin allergies, life-long Atopica will get pretty expensive even if you can get it at cost.

RVC discount is 20%, so referral there is still a rather expensive business. Our nearest referral centre does a 50% discount for referring vets, which I think is very generous, but does mean that if my cat did need to go there, I could just about find the money without needing insurance.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:54:17 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

You either have very lucky/highly qualified friends or you need to change jobs.

From the BBC news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8151355.stm:

According to ASHE, "mean" gross annual earnings across all employee jobs in 2008 came to £26,020. You may think that's rather a high "average" salary. And if you look just at the figures for full-time employees, that figure rises to £31,323.

Also, if you read the article, that number is skewed by the top earners - the median for full-timers is more like £25,000.

Most vets should be on that amount, when the whole package is taken into consideration. I'd say that makes us better paid than average.

[/quote]

Thanks - that was the point I was making. SPVS salary survey has new grads on a package worth £31,637 (I appreciate a good chunk of this may be other benefits in kind, but IF a house is provided in lieu of salary you don't have to pay rent).

Still more than the average full time employee when high earners are in there skewing the figures.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Gillian Mostyn — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:53:54 GMT

You either have very lucky/highly qualified friends or you need to change jobs.

From the BBC news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8151355.stm:

Also, if you read the article, that number is skewed by the top earners - the median for full-timers is more like £25,000.

Most vets should be on that amount, when the whole package is taken into consideration. I'd say that makes us better paid than average.

Re: What pet insurance do you use?

Vikki Halliday LLB — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:19:11 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]We are better paid than the average person.[/quote]

Really? Can I come and work for you? Most of my colleagues and friends, including those in what you might call service industry jobs, are on far more than I am!

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