Just posting to say - what a bloody racket.
I understand a policy excess OR a condition excess but Pet Insurance Australia have BOTH.
On what planet is that even legit.
Anyway - just a random rant following a claim.
Pet Insurance - Policy Excess and Condition Excess
Lshaundennis on 17/08/2023 - 10:05
Comments
I agree and I'm aware of it.
I still think its a little 'excess'ive. Pun definitely intended.
If they didn't have the excess, they'd need to raise the premiums…
I think i'd rather that.
Or an option to remove the excess for a higher premium as I do with my car insurance.
Or an option to choose between a condition excess or a policy excess.
Or i could just not have pet insurance. Or choose not to complain about it, but here we are :)
Sorry I couldn't fit a pun into this one.
@jv: I have :).
But I thought i'd complain about my poor life choices on here as well. Probably a little 'excess'ive I know.
Pet Insurance is essentially a scam. The whole industry got a Shonky Award in 2019 and practically nothing has changed since then.
https://www.choice.com.au/shonky-awards/hall-of-shame/shonky…
Yeah the issue from what I hear is you pretty much won't use it for the first ten years or so and after that it becomes so expensive it's not worth it. Better off putting money away in an account each week.
Nah, the issue is you pay $1000s in premiums each year and then the cap on their liability for almost any issue is like $1,500.00, anyone with half a brain cell who reads the PDS of these insurances should have alarm bells chiming at max volume.
Thanks mate, I did not know this.
We have a surgery in 5 years, for a luxating patella, so was thinking of taking insurance for our 3 year old before this shows up.@Lord Ra: read the PDS and you'll find that this may actually be completely excluded from coverage or considered a breed specific thing that will not be covered.
Also what do you mean you have a surgery in 5 years? you have it booked in? that means this is a known condition, right? then it's 100% excluded as 'pre-existing'
FYI I just read Woolworths pet insurance. They don't cover patella luxations at all.
@coffeeinmyveins: @coffeeinmyveins thanks bud, I'll deffo read the pds first.and even call to confirm.
Dog park people, dog show poeple and google tell me that my breed is susceptible to a patella at an older age, maybe between 7-10 years of age. Nope, not booked in, just expecting it to happen, like I did our rate rises. 😭😭😭
And preparing for it now.Crap, woolies was on my list cos they had the 10% discount! I oh well, on with the search, this time to read the pds.
Pet insurance is not as regulated as other types of insurance, and it shows.
Here's a real life scenario.
You sign up for pet insurance.
Your dog has problems with urination during the waiting period.
For the next 2 years, your dog on and off gets a UTI and has this urinary issue.Guess what?
ANY disease that shows a symptom of "urination issues" ranging from heart disease to bladder cancer is not covered because they classify a pre-existing condition as something they were showing "symptoms of".
Yes, it's a complete farce.
I got Petsy insurance in December of last year. Because she was around 1 year and 7 months when i got it,they said she had pre-existing conditions. However,they/they'll let me get a review after a certain time. Two of those pre-existing conditions have been wiped off recently, because i got them reviewed. Her liver enzymes were up and plus she had kennel cough last year.
I'm not defending pet insurance,just sharing my experience and because you mentioned pre-existing.
they said she had pre-existing conditions
Based on what data?
Her medical history from the vets…
Some animals are born with serious health conditions and do not have road sense, are accident prone, eat silly things, the list goes on. I still love all of my pets!
pretty much the only thing you are covered for is a freak accident with pet insurance like them getting hit by a car.
I'd bet that they may even wriggle out of that if the pet wasn't on a leash or something else that can be considered "your fault".
I think I'm in the minority. My two girls are nearly 10. Premiums are definitely pretty expensive, but one of them has had probably 60k worth of claims paid out to now (2 X cruciate early on pre the sub limit, degenerative joint disease, hip problems, skin stuff and stuff ive forgotten). The other has had cruciate, random injuries, blood issues, liver problems. Not sure how much ive paid in premiums but I'm very well ahead.
How much per month, times twelve, as a baseline. Hwo much did you pay last fy?
We had Pet insurance for one of our previous cats and we, certainly, ended up ahead when it got very sick. However, the premiums were a lot less back then. We got Pet insurance when our new girls were young to see if they had a chronic illness that would require a life time of treatment. Once we were sure they were clear we dropped the insurance. What we learnt with the previous cat, is that when a cat gets older, and gets very sick, then treatment will only buy you a little bit more time and is very disruptive. If I had my time over again I probably would’ve put the cat down earlier. I dearly loved her but the treatment was a nightmare for all of us and we only bought her 6 months.
WW pet insurance has rebranded to everday insurance, the benefit is 10% off a single monthly shop at WW, BWS or big W.
Makes it worth having, imo.
The issue is that vet costs are expensive and not enough people in the insurance pool to get it more affordable.
First insurer I've gone with now https://www.fetchpet.com.au/ they've got great cover to price ratio that I can see (at least for my groodle) - 30k cover, includes a few extras that are usually optionals and can skip wait periods with video/photoes & get your pre-existings checked.
I like these ideas. However,they are apart of Pacific International Insurance,which also covers Petsy. I don't think I'll get any difference between the two regarding pre-existing conditions.
Have you checked them out? Because I did a bunch of quotes when I got my puppy and they gave me different prices/terms. No idea what they'll do with your pre-existings but tbh I reckon it'll just depend on whoever looks at your vet records.
PIA is Petsure, which is Hollard, which is quite literally a majority of pet insurance brands out there. Best going with an Australian company that's small and will honor the policy you bought because they are small enough to be afraid of the regulator. Vets Choice which is actually Guild Insurance is one of those.
On a planet where it is written in the PDS that you should read before purchasing.