Hi

We brought our beautiful Siamese kitten home yesterday :0) and we have 4 weeks complimentary pet insurance with Pet Plan.

We'll want to insure him once that has run out and I'd appreciate any advice of which insurance company is the best. A friend said to get cover for life with PetPlan and that's £13.99 per month.

I'd appreciate your thoughts

Yes you can get cheaper insurance elsewhere but basically you get what you pay for. I have a friend who works in a vets and she says Pet Plan always pay quickly and rarely quibble. She said the second best was M&S. With a lot of the cheaper insurances you will really need to go through the fineprint carefully.

__________________
Kaz

For kittens, joy is for the asking and smiles are for the giving

I've just taken out Argos Platinum for my 2. Lifetime cover and up to £7000 a year.

£6.50 a month per Kitten

__________________

Thanks for the replies. I'll take a look

I use More Than. The woman quoted me something like £24 a month for my 3 year old lab and 2 kittens on lifetime policies. I'm sure she said they pay out within 48 hours of receiving a claim too (haven't had any experience though so couldn't say if that is true or not).

__________________

Dont forget that the first 14 days of a new policy your not covered with for illness, although some and I think pet plan is one will cover you for accident from day one. Anything that the pet has previously had even if you didnt claim, is on the records and that will be classed as pre-existing so will not be covered either. In fact if an illness occurs in the first 14days then they often consider it pre existing or some policies do. It happened to me a pup had diarrhoea in the first 14days, had it a month or two later, and I couldnt claim,even though I argued that it could have quite possibly been different causes, as there are many things that can cause diarrhoea and there was a considerable gap inbetween. Even if you stayed with pet plan, they may not treat it as a contiuation, and treat it as a new policy, that you would have to double check though. If illness occurs on the free pet plan insurance, and you take out a full policy, would it be treated as pre-existing therefore unclaimable. If you change companies it deffinately wont.

Deffinately would go for a cover for life though, that way you get the amount per year insured for, re-instated every year as long as you renew, and more importantly if your cat, developed an ongoing illness needing meds,tests or treatment you will always be covered. As you would if he has an accident with later complications or something re-occuring. Even if one year you used all the money insured for, next year you have the full amount again.

Be wary of cheaper policies that only insure for limited period. Usually 12mths from illness or injury. Once 12mths are up you can never claim again.

Also come give an amount per illness, with no time limit involved, but once the money is used then again you cant claim again ever. You cant change companies then either as its pe-existing and the new company will not pay.

Personally if you are not going to stay with petplan and/or they dont continue the cover over from the free to the full policy, then it maybe to get a proper one active asap rather then wait. At least you have the free one in the meantime for any emergency.

__________________

More than did pay out very well with no quibbles, I was with them. However they introduced that as well as the excess you had to pay the first 10% of eah and every claim. After year 3/4 my premium jumped from 39.99mth to 70.40 and he was only coming up to 4yrs old and been with them since a few months. So Ive changed.

__________________

Be aware that the 4 weeks free with PetPlan isn't the same cover as their lifelong policy. You should take out whatever policy you decide on 2 weeks before the 'freebie' ends. If it helps, there's a whole list of reputable companies at Cat Insurance Compare with information about each.

__________________
Things you should know before insuring your pet can be found at Important Facts about Pet Insurance. I can also try and answer questions about Pet Insurance via PM. I am not an insurance broker.

If you get a covernote issued by the vets from petplan then the cover for illness and injury starts immediately from when you and the vet sign the paperwork. We give these out with all our puppy vaccinations and general health checks. If illness occurs in the period of the covernote then we recommend you take up the cover from the covernote immediately so they will continue to cover that illness. If there is a gap of even just a few hours then they would exclude that illness on the full policy

__________________
4 Dogs, 3 cats, 9 rabbits, 4 syrian hamsters, 2 russian dwarf hamsters, 2 chinese hamsters, 5 roborovski hamsters, 1 gerbil, 4 rats, 1 guinea pig, 2 leopard geckos, 2 royal pythons, 1 tortoise, 11 pekin bantams and 1 japanese quail. oh and the fiancee

Would that not only be if the OP stayed with pet plan though for the full policy? If he/she did want to change to another company then the pre-existing and 14day rule would surely apply?

__________________