£160 vet bill - claim through insurance worth it?

CobSunshine

CobSunshine

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So i'm with KBIS and pay £30 a month for full insurance.

My vetbill came to £160 today.

Would you claim through insurance or not?

I'm guessing there would be a £50 excess, and my premiums would go up every year due to the claim?
 
I wouldnt bother personally. I think most policies have a £100 ish excess and the part you claim for will be excluded from further claims. I have a £500 excess on my insurance anything under that I would find TBH.
 
thats what I mean though, if youve not kept them fully informed, they could quite easily use that against you if they had a mind.
 
I haven't for bills that big in the past, however they usually ask you to declare on the renewal form whether they horse has had any treatment in the past year, and want you to fill a form that allows them to contact your vet... So even without claiming, in my case for mud rash, they have still excluded mud rash for the future - so now I would be tempted to claim whatever! Not sure how it would affect the premiums - I have never made a claim in my life..
 
I don't think it is worth it personally, you will end up paying it back to the insurance company over the folowing year(s).
 
I'm with a company that usually doesn't get good press but I've been a claim handler for an insurance broker & know how the system works. I always inform my insurer when I have had the vet to my horse, I keep them informed of medication / progress & always claim if my bill exceeds the excess. However I also always inform them if I am not going to make a claim. I've never had a problem with said company & they've had to pay out for 2 hefty claims so far.
 
I would claim anything over my excess as have to inform them anyway, so may as well, any increase and exclusion will happen whether you claim or not.
 
CobSunshine said:
So i'm with KBIS and pay £30 a month for full insurance.

My vetbill came to £160 today.

Would you claim through insurance or not?

I'm guessing there would be a £50 excess, and my premiums would go up every year due to the claim?
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Check on your excess, I think you are wrong it will more likely be around £130. If that's correct in my opinion it's not worth claiming.
 
piebaldsparkle said:
I would claim anything over my excess as have to inform them anyway, so may as well, any increase and exclusion will happen whether you claim or not.
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Ditto that - I made the mistake with my old mare of not claiming for her first lameness issue (as it was diagnosed as a pulled muscle and was just told to bute and rest her) so by the time it became a real problem (when she came back into week she kept developing low level recurring lameness which required a LOT of investigative work) the insurance company (NFU at the time) said it was an ongoing issue and as she'd been treated for lameness just over a year beforehand, that problem was now excluded and I ended up footing the massive bill myself.
 
For £160 i wouldn't go through my insurance as

A) My excess is £100
B) Your premiums next year will end up being higher (higher than normal inflation)
C) It will probably cause an exclusion to that part of your horse and if anything more serious happens again to that area, they won't pay out?

If you can't afford £160 in one lump then most vets will allow a payment scheme, maybe £50 a month until it's cleared.

My vets have a £350 credit limit so don't chase payment until that limit has been reached. Worth checking out if your vets have something similar?
 
I'd be careful, depends how often you claim.
I'm with nfu my excess is £145, but I've made 4 claims in the mast year.
All big ones so had no choice, so they have written to me telling me from my renewal my excess will increase to £300.
Your excess seems very reasonable at £50.
 
piebaldsparkle said:
I would claim anything over my excess as have to inform them anyway, so may as well, any increase and exclusion will happen whether you claim or not.
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when I first got horses and insurance for them i would have said not to bother but now i agree with piebaldsparkle, either way you're shafted so they may as well pay
 
I would claim as you have to inform the insurance company of any veterinary treatment in any case. If you don't inform them and have a major claim in the future, they may use your non disclosure as an excuse to void the claim even if what you are claiming for is totally unrelated.
 
Are you sure your excess is only £50? Mine is £135 (Amtrust). I don't think I'd bother claiming for a £160 bill but you'll still need to tell your insurance co... mine got a skin infection last year which cost me less than £100 to treat but I had to tell my insurer because it obviously appears on his medical record.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, i'm not going to claim, the excess is in fact £130.

Really not worth it!

piebaldsparkle said:
I would claim anything over my excess as have to inform them anyway, so may as well, any increase and exclusion will happen whether you claim or not.
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This concerns me. If I inform them he had antibiotics to treat chest infection which cost me £160, but I dont want to claim....


Can they then turn down my £3000 claim in the future lets say if he needed some expensive respiratory work doing as they would say he's had problems in this area in the past? even though I didnt claim?
 
We just made our first claim, on the 2nd vet appointment (1st didn't take it over the excess as ours is high but insurance were informed that the issue had occured). You have to send/your vets send a full treatment history of the previous five years. If the insurance then deemed that it was a pre-existing condition before the current 12 month period then they wouldn't pay out. Therefore with regards the above I think it would depend on the specifics of the follow on condition.
 
ester said:
We just made our first claim, on the 2nd vet appointment (1st didn't take it over the excess as ours is high but insurance were informed that the issue had occured). You have to send/your vets send a full treatment history of the previous five years. If the insurance then deemed that it was a pre-existing condition before the current 12 month period then they wouldn't pay out. Therefore with regards the above I think it would depend on the specifics of the follow on condition.
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so i'd be best to wait for the swab test results to come back and if its simply a cold/flu. I shouldnt lose any elements of my cover in the future?
 
There is no point in not claiming for anything over your excess. Horse insurance is not like car insurance - even if you don't claim you still have to inform them, and they will still exclude related conditions after 1 year even if you don't claim. Add to that the fact that your small print almost certainly says that if you don't disclose something your policy is invalid - meaning they could refuse to pay out on something unrelated - and you'd be barking mad not to claim.

Do not forget your insurers can and will ask for full vets disclosure before agreeing a claim - and will refuse to pay out if you do not permit the vet to hand over your full record.
 
CS I don't know tbh, say for example your got COPD in the near(ish) (or maybe far) future I don't know whether the insurance might say that was a result of a previous infection. I don't really know how that would work but it might be possible.

As SC says it isn't like car insurance so if over excess you might as well claim.
 
It strikes me that horse insurance is almost pointless these days, having read this thread I think I would insure in my first year with the horse but also 'self insure' until I had an appropriate level of funds in the bank.
 
Naturally - what do you consider 'appropriate'?

In the last 5 years I have paid 3k ish in premiums and claimed nearly 9k back. Nothing has ever even needed surgery. One claim went 1k over my 5k vet limit. The only exclusion the horse carries is one for gastric ulcers.

My excess has never been increased, my premiums are broadly similar each year - unless I had 10k in the bank I would not self insure - and then what happens when the 10k is gone?!
 
CobSunshine said:
Thanks for the advice guys, i'm not going to claim, the excess is in fact £130.

Really not worth it!




This concerns me. If I inform them he had antibiotics to treat chest infection which cost me £160, but I dont want to claim....


Can they then turn down my £3000 claim in the future lets say if he needed some expensive respiratory work doing as they would say he's had problems in this area in the past? even though I didnt claim?
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Only if they put an exclusion on the policy. But they certainly WOULD turn you down if this happens in the future and they ask for vet records and find you haven't informed them.
 
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