Topic: Argos pet insurance (Read 3628 times)

jezebel · « **Reply #32 on:** September 08, 2011, 09:12:37 AM »

Out of all the insurance policies I've had over the years (pet, car, contents, buildings), pet insurance is the only one I've ever claimed on - and it paid for itself many, many times over when Jones was in hospital for a week having tests.

Rosella moggy · « **Reply #31 on:** September 07, 2011, 21:54:18 PM »

I've been threatening to cancel our Axa cover for a couple of years or so now and am still dithering. We put away £100 p/mth into their Tesco account; in fact I've boosted it with my savings as they were getting a better interest rate than me

6 of our 7 are covered by Axa insurance (total £42.33 p/mth currently) i.e. all except Billy Whiz as he is the eldest (only age 7) but unlikely to be able to treat him for any long term chronic condition as he is difficult to handle (we'll give it a whirl if it comes to it ...). Of course he has just cost us £200 in utterly useless investigatory tests that established nothing awry and he is back to his old fighting fit hungry self with no medication

It is the law that, if you have insurance, you are less likely to need it

I just know that as soon as I cancel any of the policies, something awful will happen

ETA for Michelle .... Cheapest £6.24 for Noni female aged almost 5 years and most expensive £8.12 for Boris aged almost 5 months

michelle_w · « **Reply #30 on:** September 07, 2011, 21:26:59 PM »

I use AXA for my cats insurance and I pay £7 something for Jack and 5.60 ish a month for Poppy. This seems cheap compared to some others! Mine are 4.5 years old, is it because they are younger than some of your kitties?

Jiskefet · « **Reply #29 on:** September 06, 2011, 23:03:50 PM »

If I insured all my cats, I'd be paying over 250 euro per month........
Iam thinking of insuring Wobbel, though, as he has a mild heart condition.

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #28 on:** September 05, 2011, 19:07:09 PM »

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh sorry didnt know they were already insured

jezebel · « **Reply #27 on:** September 05, 2011, 16:37:30 PM »

Quote

I think you need to stop looking and take the plunge with AXA before something happens.

They're already insured but their cover runs out in a couple of weeks, hence the shopping around. I think I'll stick with Axa, I haven't found anything as good - and nothing that's going to save more than a fiver a month.

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #26 on:** September 05, 2011, 15:28:38 PM »

I think you need to stop looking and take the plunge with AXA before something happens.

Afraid Jiskofet, Napoleons bill for 4 weeks was close to £3000 and that is serious years of insurance even at birman rates. I had stopped the insurance 6 months before because of a massive increase and not believing at 17yrs anything major would go wrong..................how wrong I was.

I still have his brother uninsured and at 18yrs I am scared , very scared!

I would advocate insurance for all and unless you are putting away £100 or more a month then you wont have enough for a serious problem and if an MRI scan is needed that could cost up to £4000 plus with treatment.

I have learnt belatedly not to break my own rules and thanks to a great vet who is letting me pay by installments for another year plus, Napoleon had all the treatment he needed to try and save his life. I would never forgiven myself if I had had to say we stop there because I cant afford the treatment.

Losing him was bad enough but to be forced to lose him cos I couldnt afford the treatment ................I just wouldnt have been able to live with myself.

The two brothers had used all the slush fund I had created from end of October to February, so £1000 had gone in that time.

Jiskefet · « **Reply #25 on:** September 05, 2011, 14:01:47 PM »

Sounds like you have a very good insurance.

Susanne (urbantigers) · « **Reply #24 on:** September 05, 2011, 14:00:35 PM »

Quote from: Jiskefet on September 05, 2011, 13:58:51 PM

You were lucky your insurance covered all of it, though.
Better check out all the small print when taking out an insurance.....
Most insurances over here only cover 80% of the bill, anyway......

Most over here cover all minus the excess (the excess was £50) and I got paid the rest very quickly.

Jiskefet · « **Reply #23 on:** September 05, 2011, 13:58:51 PM »

You were lucky your insurance covered all of it, though.
Better check out all the small print when taking out an insurance.....
Most insurances over here only cover 80% of the bill, anyway......

Susanne (urbantigers) · « **Reply #22 on:** September 05, 2011, 12:32:25 PM »

I think when you have a lot of cats the benefits are less as the premiums would be very high. But if fewer cats, do bear in mind that vet bills can be huge. When I lost my Magpie 6 years ago, he was only at the vets for one evening but the vet bill was about £2000 and was nearly a lot higher as he was about to have some very expensive injections but then deteriorated so didn't have them in the end. He was 8 at the time and that was a lot more than I'd paid in premiums up to that point. Without insurance, I would not have been able to afford any treatment and would have had to ask them to put him to sleep straight away. I'd have hated to do that as I'd then never have known whether he could have recovered (he had a thrombosis in his neck).

Jiskefet · « **Reply #21 on:** September 05, 2011, 12:07:10 PM »

I do not have insurance, with 7 cats it is too expensive, and the chance that all 7, or even half of them, raise the kind of vet bills to match the insurance is very small. If I put away that kind of money, I can pay the vet bills if one or two of them get seriously ill, of if all of them have their occasional problems.
Insuring only some of them is no option, as you will never know which one will get ill.

Ricky had to have nearly half of his teeth out, he had a serious infection of the gums, but the insurance for himwould have cost more for this one year than the entire bill. And this is the first serious treatment he had in all his life.
Same goes for Catweazle, his life long vet bills barely cover 1 year of insurance, and woud have covered just over 1 year of insurance in the year he was treated.

Spetter cost me a fortune in vet bills, but still far less than the insurance would have cost me, and the same goes for Tosca. I spent about 2 years' worth of insurance premium on her vet bills, but she is 8 years old by now.

jezebel · « **Reply #20 on:** September 05, 2011, 09:16:24 AM »

Yes, I looked at Healthy Pets but I don't like their excess - £75 plus 25% of the bill. So many of them do this now, can you imagine how much that 25% could end up costing?

Tigerlily (Allison) · « **Reply #19 on:** September 04, 2011, 16:44:09 PM »

Have you looked at Healthy pets? Costing me £16 a month for two cats but it's due for renewal soon so expect that will go up. That's for the Gold cover.

jezebel · « **Reply #18 on:** September 04, 2011, 15:26:08 PM »

I agree, I just thought I'd shop around before renewing - all the money advice sites say you should NEVER automatically renew without shopping around. I saved £100 on my car insurance in June by doing that!

Lady Magic: sorry, I read it as "for each non-pedigree cat..." rather than for both cats.

Susanne (urbantigers) · « **Reply #17 on:** September 04, 2011, 13:29:30 PM »

Bear in mind that many companies lure you in with a low premium but then when it comes to renewal time they increase it considerably. If there have been no illnesses in that time (not just no claims) then it's fairly easy to move to a different company, but if your cat has been treated or seen for anything, that will become an existing condition and will be excluded from any new policy with a different company. So you can find yourself stuck with a policy that is expensive and not that good or moving to a better policy but having some conditions excluded. I regret letting my petplan policies expire but I had little choice at the time as I just couldn't afford the premiums. Both of mine are with Axa and Mosi will be fine as he has had no vet treatment at all during the interim period and has now been with Axa for about 3 years without claim, but Jaffa has only been with them for a few months and during the time when he was uninsured he has had cystitis a few times so that will be excluded and even though it was idiopathic cystitis almost certainly caused by stress, I have a feeling Axa will exclude anything vaguely connected to UTI or bladder problems. I think it's really worth finding a good policy and sticking with it even if the premiums are a little higher.

Lady Magic · « **Reply #16 on:** September 04, 2011, 12:33:25 PM »

Hi Jezabel, I might have put it wrong as I pay just £25.00 a month for both cats combined cover

jezebel · « **Reply #15 on:** September 04, 2011, 11:43:28 AM »

After lots quotes, my Axa policy is looking more and more attractive!

Per cat: £13.28 a month, giving £7000 vets' fees per period of insurance (with £75 per condition excess), plus lots of extras like advertising and reward costs and 3k holiday cancellation cover!

jezebel · « **Reply #14 on:** September 04, 2011, 11:21:34 AM »

Interesting but sadly not surprising. I'll bear it in mind!

Mitramonday · « **Reply #13 on:** September 04, 2011, 10:54:41 AM »

Warning: I had Argos insurance three years ago (at around £5pm) for my R.I.P. Avalo and, admittedly, they did have to spend out quite a sum when, after I had had him only 8 months, he was diagnosed with renal failure (even though he was only 3 yrs old). The vets were brill and we managed to keep him going until the new year of 09, but then it was obvious that he had just had enough

To return to my point about Argos.....when I rescued my Percy (only about 3 weeks after losing Avalo) I got a quote from Argos and all of a sudden they wanted £22 per month for the same cover!!!! This was obviously to try and recoup some of the money they had paid out, but Percy is a different cat!!!! Needless to say, I 'chose' not to take up their offer

jezebel · « **Reply #12 on:** September 04, 2011, 10:41:05 AM »

Thanks Lady Magic, of course I totally agree that good cover is necessary - vets' bills aren't cheap! It's just a question of what I can afford. £45 a month is way over budget for me, unfortunately.

Lady Magic · « **Reply #11 on:** September 04, 2011, 01:09:47 AM »

I joined' Sainsburys' pet cover about two weeks ago , I had a look at what most had to offer and thought for my two 'moggies' ( none pedigree cats) the deal was excellent.

For each none pedigree cat :

monthly direct debit payment: £22.50.
Amount of cover per illness: £7,500.
Excess on each illness: £50.00. I thought this was very reasonable coming out at £25.00 a month for the two kittens / cats.
We have all been there with a cat who is ill and 9 times out of 10 its something that will cost more than £50.00 , if its something silly like a cat scratched eye then its a small amount to pay but with something horrible like when my old Pullover got bitten in the eye socket by another stray cat , well the cost was huge as it would not heal, had to be seen every day for weeks, washed out time after time , then operated on .........that's for just a bite. This was over 20 years ago and I think I paid in the region of £300 to £400 then .

I've never had a cat that's been ill or injured that has not incurred bills for an illness such as an infection with long term bills of around £150 to £200 and with an injury its normally from around £500 to the skies the limit depending on what bits injured.

Another good side of Sainsbury's pet cover was that I was given £80.00 of vouchers for any store ( cat food and litter ) and then 2 years of double points as well .................

this is not a lot in real terms but it all adds up to lots and lots of extra cat food and litter by the month.
I look at it this way : we pay for our cats (£50) feed them good food (£3.00) daily clean litter (£3.00) get them vaccinated ((£30.00)
buy them toys (£20.00) bedding (£25.00) bowls (£10.00) grooming and other tools(£25.00) and travel items (£40.00)

Adding this up on a yearly basis it comes out at £550.00 a cat and I'm talking a lovely furry fishy breathed cuddly moggie

like my two and not a lovely furry fishy breathed pedigree pussy like some of the other cat lovers on this site own

, so if we are paying around £500.00 a year just for the basics another £22.50 is peanuts ..................or should I say kibble..............

Ami and her two little four footed elephants who charge around the house with hobnailed boots on every morning from 7am to 8 am and then 10 pm until sleepy bo-bo's time ...............

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #10 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:47:06 PM »

How much is AXA quoting, many of the better comapnies do not appear on the searches.

Sasa who is 12yrs costs about £12 a month compared to Lupin a pedigree 1yr old who costs £10.45........sigh

They were asking me more than my car insurance for each 17yr old birman and my car ins is probably high compared to many on Purrs.

jezebel · « **Reply #9 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:43:48 PM »

I'm with Axa now, just thought I'd shop around cos their renewals have come in and it's costing me about £13 a month each. And the girls are SO healthy, I haven't needed to use it!

I have looked at some comparison sites but a lot of the info is dodgy - one returned several quotes from one broker which sounded good (can't remember which one now) with £99 excess but when I got more info, the excess was actually £99 plus 35% of the bills!

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #8 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:37:22 PM »

If, due to their ages, you've been priced out of the 'for life' insurance market (shocking considering they are barely middle aged!) then I guess the 12 month insurance is better than none at all. The 12 months would cover the diagnosis and any op that may be needed but then after 12 months you have to cover the ongoing care.

Have you done a compare the meerkat search, just to see what prices are like with other companies and to save doing loads of separate quotes?

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #7 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:32:16 PM »

That excess is crazy!

Agree with Helen.

Axa gives 50, 75 0r 100 pounds excess and covers for life up to £7000 every year.

Basically you pay for what you get but against other companies AXA gives best cover and one can never know what lie in the future.

I stopped my elderly birmans aged 17yrs insurance with AXA last October cos thought it was too high9I have to paay over the top cos they are peds, and started a slush fund with £500 and then put in £40 a month. By January both had been ill and Duchas bill for xrays etc cleaned out the fund.

In April Napoleon was ill again and had much treatment over a month to try and save his life which sadly failed but I now have a vet bill that will take me over another year to pay off. I have a great vet who is allowing me to pay monthly and knocked over £600 off the bill but consequently I am now paying twice the amount that AXA wanted a year ago, per month!

I have always been an advocate of insurance and broke my own rules and am seriously paying for it now!

My advice is to go for the best you can afford, I still have one birman now uninsured aged 18yrs who due to existing conditions cannot be insured, I so regret what I did and am so much broker than I would have been.

When the choice is PTS or treat, thats a lousy option to have to make and my vet allowed me not to have to make the choice but wont be the same at most vets.

jezebel · « **Reply #6 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:31:39 PM »

Yes, Platinum is ludicrously expensive!

Even Gold is more expensive than my car insurance!

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #5 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:17:18 PM »

I'd be very wary of the silver and gold level cover as it only covers you for 12 months from the start of the illness. Bearing in mind many conditions could span over many years (eg Tiggy was hyperthyroid and on regular blood tests and meds for 5 years) you'd be effectively left with no insurance after 12 months as they wouldn't cover it any longer.

The platinum cover is for life but I bet it has a platinum price to go with it!

jezebel · « **Reply #4 on:** September 02, 2011, 19:11:15 PM »

£97.12 (£9.85 a month) for each cat - this is Silver cover which gives up to £2500 vet's bills plus a few extras I'm not bothered about, and that's with £115 excess.

Or Gold cover is £148 (£11.84 a month) which gives up to £4000 vet's bills, again with £115 excess.

Cheaper than Axa, and quite good considering my girls are 11 now so it's harder to find cover.

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #3 on:** September 02, 2011, 17:10:30 PM »

Cheapest isnt always the best and as far as I know the best is still AXA.

What are Argos offering?

Susanne (urbantigers) · « **Reply #2 on:** September 02, 2011, 12:25:56 PM »

No experience with Argos but check that it is a) cover for life and b) preferably payout per year rather than per condition.

jezebel · « **Reply #1 on:** September 02, 2011, 12:18:17 PM »

I'm shopping for pet insurance - does anyone have any experience with Argos? They've come out the cheapest with the best excess.

(I know it's been discussed before but the only threads I could find are a few years old now.)

Author Topic: Argos pet insurance (Read 3628 times)