Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: hannah (weeny) on October 01, 2008, 00:45:51 AM
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i know i know.... aaarrrrghhhhhhh :Crazy:
but m&s just keep going up and up and up - - - not good!!
have filled in the forms on line and have done pet plan, more than and direct line - (in order most expensive first to cheapest) any of these that should be avoided at all costs?
thanks :)
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Have you looked at AXA online, its only online.
You need to see how much they payout and whether it is a sum for an illness or for each illness and is that figure new each year of just once for the life of the cat. Do they cover dental treatment.......none I think will cover cosmetic treatment unless there is a medical reason but some dont cover at all.
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I wouldnt recommend more than really. They are really expensive if you claim. I few years ago I claimed for Mogs and although it was only £75 ish in total and I didnt get it all back because of excesses my renewal went up by £5 a month. Last year I just paid for her tablets myself and the renewal went up by £2 so I dont beleive the excuse they gave of her age. On the positive side they are pretty quick at paying out.
Mogs is now 17ish and on life time medication and her insurance is £22 a month now with more than
Im not sure about now but Direct Line used to be a twelve month policy not life time. It may have changed but do check.
Amber is with Axa direct and is £7.60 a month at the moment she 10ish but Ive never claimed anything
Good luck
love
Tab
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Have a look at Halifax, they've been brilliant for me.
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I pay £5.50 for Aice and have her down as 10. Not sure if Sainsbury's are any good but I saw a banner last night saying they are doing the first 3 months free.
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I have sainsburys I've never claimed but my premiums have doubled over a couple of years
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They are all going up so dont choose just on price as they will all end up the same in the end!!
I reccomend petplan and say avoid any policy underwritten by E&L like the plague
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I'm with Petplan and have had no problems whatsoever with any claims I have put in - I currently pay about £18.50 for my 2 cats (both aged 2.5 years). So far I have had to claim for more than what I have paid out in the last 2.5 years for one of the cats only. He has now been diagnosed with HCM so we're going to be putting in claims for the rest of his life now. Last year I claimed for about £600 and my insurance went up by £1 per month per cat. So far this year I have claimed for about £500 so it will probably go up a bit more next year.
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I am waiting for the renewals to come in from AXA on my four :shify: :shify:
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Sainsbury's have changed their excess on oldies, so I am no longer recommending them. AXA seem the best for oldies, but I have issues getting paperwork out of them, so did make a complaint this week. It is worth checking out how much they will increase when they hit 9 even if they are young cats, as that is one of my issues with PetPlan, until Sainsbury's changed, they ha the biggest excess - AXA seem to have the smallest.
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thanks for all the responses!
not sure they help - there really just doesnt seem to one thats good for everyone is there?
m&s is currently charging 17.99 a month for just jasper. no claims or anything. feel its a bit much!
Pet plan: £11.70/month
More than: £10.39/month
Healthy-pets: £8.22/month
Direct line: £9.66/month
Axa: £8.74/month or £104.88/year
Halifax: £6.81 or £11.44/month
these are some of the quotes i've gotten. dont want to just go on price but looking at all the bits, i'm not sure one of them is particularly better than the others, they all seem to have bad points? i so dont know enough about these things. :Crazy:
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Looks like More Than, Direct line and Healthy Pets are per condition so you can scrub them off your list.
There's a great tool here http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/insurance/pet/compare-cat.aspx that compares policies like for like, it doesn't get quotes just compares the individual aspects of each policy in a really clear, simple way.
Axa, Petplan, Petguard, Halifax, HSBC, and NFU are the only policies that do what I would call true life cover ie X amount per year, renewed each and every year rather than X amount per condition. This was true a month or so ago but if you do go with any of them double check that is still the case.
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Going on from what Helen said, if most things are equal amongst the ones she names you then look at the amount they cover and the amount of excess and check the small print on dentals.
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Millys only an extra £1 a month with petplan for being an older cat, the other 5 (under nines) all cost the same even tho they are different ages.
If you do go with them phone your local rescue and see if they work with petplan as you can help them raise funds by insuring through their number. ;D
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Petplan dont pay out as much as AXA though, and there excess for oldies is quite high - AXA is £50 regardless of age.
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Looks like More Than, Direct line and Healthy Pets are per condition so you can scrub them off your list.
There's a great tool here http://www.defaqto.com/consumer/insurance/pet/compare-cat.aspx that compares policies like for like, it doesn't get quotes just compares the individual aspects of each policy in a really clear, simple way.
Axa, Petplan, Petguard, Halifax, HSBC, and NFU are the only policies that do what I would call true life cover ie X amount per year, renewed each and every year rather than X amount per condition. This was true a month or so ago but if you do go with any of them double check that is still the case.
Thanks Helen, this is very useful to me. Jameson is insured with Healthy Pets, I thought it was the best deal at the time. Axa would cost me £11 per month which I can't afford right now but will look into the other ones.
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Petplan dont pay out as much as AXA though, and there excess for oldies is quite high - AXA is £50 regardless of age.
They do 4k, 6k and unlimited policies. I think Milly has £65 for her excess.
AXA is going to end up the same price as the others very soon, looking at what shes been quoted elsewhere for lifetime cover its too cheap :shify:
What has Sainsburys changed?
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The unlimited one is the only one that comes close to AXA though, and I bet it isn't well advertised. I thought PetPlan was £75 over the age of 9.
Sainsbury's have changed their excess for over 9's to £125 or 15%, rather than £50 or 15% - that means the bulk of non serious things will have to be paid by the owner, I know when PEbbles had her x-rays, she had two x-rays for £96, it was hardly worth claiming on an excess of £50, it wouldnt be an option on their new policy. Also, checking online, it seems they have changed hte excess for younger cats too
http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/insuring/ins_whatyouget_pet_skip2.shtml
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Sitting by my side is Misa and 4 envelopes from Axa with the renewals in.
I havent opened them yet cos I am scared, so you are gonna be the first to know............................and they have killed me with the birmans!
Ducha birman was 9.97 now is 17.02
Franta birman was 9.19 now is 16.18
Sasa was 6.56 now is 10.60
Misa was 5.69 now is 7.61
So £20 approx extra a month for the 4 cats and £14 of that is the birmans!! They really have no excuse for putting them up so much....the birmans that is....and their policies have more or less doubled but there has never been a claim, so its just because they are birmans!
There was a claim for Sasa lat December.
What I dont know cos they dont tell me is how to renew. They have sent me a form if I want to pay in full by cheque or debit card but nothing about the direct debit at all........so now is it gonna cost me to ring them and ask!
When I dumped M&S a year ago i was paying approx £23 each for birmans and £9.50 each for the other two and I still had nil excess at the time for another year.
It wouldnt be so bad if my new pension started now but wont recieve anything till January sometime grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Gill thats an awlful increase >:(
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The non-pedigree policies seem in line with Hannah's new quote for Jasper and still good value for the (lifetime) cover provided and relatively low excess, is it worth going through a breed specialist or similar for the Birmans do you think?
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I dont know Helen.....where do you think I could go?
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Is there a UK Birman website/forum you could ask on? Seems crazy that just because they're pedigrees the quote is so much higher :Crazy:
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I've just taken out insurance with petplan for BamBam - £11.80 pm. That is for £6k per condition per year and his purchase price is covered - he is pedigree persian.
I have also transferred Sol to Petplan a couple of months ago from Sainsburys (also about £11 pm). Fabes was with Petplan and I had no problems with claims - and there were many!
Unfortunately Foofoo is with Sainsburys and as I have claimed for her ears - polyps that could regrow - I'm reluctant to change her to another provider.
Even though it tends to be the most expensive I would recommend Petplan.
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How old are your Birmans?
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They are just 15yrs and one has 3 legs
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Yep I thought they were 'older' like Foofoo.
Petplan doesn't insure older cats on new policies otherwise I would have suggested going there for a quote seeing what I pay for mine. :tired:
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Thanks anyway :hug:
Just out of interest how much is Foo Foos insurance?
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my god gill thats an insane increase!!!!!
i just dont understand why they put them up so much. every year! surely if theres no claims it should go down if anything? i mean, not quite because obviously the cats are getting older but....
just feels a bit like its all irrelevant what the price is cos they'll put it up so much next year.
could we just change insurers every couple of years???
o think i might go for axa just now though.
thanks for all the feedback - its all very interesting me thinks :)
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I have changed every couple of years lol.
Started with Sainsburys and then M&S came along with their no excess and reasonable price , both underwritten by AXA. Then the M&S saga which doubled my insurance and now one year with AXA and the birmans price has doubled for no reason, they have never been sick, no claims ever been made and they were 14 when I first took out the AXA insurance!
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Thanks anyway :hug:
Just out of interest how much is Foo Foos insurance?
£16.57pm - very very high :tired:
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That isn't good Gill - when I got Zia insured this year, it was actually less than they quoted me last year when I looked into it for her, and it wasn't that bad then either.
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I dont know about a UK birman site but expect that they would say Petplan which wouldnt take them cos of their age.
I guess I am going to have to ring them on Monday and ask them why their insurance has gone up so much and if its cos they are pedigree why that matters.
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I dont know about a UK birman site but expect that they would say Petplan which wouldnt take them cos of their age.
The Axa renewal quote looks a bargain compared to Petplan! I just did a dummy quote for a 15 year old male birman and it's £14 a month... just £3000 cover per condition and that's for 12 months only, after that you'd be on your own. The excess is £40 + 20% of the total cost.
When I said breed specialist I was thinking along the lines of classic car cover, maybe that type of thing doesn't exist for pet insurance.
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Wow that is bad Helen and thanks for doing that :hug:
No I dont think that exists for cats ;D
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I'm probably being extra extra, stupid here but for insurance purposes what does pedigree entail? If say a cat looks like, walks like and acts like a Birman but has no papers, is it a pedigree for insurance purposes?
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I pay £5.50 for Aice and have her down as 10. Not sure if Sainsbury's are any good but I saw a banner last night saying they are doing the first 3 months free.
I thought you only get the 3 months free cover following renewal after 12 months and who wants to lay odds that premiums won't increase after 12 months?
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i think you have to have the ped papers rosella and i have, complete with family tree! the champions and grand champions all noted lol. i just have never had them changed to me as the owner cos the original owner has to sign the pink slip and and that was two owners ago!
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I just wonder Gill if one of the reasons it is more expensive to insure a pedigree is that they pay back the amount initially paid for pud. I suspect a lot on here wouldn't be looking for such reimbursement and are only interested in vet fees being covered. I therefore wonder whether it is a good idea to record pud as a pedigree unless all papers exist (as for your two). I'm not au fait at all with pedigree papers but wonder how many puds are pretty obviously a pedigree breed (esp rescues of course) and therefore insured as such but don't have the pedigree papers.
Look forward to hearing what Axa says when you ring them Gill. There is a free phone number 0800 316 9036. I only mention this as I think someone mentioned having to pay to ring them to sort out incorrect paperwork.
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I see on website that the free phone number appears to be for new policies only but it was also recorded on the renewals letters I recieved.
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I think peds are more expensive as some breeds are prone to certain illnesses, such as PKD in Persians, HCM in Maine Coons. The purchase price could have something to do with it as well, but think you only get that if they are under the age of 9.
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I've just done dummy quotes for Jaffa and Mosi with Axa and they offered just over £7 a month for Mosi (2 year old pedigree) and just over £10 a month for Jaffa (11 year old moggy).
ETA - it's worth bearing in mind that most companies seem to offer relatively low premiums to lure you in and then they go up a lot when you come to renew. So best to make sure the coverage offered is good and from a reliable company in case you get stuck with them.
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I think peds are more expensive as some breeds are prone to certain illnesses, such as PKD in Persians, HCM in Maine Coons. The purchase price could have something to do with it as well, but think you only get that if they are under the age of 9.
I have no idea tbh but Bam Bam is from a PKD negative cattery and I wasn't even asked the question.
One thing they should also consider is whether your cat is indoor as surely this should reduce premiums, in the same way if you have a burgler alarm this reduces house insurance?
I put Sol back to Petplan in the summer and pay £11.99pm, he is 8 years old so purchase price would not be covered.
I think its more about age rather than breed.