Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: angeleyes on September 30, 2009, 21:26:34 PM
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Now our little furry friend is part of the family i have been considering pet insurance, i don't have it for any of my buns as a lot of the common probelms were not covered however i am not sure about the cat.
Do you have yours insured and if so who with please?
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I dont have insurance as i have too many cats
but if i had fewer i would deff insure them
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Insure and asap!
Many of us now are with AXA which you can only do on their site. You will not find another company to match their cover at their rates,
It has excellent cover annd I have just got the renewals in for my 4 and its only gone up £1 a cat per month , and this is despite claims of about £2000 plus for one of them in the last year and his claims are likely to continue sadly.
Its takes 14 days for the insurance to kick in before you can make a claim, so speed of insuring very essential.
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Agree with Gill i.e. yes, asap and have a look at Axa.
The cover Axa provides is good and think best value atm. I have 6 insured with them altho I am finding the cost of insuring so many a bind. Have been building up a vet fund for some months hoping to cancel but just too scared to just yet. Think perhaps especially important to insure when young and when getting older but anything could happen at any time of course and insuring just 1 cat may be within budget?
I had thought you were just fostering but see you've been "got" :) Stunningly beautiful tabby btw :Luv2:
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Insure - definitely! :scared:
I have never needed to claim but it is reassuring that most things are covered. It is surprising how many people sadly have to lose their pets due to lack of funds. As Gill says, Axa offer really good cover for a reasonable price. A young cat can be covered for under £10 a month.
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Agree with Gill on the Axa recommendation.
The main thing to look out for with pet insurance is that it's true 'life cover', and by that I mean that they will pay out for a condition for the life of your pet, not just for the first 12 months of the condition. Policies that offer X amount per year with the 'pot' reset each and every year are the best type and offer true life cover. Some policies describe themselves as offering 'life cover' but they only offer X amount per condition and what with the technological advances in veterinary medicine you could find your 5k being used up very quickly and then you wouldn't be able to claim for that condition any longer.
As far as I'm aware the companies that offer true life cover (ie X amount per year, each and every year) are:
Axa, Petplan (not the value policy), NFU, HSBC & Halifax.
Axa are the best (imo) for a few reasons - they are underwritten by themselves so no danger of changing underwriters and therefore less chance of the T&C's changing drastically as a result, as happened to M&S a few years back. They have a high level of cover (7k each and every year), they don't charge a % excess for older pets (most insurers charge 15-20% excess for pets over 8 yrs old) just a flat excess of £75. Their premiums are reasonable and so far *touch wood* the increases at renewal time are minimal.
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Thanks guys i will take a look at AXA
And yes we have been 'got' didn't take long did it! ;D
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Would always, always recommend insurance. I would never be without it after claiming for 2 £800 bills. Vet bills can add up at an astonishing rate. Another vote for AXA too. They've been brilliant for me.
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me too - 3 with Axa - only rich people can afford to risk huge vet bills
it's not just about knowing you won't have to stump up for treatment either
insurance means you can if necessary be referred on to centres of excellence, where specialist treatment can run into thousands of pounds, and which you couldn't otherwise consider
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AXA here - my girls are 19.5 and 16.5yo and the eldest is about £15 a month.
Helen, my AXA documents say a £50 excess, even though my two are seniors - MAbel was insured as a 12yo and they did only take a £50 excess off her claim.
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Yes I meant to mention it's still a £50 excess with Axa which is excellent for elderly puds esp altho realise Fifi is only a wee babe :Luv2:
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Definitely insure, and don't delay!!!!
Another Axa convert here, I've just insured my 2 year old boy for £9 a month.
My Bridge boy Max was covered by them as well, and thank goodness he was as his ongoing blood tests and treatments for his kidney and thyroid problems would have cost a fortune!!! They always paid on time, and have always been very good. The excess is usually £50 per year per condition which is fairly average.
Even if I'd built up a savings fund with the £13 a month I was paying for him, there is no way it would have covered the bills, so for me its a no brainer ...... definitely set up the insurance :)
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Definately insure, we're with Sainsbury's for all of ours and they were fantastic when we claimed recently for Nina's illness then her pts and cremation.
It is frightening how quickly you are in double and triple figures with vet bills. We'd have been stuffed when Nina fell ill recently and also when our dog Gibson had an accident last Christmas and cut his paw open, we were back and forth to the vets for over 2 months and at about £30 each visit it soon mounted up :scared:
Have just had my renewal for Kiki and need to get our little lads a policy sorted but will probably look at AXA on others recommendation here. :)
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Insure insure insure - Axa here too
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Defiantly insure, mine are with Direct Line, can't move Jess from there as I've already claimed and a new company won't cover his pre existing. Might move Milo over though to Axa.
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Helen, my AXA documents say a £50 excess, even though my two are seniors - MAbel was insured as a 12yo and they did only take a £50 excess off her claim.
Yep, mine is £50 too but I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs and hunt the documents out when I wrote the post so googled it and it came back as being £75 now.
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Thats strange Helen cos have my renewal docs to hand and the renewal doest start until 23 Oct and its still £50!
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I think that's because we have existing policies from a few years back - I just did a dummy quote with Axa and it's defo £75 now.
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I'll have to check my docs now, as Poot's policy is a new one ......... will update later :)
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Yes insure and sooner rather than later. Lola has racked up £2500 very quickly, shes been through a specialist for her problems and had she needed surgery it was quoted at 2-3k! I would have found the money for her but its one worry you can do without when your furry is miles away at deaths door, the peace of mind is invaluable. Its then i also realised how quick 6 or 7 grand could be used up :Crazy:
Im with petplan and cant fault their service
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Just got a quote from Axa and they want £19.21 per month! £75 excess. Seems a bit much to me when everyone else is paying less!
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Do you live in a posh postcode? :rofl:
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Do you live in a posh postcode? :rofl:
I wouldn't say posh lol but it is nice and quiet round here, that should make it cheaper surely!!
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hmmmmmmmm is she a pedigree, how old?
I pay double for my pedigrees over my moggies
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hmmmmmmmm is she a pedigree, how old?
I pay double for my pedigrees over my moggies
No i just put crossbread (she could be pedigree i would never know!) and she is 3 months
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OK thats your problem, change it to moggie ;D
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I've just insured Tosker, a 2 year old moggie, for less than £7 per month with AXA, £75 excess
I think you need to query that with them - Trigger is an 8 year old pedigree and he is less than £9 per month
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OK thats your problem, change it to moggie ;D
Where it asks type of pet you can only selected pedigree or cross breed so i selected cross?!
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I've just done a quote selecting pedigree and the charge is the same, i will have to shop around i think!
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Are you sure you are in cats!
Will go and have a look
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That's extortionate! I pay around £7 per month per cat, that's a renewal price but I also did a dummy quote earlier on to see what the excess was and it was still £7 a month with a £75 excess.
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Its partly because of her age, if i put in 1 year old its £16 if i put 2 years its £13
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Yes you are right crossbreeds grrrrrrrrrrrrr
However just diid a fictional quote using my old London postcode and for a 14 month cat came to 11.39 a month,,,,,,,,I would expect a fairly high quote in the dark parts of South London and was using a fairly young cat.
Have to say my youngest cat here is still under £10 a month but am paying about £18 for each birman who are bothe £16 years old
Your postcode has a lot to do with it, could you have maybe put pedigree by accident.......where do you live?
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It must be to do with age, sex and postcode - as I said mine are £7 (boys, 2 1/2yrs old) and it's been that price since they were 1 year old. I started off with M&S when they were 10 weeks old and that was a similar price, they changed underwriter and added some ridiculous clauses hence I jumped ship to Axa, as many others did.
I'd definitely shop around and see what others are quoting, £20 a month for a moggie kitten is taking the mick!
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Yes you are right crossbreeds grrrrrrrrrrrrr
However just diid a fictional quote using my old London postcode and for a 14 month cat came to 11.39 a month,,,,,,,,I would expect a fairly high quote in the dark parts of South London and was using a fairly young cat.
Have to say my youngest cat here is still under £10 a month but am paying about £18 for each birman who are bothe £16 years old
Your postcode has a lot to do with it, could you have maybe put pedigree by accident.......where do you live?
I have done several quotes now, whwn i put pedigree the price was the same!
I live in a small Surrey village.
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2 years ago, I had Alice down as 10 years old and it was £11 a month - it has gone up to about £12.50 this year. I still have Kylie with Lloyds TSB for about £7 a month but cover isn't great.
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You could try Petplan (not the value policy), NFU, HSBC & Halifax - they're all true life cover with X amount per year, with the pot being reset each and every year. If none of those are reasonable then the next best type of cover is per condition but paid out over the life of the cat, not just the first 12 months.
Per condition insurance is still better than no insurance!
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Sounds to me that the site isnt working properly for you cos pedigrees are a lot higher than moggies......I would tryt ringing them, I know they wont do it over the phone but you can ask why peds and moggies coming up the same price and if there is a problem with their site.
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Its worth trying Halifax, I'm with them and its £7ish per cat per month and my moggy girls are 2 yrs old. I got fairly high quotes from AXA too (though I can't remember how much) but thats why I went with Halifax.
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I've been getting some quotes on the Halifax website and by mistake selected domestic short hair instead of moggie, firstly as there was such a big list and I didnt see moggie but also I thought it would be considered the same thing, it's not. Moggie came out cheaper (obviously).
I thought Domestic Short hair was the title for any cat that was not a pedigree but obviously not....
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I think they have got their names confused cao Domestic short hair is a Moggie,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,gosh now I am thinking lol..........British shorthair is the ped version I think :shify: :shify:
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Yeah I understood the British Short hair to be a pedigree too, not domestic. Both are options in the list. There is also a 'shorthair tabby' option amongst the 100 or so choices and that came up with an even higher premium!
I think they need to work on their website to make it clearer/fairer.
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Definately by the sounds of it
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sounds as if they need someone who knows something about cats to sort them out :Crazy:
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Ems, i would look into changing from Sainsbury's - their excess isn't great for oldies - £125, and I wouldn't recommend them for young animals either, as they only pay out per condition, rather than top it up each year.
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I'm with pet insurance.co.uk, £8.12 a month for both cats with an excess of £75
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Ems, i would look into changing from Sainsbury's - their excess isn't great for oldies - £125, and I wouldn't recommend them for young animals either, as they only pay out per condition, rather than top it up each year.
Thanks Des, have got quotes from Axa which were cheaper anyway so will be moving over to them :)
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Some of you may already know that I am adopting the gorgeous Noah from Adel CP. I've had cats many years ago, but not insurance. What information do I need about Noah to get quotes and what do I put for his age/ birthday?? I know his paw condition will be excluded and I have savings to cover that, but do I need to know the name of the problem? I am aware I need a proper 'for life' policy not a supermarket job.
Thanks!
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You need his approx age, rescue cat, paws situation/condition, moggie, and thats about it ....good luck and hope you get a good quote ;D
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Defo insure..i was in 2 minds as wether 2 or no because of the money saving expert guy..i can see his point about starting up a savings account because you might never have to claim but i know how much it cost when my last cat got cancer, there wasn't such a thing as pet insurance then but boy could i have done with it! i'm with halifax at £4.31 a month, oh & snooch has a savings account too just to be sure.....
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Thats very cheap rachel, is it a time limited policy?
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Thats very cheap rachel, is it a time limited policy?
OMG..i am so glad you asked that question, just realised that the policy ran out on the 2nd of September..but the halifax have still been taken money out but never bothered to ask if i wanted to renew it! it was the lowest premium because at the time i was in 2 minds as what to do i'd already started the bank acc for snooch & was going to insure her for a year only..however i'd changed my mind & was going to shop around for a better policy once this 1 had run out...grrrrrrr! going to phone them now to see what they're playing at :censored: :censored:
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With petplan they continue the cover unless you tell them otherwise, i got letters about a month before each policy was due to end.
By time limited i meant on illnesses eg after 12months of covering say diabetes do they then stop?
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yeh its time limited...it only covers upto £1000 vet fees..so anything over that you pay for yourself..
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Phew..just got it sorted i too am now with axa £66.71..yeah! feel so much better now & the policy is alot better than the halifax 1...
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Cool ;D 1k doesnt go far these days :Crazy:
ETA, make sure you cancel the old direct debit with your bank, dont rely on halifax doing it
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Cool ;D 1k doesnt go far these days :Crazy:
ETA, make sure you cancel the old direct debit with your bank, dont rely on halifax doing it
never thought of that..thanks millys mum you've been my guardian angel today..i don't know what i'dve done without you, you've sorted out fleas & bank account worries today..i still have tummy ache though, so not a master of all problem solving yet :rofl: :rofl:
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I suggest chocolate and a cat cuddle for that ;D
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just seen your suggestion..i've gone for pizza, wine & a cosy night cuddled up with snooch...hope it works, if not tomorrow chocolate it is... ;D
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I have done 4 different quotes now, can't believe how much they vary.
Petplan covered for life upto 4k per year 12.93 per month
Halifax covered for lie upto 6k per year 9.47 per month
HSBC covered for life upto 7.5k per year 9.21 per month
AXA covered for life upto 7k per year 19.21 per month!!!
All excess fees are £75
Looks like HSBC win hands down! Cheapest per month and largest payout!
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I will have to look at HSBC, I wonder if they are underwriting it with my money :rofl: :rofl:
I just dont underestand that AXA quote cos its crazy!
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Understand all now LOL
HSBC insurance is provided by AVIVA which was Norwich Union,,,,,,,,,,,what I would do now is ring Aviva cos they do insurance over the phone and I have hosue and car insurance with them at very good rates.....and ask them for a quote for your cat,,,,,,,,,its likely to come in cheaper than HSBC LOL
Its definately life cover and seems, Aviva excepted, that its currently the best one around.
Interesting that all excess are now £75.
I am not leaving AXA but they have set a standard, well up to this quote, that others had to aim for.