John Lewis or More Than Insurance?

[Suzi]

Hiya,
I know you've all been asked about dog insurance loads of times before, but I'm in such a quandry. I've stopped my policy with Aviva as it went up from £13 something a month to £20 something and then only down to £19 something when I said that Roxie has now been spayed. I realized that, with a maximum claim of £3500 I could get a better deal for the same money or less. Anyway, I'm now stuck between two:

Should I go for the £20 a month policy with John Lewis which offers up to £10,000 of total claims a year and is then reinstated the following year if you carry on with the policy - or should I go with the £11.50 a month policy (which seems a really good deal) with More Than which offers up to £7,000 per condition, but when the 7,000 is spent on that condition they won't pay any more? For More Than you also have to pay 10% of the bill after the initial excess, so that you're not continuing to pay excesses, which rises to 20% when they're nine. When I said to the lady on the end of the phone at More Than that I was worried that Roxie would develop a condition that would cost a lot more than £7,000 over her lifetime and that we'd end up having to pay for it, she said that they didn't often see something that ended up costing that much for one condition and that, if they saw that happen too much they'd raise the amount in the policy. But then she would say that.

Can some ailments end up costing over £7,000 over time? Should I go for john Lewis where, even though it's £10,000 for ALL conditions put together in a year, it's reinstated the following year?

There's such a difference in the price. My husband says to go for the cheaper one, that £20 a month is ridiculous, but, living in the south, I think it's quite expensive here and that £20 isn't as much as a lot charge.

Do you think More Than will jump up lots next year once they have me as a customer - of John Lewis for that matter?

I'm a typical Libra - someone help me make up my mind, please!!!!


Thank you.

[Rowan11]

hi - i remember a post on here a while ago where someone worked out all the maths etc - im rubbish too but what i can tell you is that we were with morethan with our last dog and by the time he got to 9 the payments went up to £35.00 per month !! But they did pay out twice and they were quite large amounts of money.
we have decided this time to go with john lewis as it was slightly cheaper for us to go with them and they have been recommended on here by quite a few people. good luck in figuring it out !!!

[Sarah Bevan]

Hi,
We went with John Lewis.

Take a look at the consumer review sites and see how people get on with the the insurance companies you are looking at.

To me it seems better value for money to get £10,000 per year rather than £7000 per condition - especially if your dog get diabetes or Arthritis.

Trouble is no-one know what health problems are instore for the liftime of their dog. you could may £35 a month and never have a claim!

[JeanG]

I agree. I think we must be in a low cost vets area because I only pay £12.50 per month for John Lewis full £10k cover. Trouble is, you don't know how good an insurance company is until you make a claim. However, the reviews seem to be OK for John Lewis (also known as Greenbee - my direct debit is actually labelled "Greenbee"). Whatever you decide, anything is better than nothing unless you are REALLY disciplined and can make yourself put the money in a special account each month. But then you have to hope that if anything happens, it doesn't happen until you've saved up a decent amount of money! Good luck deciding!

[Sarah Bevan]

Interesting - i am in Southampton and pay £16.50 with John Lewis .

[Suzi]

Sarah, when did you take out the policy as maybe it's gone up recently? I'm also in Hampshire - only 46 miles from you. I think I put down 'crossbreed' and then 'labradoodle'. Is yours up to £10,000? I could pay £19 and only have £7,000 cover or £18.38 for up to £3,500 worth of cover. She's female - is yours? She's been chipped, spayed and has injections up to date! Never had an illness. If it's a recent policy I might ask them!

[Sarah Bevan]

I will have another look.

[LakeDistrictDoodle]

I would just lime to add a quick note on this. We are with More Than but to be honest I never looked at John Lewis as I just have this odd idea about who should do what, so I would never have insurance for pets, car, home etc with a department store or supermarket......BUT that is just me and im NOTasking for any replies to that. PLEASE

I just wanted to say that if you want to save money you could go with a cheaper quote and put the resy of the differance in a saving account that you can get your hands on for anything.

BUT what I came on to say is, that if they do not have a Labradoodle on the breed part of the form but have both Labrador X or Poodle X, you should find that all companies charge LESS for a poodle X !!!!!!!!

[Sarah Bevan]

Although I bought my insurance through John Lewis, it is underwritten by AXA Insurance and that is ultimately who my contract is with.

You will find there are a very limited amount of insurance companies selling Pet Insurance because a lot have stopped doing it (it is not profitable enough).

AXA underwrite several policies.
We looked into other policies which were also underwritten by AXA which were more expensive.
John Lewis and all other stores that sell insurance are simply acting as `middle men`

[elliedoodle]

I know we made the mistake of going with E & L thinking it was Equity & Law and when we claimed for ellie a bit back they got arsie and refused to pay up so don't go with them

[ArchieBoy]

We've just insured Archie with AXA for £13.40 a month. They are an excellent insurance company and we had Harvey, our golden retreiver who passed away on New Years Eve, insured with them from the age of six until he passed aged 13.

He had the very rare Diabetes Insipidis and three months medication was £500. This was paid direct to the vet with no problems at all.

Over the years, we must have claimed thousands with them with his D.I. arthritis and from November a leg op. Unfortunately, (if that is the word) we were also able to claim for the tests and scans he had witht he emergency vet on the night he passed away and we got over £255 back from them - all they took was the excess!

Anyway, after that ramble, I would recommend AXA every single time

[Suzi]

I've just looked at AXA and for Roxie being a crossbreed (is that what you put?), she's £14.47 a month for up to £7,000. Is that per condition or in total per year? It says 'per period of insurance' so is that the latter? And is it reinstated each year? I get very confused with it all.

So, More Than is just over £11 for £7,000 per condition (with £75 excess and 10% of bill), AXA is just over £14 for what I assume is £7,000 a year in total (with £75 excess) and John Lewis is just over £20 for £10,000 cover (or £19 for £7,000 ove cover) per year in total (with £75 excess).

NOW WHICH ONE???? My husband despairs of me!!

[Rowan11]

im sure sarah will help you if she sees this - she was really good at the insurance thing