The Pet Insurance Thread *See Mod note Post #1*

andreac

peteb2 wrote: »

The dog hasn't hasnt had anything diagnosed. She's just overly sensitive to eating different things than normal. That's what the vet said last time we asked. Havent had anything reported to insurers.

They ask to see records from your vet so if there is anything there on her vet records it will count.

peteb2

That they gave her anti-biotics for a stomach upset? I'm pretty sure there isnt anything there.

andreac

peteb2 wrote: »

That they gave her anti-biotics for a stomach upset? I'm pretty sure there isnt anything there.

If she was given antibiotics then that would be on her record and that would count as a pre-existing condition, trust me, ive been through all this before with insurance companies.
Anything medical on her records will be there, and they will view that as a pre-existing condition, even if it was just the once.

acermaple

Little Ted wrote: »

Well I have only just put in a claim this week, so my answer will depend on the outcome! It's underwritten by RSA so it should be ok. I'll let you know once I have had the claim completed (and hopefully paid out!). My insurance actually only cost €57 actually - I just realised when I was completing the claim, I thought it was more.

Hi LittleTed, Just wondering how you got such a good quote, I just put in my details in with Tesco and I'm getting a 'value' quote of €161.79 and a 'standard' one of €233.92, which seems a long way from yours. My pup is 5 months old vaccinated, micro'd and just neutered, no history of anything nasty.

Pumpkinseeds

Yeah any little thing like antibiotics given for an upset tummy will count. We got our policy renewal forms from Allianz today. We've been with them for a few years and so far we're happy with our cover for both of our cats. 1 of our cats was treated for an abcess on one of his back paws and had an antibiotic injection for an upset tummy at the same time, 3 years ago. That was before we had him insured and they won't cover anything that involves gastric problems or problems with that back paw.

It's mainly more serious things that might arise that I would have been worried about though. Our policy is 309 a year now though, but we did make a few claims with one of our chaps over the years.

foreversky

Have my lad insured with pet insurance.ie since he was bout 2 and a half mths old setter/lab cross.cost .€160 life time cover.hes .7 mths now.excess is €95. Had him in vet during week cost me e44 no point in claiming.

tatli_lokma

acermaple wrote: »

Hi LittleTed, Just wondering how you got such a good quote, I just put in my details in with Tesco and I'm getting a 'value' quote of €161.79 and a 'standard' one of €233.92, which seems a long way from yours. My pup is 5 months old vaccinated, micro'd and just neutered, no history of anything nasty.

my price was for a cat. And I also have other Tesco products so when I include my credit card discount and clubcard number I got an extra 10% discount.

acermaple

Thanks Ted, I thought that might be the case after I posted:o. I'm looking at Pet Insure atm, they seem to be fairly competitive and have a reasonable excess.

andreac

acermaple wrote: »

On second thoughts having read this thread http://http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056867234 I will NOT be considering petinsure.ie any further.:mad:

To be honest, i have never had a problem with them. I made a huge claim last year for nearly 2000 euro for a cruciate ligament operation with UCD and it was all done directly with them, i didnt even have to pay upfront and claim back.

brrabus

acermaple wrote: »

On second thoughts having read this thread http://http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056867234 I will NOT be considering petinsure.ie any further.:mad:

Edit, not sure link is working but you can see what I mean on the 'A sad day' thread.

I followed that thread also and it is very sad. Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the terms and conditions of this particular insurance company. Whilst they do define "Territorial Limits" as being the Republic of Ireland in their definitions, Territorial Limits are only referred as an exclusions under the Third Party Section, it is not refereed to as an exclusion under Vet Fees.

DBB

brrabus wrote: »

I followed that thread also and it is very sad. Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the terms and conditions of this particular insurance company. Whilst they do define "Territorial Limits" as being the Republic of Ireland in their definitions, Territorial Limits are only referred as an exclusions under the Third Party Section, it is not refereed to as an exclusion under Vet Fees.

The territorial boundaries are not the only obstacle thrown at Blahblah by this company though: at the end of the day, she has said she'd get the money from somewhere if she had to, to get the op done.
The company are now claiming that as Blahblah listed her dog as being "pedigree", that they want the pedigree cert to prove it. Now, the vast majority of people who have purebred dogs would consider them to be "pedigree". However, if the dog does not have the documentation to prove it, it looks to me like this company can use this as a way to wriggle out of paying death benefits.
So, I believe that most owners, when it comes to ticking the boxes on their form, would tick "pedigree" for their purebred dog, even if they do not actually have pedigree certs for them. But if you don't have the document to prove the literal meaning of "pedigree", you're effectively not insured at all.

brrabus

DBB wrote: »

The territorial boundaries are not the only obstacle thrown at Blahblah by this company though: at the end of the day, she has said she'd get the money from somewhere if she had to, to get the op done.
The company are now claiming that as Blahblah listed her dog as being "pedigree", that they want the pedigree cert to prove it. Now, the vast majority of people who have purebred dogs would consider them to be "pedigree". However, if the dog does not have the documentation to prove it, it looks to me like this company can use this as a way to wriggle out of paying death benefits.
So, I believe that most owners, when it comes to ticking the boxes on their form, would tick "pedigree" for their purebred dog, even if they do not actually have pedigree certs for them. But if you don't have the document to prove the literal meaning of "pedigree", you're effectively not insured at all.

I thought the pedigree issue was only an issue for payment on death, the T & C refer to a value of 50% if pedigree certs are not provided.

DBB

brrabus wrote: »

I thought the pedigree issue was only an issue for payment on death, the T & C refer to a value of 50% if pedigree certs are not provided.

But that's what I'm saying... The company are looking for her dog's pedigree cert or they won't pay the death benefit. Blahblah said the dog was a pedigree, but because she can't prove this, they won't pay. Now, perhaps they'll agree to paying 50%; but not according to blahblah at this point anyway.
My point is, blahblah is not getting what she thought she was entitled to. So, the small print needs to be closely examined when taking out a policy.

brrabus

DBB wrote: »

But that's what I'm saying... The company are looking for her dog's pedigree cert or they won't pay the death benefit. Blahblah said the dog was a pedigree, but because she can't prove this, they won't pay. Now, perhaps they'll agree to paying 50%; but not according to blahblah at this point anyway.
My point is, blahblah is not getting what she thought she was entitled to. So, the small print needs to be closely examined when taking out a policy.

Yeah, these are two separate issues, one is for vet fees and the other is for death claim. Now I am only reading their T & C which appears to be standard, no idea if there are different ones and also T & C should always be read in conjunction with the Policy Document. The comment that blahblah made was that they said that they would have not paid for the operation anyway because it was in Belfast. Their T & C also say that they will not pay for death claim for certain breeds over age 5 but do not specify the breeds. On the 50% issues, they appear to say €100 or 50% whichever is the lower.

Synyster Shadow

DBB wrote: »

But that's what I'm saying... The company are looking for her dog's pedigree cert or they won't pay the death benefit. Blahblah said the dog was a pedigree, but because she can't prove this, they won't pay. Now, perhaps they'll agree to paying 50%; but not according to blahblah at this point anyway.
My point is, blahblah is not getting what she thought she was entitled to. So, the small print needs to be closely examined when taking out a policy.

My dog is pedigree and I don't have his papers I could get them at any point I'm good friends with the people who bred him but to me it seems pointless I don't need them for proof I think insuring a dog under its name and address and DOB and owners details should be enough to cover that dog. Why are pedigree documents necessary its a dog and thats clear to be seen. It's sad really

blahblah06

Cheers guys. I'm very tempted to take this further.
It doesn't ask for pedigree certs when taking up the insurance that I can see anyway.
I'd still love to know what difference it makes if pedigree or not

brrabus

blahblah06 wrote: »

Cheers guys. I'm very tempted to take this further.
It doesn't ask for pedigree certs when taking up the insurance that I can see anyway.
I'd still love to know what difference it makes if pedigree or not

From reading the T & C (and I am conscious of your loss, so so sorry), it appears to be only to pay out for death. It seems to be the only place that they refer to it. Now as I said, I am only looking at the T & C I could get my hands on and don't have a copy of your schedule, which I would say does not really specify much anyway.

Think you need to take a few days for yourself before you start looking into this much further tho, it will only upset you, it will upset you whenever but give yourself a bit of time, been there.

andreac

blahblah06 wrote: »

Cheers guys. I'm very tempted to take this further.
It doesn't ask for pedigree certs when taking up the insurance that I can see anyway.
I'd still love to know what difference it makes if pedigree or not

If they are stating that they want certs to pay out, then tell them to show you where in their terms and conditions of the policy that it states that they require this when you take out the policy.
Tell them if they will not pay out you will be taking the matter further with a solicitos.
Unless they can prove that you need to provide certs then they do not have a leg to stand on!!

blahblah06

andreac wrote: »

If they are stating that they want certs to pay out, then tell them to show you where in their terms and conditions of the policy that it states that they require this when you take out the policy.
Tell them if they will not pay out you will be taking the matter further with a solicitos.
Unless they can prove that you need to provide certs then they do not have a leg to stand on!!

well it does state in the terms on death pay out you need to supply papers.
however, it didn't state it when actually clicking the pedigree part.
they will pay a maximum of 100 euro.
its better then nothing and will go towards the 300 fee to get her ashes back.

What Im curious about now is as the policy was renewed December up front will I be entitled to a 10 month refund

brrabus

blahblah06 wrote: »

well it does state in the terms on death pay out you need to supply papers.
however, it didn't state it when actually clicking the pedigree part.
they will pay a maximum of 100 euro.
its better then nothing and will go towards the 300 fee to get her ashes back.

What Im curious about now is as the policy was renewed December up front will I be entitled to a 10 month refund

Nothing in the T & C refer to this but it does refer to them canceling so I would argue that the same should apply.

We reserve the right to cancel the insurance, for
any reason, by notifying You in writing 14 days
prior to the cancellation date. In this event We will
refund any premium of any unused portion of the
Period of Insurance.

tatli_lokma

not sure if you can cancel insurance you have made a claim on???

If that is the case, then work out pro-rata how much 10 months is worth and if it is more than €100 then rather than claim, just cancel. That way you might get more money back.

peteb2

blahblah06 wrote: »

well it does state in the terms on death pay out you need to supply papers.
however, it didn't state it when actually clicking the pedigree part.
they will pay a maximum of 100 euro.
its better then nothing and will go towards the 300 fee to get her ashes back.

What Im curious about now is as the policy was renewed December up front will I be entitled to a 10 month refund

No. You will never get a refund on a policy you have cancelled when you have made a claim in the policy year.

blahblah06

Well if it doesn't state that in the terms n conditions I will be fighting that.
They have rules to suit themselves

tatli_lokma

I think it probably will be in there - once you make a claim on a policy, you can't then cancel it. Hence my advice previously that it might be more financially beneficial to cancel without claiming.

peteb2

It is there unfortunately on page 5 under conditions of cover.

blahblah06

Oh ffs..
Total waste of time.
Ill be taking las off the petinsure policy and changing to a different company

blahblah06

Ok can somebody help here..
I've been onto them today and I think I'm right here.
Basically I argued that I pay a yearly policy to get an answer on my claim and they said it takes 24/48 hours to get an answer but it doesn't state this in there terms n conditions
Am I right that I should expect a quicker answer when it's life treating surgery

I want everybody to understand this..
My initial claim on Thursday evening was for a pre authorisation and not a full claim.
They told me I can apply for a pre authorisation before issuing a claim but yet it took nearly 100 hours including the weekend for a response?

tatli_lokma

I think that is a very valid point and one you should push home. Pet insurance should be able to cover an emergency - the whole point of it is that in an emergency you can rely on it to know that your pet will be looked after. Most of us take out insurance so that if we find ourselves in a situation where our beloved friend needs an operation urgently, we won't be faced with the awful dilemma of trying to find the money. If I knew that my policy T&C meant that I could be over 100 hours waiting on an answer whether my friend could have a life saving op or not, I would not purchase that policy, end of.

The Sweeper

Can't help you here really, other than to give another perspective - I'm in Australia, with Petplan for all pets, underwritten by Allianz.

Basically if my pets need something we go to the vet and then make the claim and all fingers and toes crossed that they pay it. If they don't pay it that'll be me shafted, but they've told me before that they can't give a pre-approval - they'll only cover an ailment when they see the full vet treatment records, so I suppose it's very similar to your situation really, in that they won't pay out until they have all of the records and details of the condition.

They do find little teensy ways to irritate me every year though. At the moment it's dental - they won't pay a dental expense unless the pet has seen the vet within the previous 12 months, had their teeth examined, and didn't require dental treatment at the last visit. So I go for a routine health check in January, grade 2 tartar but no dramas diagnosed. Then I return in August and the pet needs the teeth extracted - they'll pay the bill. If I hadn't gone in January, but went in August and had a necessary extraction diagnosed, I wouldn't get covered.

It also frustrates me terribly that I can't shop around for insurance, because anything on the existing medical record is now a pre-existing condition and the new company won't cover it, so I'm stuck where I am. ARGH!