Every little helps! (Tesco Pet Insurance)

Member Name: honey000

Product:	Tesco Pet Insurance
Date:	03/08/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap - paid out no problems

Disadvantages: Lots of advertising

When we rescued our cats - Honey and Rocky we decided to insure them as have seen too many friends having to stump up huge amounts for vet bills.

How did I find them?
I searched on money supermarket inputting my pets details and Tesco was the most competive quote. You can go direct from the Tesco website under "finance and insurance" or you can call them but you will get a cheaper quote online (supposedly 20% cheaper but who knows!)

What did I ensure?
Two cats, both moggies (but very gorgeous), one is 4 years old the other two. We picked the basic cover as they dont go out anywhere dangerous and are not old. They are both microchipped (makes the insurance much cheaper) and regularly vaccinated (again seems to make it cheaper) and have no underlying health conditions.

Range of policies
There was a good range of policies available -some specifically for older pets, others for working animals.

Cost
We currently pay £10 for both cats - there are huge discounts for "multi pet" insurance (kind of like a multi car insurance I guess!). This covers us for up to £5000 cover if there is an accident. This is on a "per claim basis" there is a limit of claims per year - I think that it is £14,000.

We are also covered for £1000 if they go missing. There is a £50 excess per claim.

Payment
We pay by direct debit, at 0% interest - I think that you can pay up front but since it is just as cheap not to why not pay monthely!

Claiming
Sadly, recently our much loved Rocky went missing for a week, we put up posters and searched everywhere.

Luckily he returned to us (hurrah) but was injured and we had to take him to the vet. He was treated for his injuries and we were presented for a bill for £450. (Obviously we had to take him to the vet on a Sunday which is twice as expensive!)

We submitted a claim by telephone initially and then via our vet for both the £450 and the cost of the £100 search for him. We submitted receipts for all the expenses.

Tesco could not have been more helpful. The staff were lovely when we called them when he was missing - just explaining to us that we should keep all receipts and logging that he was missing. They even contacted the microchip registry for us to see if they had found him!

Within a week of our claim we received a cheque for £500 (£550 - £50)-.

Having heard all sorts of horror stories about pet insurance I was very happy and would not hesitate to recommend this company!

Downsides
Tesco do ask you when your house and car insurance is due and then bombard you with letters offering their overpriced insurance.

I am sure that if your cat is long term sick it would be much harder to get money out of them than for an accident.

There are all sorts of exclusions for illness - such as "no pregnancy claims, no existing conditions" etc so do check the small print!

Also, the £50 excess was an expense we could have done without!

Overall
First class service and a full refund so can't complain and of course we got our little boy back and he has made a full recovery!

Summary: Great service and friendly staff