Pet Insurance

almae

I just wanted to get advice etc from anyone out there who has pet insurance etc.
I am having an issue with a Pet Insurance company , I recently sent in a claim and it was declined due to non payment of premium
My policy renewed in Feb 2010 , payments started to come out in March, April and then in May it was a refer to payer , which I honestly did not know anything about until yesterday. The insurance company put my policy on hold and no payments were called for in june, July and August which means my premiums were not paid.
They said they did try to make contact with me by mobile and by text on my mobile.. I did change my mobile number in oct 2009 for other reasons. They are saying because i did not inform them of my mobile change number I am at fault for them not being able to contact me . Yet My email address which the send me correspondence and my policy documents to was still in use and my house address never changed they put nothing in writing to me.
Now they have said to me why do i not check my back statements , i would have know , but heh I dont have time to sit down and look thru ,as long as i know my bills are paid etc and i get no letters in the door i know everything is in order. They are now bringing this issue to the Managing Director of the company as i think they could have done more to contact me not only by txt...I told them i would have had no issues paying the referral if i had know..but i honestly didnt...

let me know what yee think. thanks.

Alun

I agree, it's a bit ridiculuous to only rely on text messaging for contact, and I'd have thought that when they couldn't contact you by that method then a letter would have been their next resort. OK, try quicker, more immediate, methods first, but if that fails revert to more traditional means. As for checking statements, it's one thing checking them for unusual transactions that might be fraudulent, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't notice a DD that was missing, especially a small one like Pet Insurance.

easyeason3

They could have sent you a letter alright but would your own bank not have informed you of the missed payment or would they not have automatically re-issued the direct debit to be taken out in a few days after the due date?

almae

no they dont do a reissue and my bank didnt inform me , they just took 12.70 from me for unpaid dd.. thats their usual way.. and again i only noticed yesterday... as i said i dont normally check my statements only online and when i do its to check my big payments are done...

easyeason3

Well I find it strange that they would not re-issue a direct debit mandate to your bank looking for payment a few days after the payment should have been made.
I'd ask them why they didn't do this as it's common practise with a lot of companies.
It's really weird that they didn't do more to contact you. I'm shocked that no letter went out.

almae

I am devasted , 1st i was told it was declined due to us "putting our pet to sleep to end his suffering" and now this is what we got in the letter yesterday was nonpayment of premiums.

yesterday when i challenged the guy in customer service , i asked him why cant i be told over the phone what the reasons are , this was before i got the letter he said "anything regarding items from claims , payments etc are done via a letter and cannot be done over the phone ,its our company policy" then when the marketing/sales director rang me about it I asked him why was i not contacted by letter and only by mobile ,i said where in the policy terms and conditions does it say that he said " we dont put everything we do into the terms and conditions" .
he said they dont recall to the bank due to the charges the customer would receive, we'll be charged anyway by the bank, he said i wass lucky they(petinsurnace) didnt charge me their fees of €3 for referral...

easyeason3

My blood just boiled after reading that. What kind of an idiot did you speak to on the phone?
There's so many holes in his ridiculous, half witted answer that i don't know where to start.

almae

oh i know , and the guy in customer service kept telling my my call was recorded which helped me (when he said the thing about corrsepondence via letters and not on the phone ) when i talk to dumb wit 2 , I told him to listen to the call with CS , he said i cant , i said u can , its recorded i was told enough..
I am not letting it go...

bad thing is i have 2 other policys with them... will be moving after this is sorted.

aug

hi, i have been with allianz pet plan for years and have never had a problem. my german sheperd has bad hips and has cost a lot of money. always paid my premium in full but this year am going dd. wud love to know what company you are with almae so i can be more carefull. i have a second pet with 1.2.3.ie.

almae

I cant name them , but its neither of those 2 ...;)

aug

i always find that your banging your head off a wall trying to deal with these insurance companys. did you try calling citizens advice they are always helpfull. i think insurance companys are obliged to get in touch with you in writing tough. defo you should change if they do not play ball.

almae

I have been with them since last year and have another policy and there are no issues with it what so ever , so if it had been the same on that policy they could argue with me...
Just in the last week before i got this letter i took out apolicy on my persian kitten and i will be cancelling it and removing my other policy for my other perisan of they dont buck up...
I have no problems even now for paying the months they put on hold plus the referral so we see what the gimps say.

jussayeh

Just came onto boards to check out best company for pet insurance and thanks for the info almae I'll be keeping away from petinsurance.ie. Just got a quote of 22 pm from Allianz but the peace of mind might just be worth it. Sorry to hear of your dreadful experience with petinsurance.