Another Petplan fan here. Alice was insured with Axa for years and then they pulled out of the pet market. The same thing happened with Lloyds Bank with Kylie. By the time they pulled out, I could only insure Kylie on a 12-month policy, with lots of exclusions (understandably) but when Kylie was diagnosed with cancer recently, she had various treatments, surgery etc and my vet dealt direct with Petplan. It was a complicated claim, butI didn't have to worry. The vet said just to pay them the net amount after Petplan had agreed their share. There was no haggling, and despite the excess and the policy stating that I had to pay an additional 20% over the excess, I didn't think they would pay much, but they paid over 60% of the bill (the bill was over £1000)
At least with Petplan, you know that is all they do. Other companies might have pet insurance as a spin-off, but are likely to pull out of pet insurance if they don't think they are making enough money out of it. In our case, twice bitten. It is a no-brainer for me.