Hi Im back, spent the last 2 weeks in France/Belgium/Austria courtesy of my husbands employer. Im a...
Hi Im back, spent the last 2 weeks in France/Belgium/Austria courtesy of my husbands employer. Im as brown as a berry,feel great and admit to having no chance of catching up :)
Member since:19.05.2007
Reviews:85
Members who trust:148
I’ve insured my dogs through Sainsbury’s for the past 8 years now and I thought I would share my experience with you. Despite the problems with my old dog’s health my experience has been very good with Sainsbury.
Why I initially chose them
I actually had a policy with Petplan but when my German shepherd hit 8, regardless of the fact I had only made 1 claim before, they ceased to insure her. I believe this is different now though. I was faced with trying to find a company that insured older dogs but didn’t charge such large amounts to make it pointless. My vet couldn’t help... they have one of these kickback schemes where they only recommend Petplan and get a cut of the policy fees I suppose.
It wasn’t an easy search, believe me, most insurers only seem to want young, fit and healthy dogs. Sainsbury did give me a reasonable quiote and the policy appeared to be good so I signed up but the proof of the insurance
can only be assessed when you make a claim.
My white shepherd was a reasonably healthy dog for her age so I had no need to visit a vet until we noticed she seemed to be in a pit of discomfort with her hindquarters. An x-ray showed she had some arthritic changes and a blood test showed she was safe to take some medication for it.
You are sent a claim pack when you get your policy through. You fill in the section ‘presenting problem’, sign the form and leave it with the vet who fills it in and sends it off. You have 2 choices regarding payment: you can either pay the vet the full amount and claim it back or they can pay the vet direct. I personally choose to pay the bill and claim it back
The first claim took about 10 days and they send you the value of the claim minus the excess you pay under your policy. In our case this was £50 per illness. This is actually quite good, she needed regular medication with a repeat prescription every 3 months but you only pay the excess once on the first diagnosis claim.
She was well maintained on the tablets and we weren’t out of pocket so it was all good until everything suddenly changed. Just before going to bed one evening she went into the garden for her nightly constitution but came back in limping badly on her front right leg and couldn’t weight bear at all, I was obviously really concerned. The vet advised keeping her quiet, giving her an extra dose of her anti-inflammatory and seeing how she was in the morning.
We slept downstairs with her and in the morning she was worse. The leg was very swollen and she was in pain so the vet came in their transport and we went with her. The obviously had to X-ray her leg under anesthetic so we went home to wait. The news was terrible; she had a bone cancer in her leg and the bone had just snapped straight through it and there was nothing they could do really except amputate her leg and try chemo. This wasn’t an option as her quality of life would have been dreadful so we agreed with the vet and allowed euthanasia. We went back so we could be with her , making decisions at a time like this is dreadful but they have to be done, so we chose to have a cremation and signed the various forms including the insurance one. This bill we didn’t pay though, we were to upset so the vet completed it and sent it off on our behalf.
Sainsbury dealt with this really quickly and sent us a nice letter of condolence to terminate the policy and asked us to pay the £50 excess to the vet but amazingly they had actually paid for the cremation as well as the tests and euthanasia. We weren’t expecting that at all.
When we had our new pup I decided to insure her with them too as the service we had with our white girl was superb. This pup is also healthy but she has had a nasty eye infection (caught while swimming in the canal we think!) we have had no problems with getting money paid back on her either.
I’m not going to write all the details here because they vary by animal and the area you live in but Sainsbury has an easy to use website here http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/insuring/ins_petinsurance_pet_skip.shtml They will give you an internet quote and the main details of the policy are there. As with an insurance product you should read the small print but Sainsbury’s policy is clearly written and not hard to understand.
The main benefits though are : cover for veterinary fees up to £6,500 for each accident or illness , complimentary treatment, emergency boarding kennels and cattery fees, advertising and reward costs, theft or straying, accidental death, holiday cancellation and third party liability cover for dogs only.
You must ensure that your pet has received the required vaccinations, failure to comply with this may jeopardise your claim or cover.
This insurance though won’t cover you for breeding except the first time. Any pregnancies after that are excluded. It also doesn’t cover conditions existing before the policy was taken out
I really would recommend Sainsbury pet insurance to dog owners as not only is their policy really good, with quibble free pay outs but also because of their human touch. Each time I’ve spoken with a representative they have been so good, their attitude helpful and instructive.
We pay our policy monthly by direct debit so it isn’t a great amount to pay out and its worth it for your peace of mind.
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Jun 3rd, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
