# Insurance renewal is worse than I thought



## Jedicrazy (Apr 26, 2011)

Ok, so Obi's renewal just came through and I am horrified at yet another massive hike. It went up a lot last year and I was not surprised because in 2011 I had to make a very large claim for Obi's meningitis. The bulk of the original 2011 claim was for the very expensive diagnostic tests, the treatment itself was relatively inexpensive steroids. Last year I rang them and managed to negotiate it down to approx. £29 a month. 

In the last 12 months there has been one claim for a blood test which is counted as part of the on-going meningitis claim. I have to pay a £65 excess a year. Now the renewal is here and it's a whopping at £460.32, that's £38.36 a month!! 

I rang Argos immediately and said theres no way I'm paying that! I also have Roo's insurance with John Lewis so I have to take the overall cost of insurance into account. I asked him why it had gone up so much again and he said it was based on the volume of overall claims they receive for that breed in the year, not just your own individual claims. Interesting, I didn't know this. The advisor then says right let's see if we can reduce it. "Ah good" now we are getting somewhere.... 

He says let's confirm all the details. What breed is Obi? I say, he's a cross breed between cocker and poodle. Cue a ridiculous conversation about what he should be listed as; a cocker cross, a poodle cross or their new category of cockapoo. Last year when I renewed the advisor listed him as a cocker cross as this gave us the best premium. So his renewal increase is based on all the Cocker spaniel claims made in the last year, obviously we're talking 1000s of dogs here and therefore many more claims. 

He then changed the category to Cockapoo it went up even more!  I then asked him to quote what is what for a poodle cross and he said what is the more dominant breed? I explained its a cross of a cocker and a poodle hence it's half each and how can either be dominant? He then said, and this is the bit that made me  , "Well what does he look like?" I said, he looks like a cocker with curly fur. He said well then he's more dominant cocker!  So he refused to do the poodle cross quote .

We then had this conversation about how you can possibly have a dominant breed in a cross breed of two breeds of dog. He was a bit clueless and obviously couldn't stray far from his standard script and said he was advised by management to base it on what the dog looks like and that's it. Madness :whatever: . My point being that he is half poodle and if the poodle claims were overall lower then he would probably get a better premium :furious:. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because of the 2011 claim and going elsewhere is futile. His last offer was to keep him listed as a cocker cross, increase the excess to £100 and renew at £32 a month. They said they could not allow me to reduce the level of cover either (I'm on the their £7500 a year life time cover). No real explanation as to why?  It was like :deadhorse: 

Anyway, to the final point. I'm going to cancel and they can stick their insurance where the sun doesn't shine. I'd rather put £30 a month in a savings account and use it if and when I need to than pay monthly plus £100 excess a year (which I'll have to pay as he will need at least one blood test this year). 

I'm going to let's Roo's run on for one more year and thenI'm going to cancel hers too. I'd rather save the money and let it build up in my bank account, offsetting my mortgage and not benefit those greedy insurance companies. :fencing::argh:


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## Sam1 (Mar 6, 2012)

Id be inclined to ring up again that way youll speak to a different person and ask them for the poodle x quote. 
Ive always found pet plan very good, have you tried them? 

Good luck with your savings! Sounds a great idea as long as you could aggord the huge bill if it came to it, thats what i would worry about! 
Sam x


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## Von (Nov 1, 2012)

We have Jenna and Meadow covered by PetPlan lifecover, not the cheapest option, but Vet bills are sent directly to the insurers, so no large sums of money to pay out and reclaim. 

We get a discount for 2 dogs in the same family.

Insurers hold the winning card in this market, as they know people would be anxious about finding a large sum of money at any one time for vet bills. A friend had a bill of over £4000 for her Labrador, a sum which without insurance she could not afford. The insurance meant that she did not have to make life or death decisions based on finance.


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## Jedicrazy (Apr 26, 2011)

I can't switch though because no-one would cover his pre-exisintg Meningitis condition and anything else that they could claim was related to it which is another can of worms. So I'm stuck with them or nothing at all .


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## arlo (Mar 11, 2013)

Something has got to change because it is getting ridiculous, I have had this conversation with family and friends that have recently got young dogs and due to previous experiences with insurance we have all decided to put money away in a savings account, it is scarey and reading about Obi and recently Berties meningitus has made me think should I just insure them for a couple of years until we have built up a decent amount in the savings account. I know the insurance companies would say this doesn't cover you for third party damage, but a court can't give what we don't have. In the end I was paying £49 a month for my old retriever with a £85 excess, I had no claims until the last year of his life when he did need alot of treatment (not that expensive), the insurance company wriggled out of every penny they could, so for all those thousands of pounds I got back just over £300! When you have just lost your beloved dog you are not in the mood to argue over money as no money could replace them.

As for which dog is dominent in a cross? How would they classify a rescue dog where you don't know their parentage. Not liking that the cockapoo class was more expensive, they probably think because we pay more for them than we have money to line thier pockets.

Well done for questioning them, but sorry you didn't get the answers you deserved


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Is it a legal requirement to have third party insurance incase your dog causes an accident and someone makes a claim against you - or is that just insurance company sales pitch?


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

Brutal Clare.


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## Jedicrazy (Apr 26, 2011)

Marzi said:


> Is it a legal requirement to have third party insurance incase your dog causes an accident and someone makes a claim against you - or is that just insurance company sales pitch?


I don't think so as there a lot of people out there with no pet insurance. I'm going to look into our other insurance policies and see if there is any potential cover from them. My biggest concern is the third party liability.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Jedicrazy said:


> I don't think so as there a lot of people out there with no pet insurance. I'm going to look into our other insurance policies and see if there is any potential cover from them. My biggest concern is the third party liability.


Me too.


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## JasperBlack (Sep 1, 2012)

I think tesco do third party and accident cover!


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## JasperBlack (Sep 1, 2012)

We are with tesco 14.00 per month x


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

I must admit I had been thinking if I had more than one dog I would def go the savings route, if in the meantime I had to pay a huge amount, well I would just have to put it on the mortgage or something. If you work out what ins you would pay just in 3 years for 2 dogs that would be a good amount in a savings acc. Mine hasn't changed that much but don't forget you have to pay excess anyway and mine now has a clause that you pay the excess and 10% of the rest of the total bill! its just that I have never been much of a gambler so with just Dudley I don't know if I would take the risk - last year I did make a claim but I would still have money left over if I had saved the insurance money and paid the whole bill myself.


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## Jill L (Nov 2, 2012)

For those are considering the savings account route, but are worried about third party liability check out membership of Dogs Trust. It costs £25/year and gives, among other things, up to £1million liability cover.

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/default.aspx#.UZ_LXyZwZLM


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## Jedicrazy (Apr 26, 2011)

Jill L said:


> For those are considering the savings account route, but are worried about third party liability check out membership of Dogs Trust. It costs £25/year and gives, among other things, up to £1million liability cover.
> 
> http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/default.aspx#.UZ_LXyZwZLM


Thank you Jill, that looks ideal.


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## Jill L (Nov 2, 2012)

Oh yes, I knew there was something else I meant to type - MoreThan class cockapoos as poodle crosses. They obviously wouldn't cover Obi's meningitis or anything they consider connected, but it might be worth checking to see if they'd offer a sensible premium for anything else.


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## Tecstar (Apr 17, 2013)

Jill L said:


> Oh yes, I knew there was something else I meant to type - MoreThan class cockapoos as poodle crosses. They obviously wouldn't cover Obi's meningitis or anything they consider connected, but it might be worth checking to see if they'd offer a sensible premium for anything else.


More Than gave me a great quote for their top policy. About 23 quid i think.


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

Oh Clare such a minefield .... Awaiting my renewals with baited breath


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## RangerC (Jan 23, 2013)

I have been researching policies as I haven't got barney covered yet but came across huge variations. In particular when using gocompare/moneysupermarket.com etc and those sites, they gave different quotes for cross breeds and cockapoos - on one of them, the policy quote doubled when I fined tuned it to cockapoo. It's a minefield.


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

Mables renewal has come this morning it's gone up £3 from £16.96 to £19 89, ok with this I suppose....robbing :devil:s. 
Wait and see if Wilfs only goes up this much


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## Jedicrazy (Apr 26, 2011)

Think you got off lightly there Karen, is that for lifetime cover?


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

Yeh it's the 10k one....it's Wilfs I'm not looking forward to just expecting it to hike up due to age, if it only goes up the same then pretty lucky really.
Oh on Mabes policy it states that she is an unknown cross breed, even though I thought cross breeding was intentional, I maybe did put cross breed last year as Cockapoo mustn't have been available, I'm certainly not going to put them right though x 
What did you decide to do Clare ??


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## Muddypaws (Jul 9, 2012)

It is also worth checking your house insurance policy. Lots of them have bits included that you don't realise are there. On some policies third party cover in case a pet causes an accident is on there.... As is legal cover for an employment dispute.....


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

Wilfs renewal is here gone up to £24 a month, up £4, could be better could be worse x


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