Following on from the "under insured" thread..

[Darkly_Dreaming_Dex]

When people talk about the cost of insurance on this forum, you often get posters saying " well i save money by insuring my horse for the basic £1000 so i can get the £5k vets cover" the other thread indicated that this may well be an utter waste of money as underinsuring your horse means a reduced payout

This is a genuine question regarding horses only as i am very confused.com

Has anyone had a problem with a horse vets/tack etc claim being met in full due to being underinsured on the death value

In case anyone asks, my ancient cob isnt insured except through WHW cover (and an ISA savings account for vet bills)and Dex is insured for what i paid for him..which may well be 70% of his current value as he is qualified for the classic supreme- although only a miracle cure for liver hepatitis will see him attend

Yes its a slow Thursday afternoon in the office

 

[ihatework]

I do this on all mine.

I insure for a value way below market value. The result of this is I pay a lower premium but still get the 5K vets fees cover.
Obviously I am taking a calculated risk as should horse die then I would get very little actual value paid by insurance company.

 

[saskia295]

Mine is insured for less than his value for the same reason. Plus, I couldn't afford the premiums if I insured him for his real value, they're so expensive

 

[ThePony]

mine are insured at a bit less than their value, but they aren't insured for loss of use (just to make the policy a bit cheaper), only vets fees so I'm not sure it would affect us so much.

 

[Firewell]

I was thinking about this.

My old mare was insured for 2.5k which is what I paid for her as a youngster. 2 years later I upped her value to 3k as she had done quite a bit by then.

Anyway she got really poorly, incurred tons of medical costs and then dies on the operating table. She wasn't insured for LOU as she only had a 2star vetting and also I didn't really think she was worth it.

3.5k of the vets bills were covered and then the insurance co. Told me she was insured for mortality. That meant she was insured if she died from something not connected to any Pre existing conditions. Such as a freak accident or colic or something. She died on te operating table from colic.

After the premium I got 2.8k back for her worth under the mortality clause, which while very useful wasn't a patch on her true value which was around the 5/6k mark. I also had to use most of it to pay off remaining vets bills. That left me not much at all to replace her with.

I've basically had to start from scratch again with another cheap TB. He's becoming more and more useful and smart with the work I'm putting in and I'm wondering how I'm going to insure him.

I think I will insure him for his current Market value for now which is prob around 3.5k which means the premiums will still be fairly low however as he gets more affilliated results I may up it, saying that I don't think I would ever insure him for more than 5k even if he was worth it as it's getting a bit silly then.
The insurance on my mare was the best £37 a month I've ever spent and I'm not going to scrimp on it for this horse. If he died I think I would have a breakdown at the thought of having to start another youngster! I'd rather pay more premium and get more money back for if I had to but another horse. However I'm not going to pay silly amounts, I'm just going to try and strike a balance between premiums and what he is worth.

That's the plan anyway!

 

[DAA83]

You should all be careful with under insuring your horses. Not only would you not receive the true value of your horse should they die or be stolen etc, but you also run the risk of having all other sections calculated on a contribution like clause i.e. if your horse's true value is £5k and you only insure for £1k then the insurance company may assume you are going to self insure for the remaining value, therefore, if you have a vets bill that totals £5k the insurer may only contribute 20% which would leave you with a £4k bill. Worse still, they may take the hardline approach of refusing your claim altogether on the basis that you have misrepresented and committed fraud.

Worse still, if the insurer finds out you have committed fraud after you have been involved in a 3rd party liability claim you could find yourselves with an enormous bill!

 

[ihatework]

You should all be careful with under insuring your horses. Not only would you not receive the true value of your horse should they die or be stolen etc, but you also run the risk of having all other sections calculated on a contribution like clause i.e. if your horse's true value is £5k and you only insure for £1k then the insurance company may assume you are going to self insure for the remaining value, therefore, if you have a vets bill that totals £5k the insurer may only contribute 20% which would leave you with a £4k bill. Worse still, they may take the hardline approach of refusing your claim altogether on the basis that you have misrepresented and committed fraud.

Worse still, if the insurer finds out you have committed fraud after you have been involved in a 3rd party liability claim you could find yourselves with an enormous bill!

I'm not sure that is completely correct, or it certainly isn't with reputable companies.
I've dealt with NFU and KBIS. They ask for price paid and for sum insured, if you give accurate figures I'm not sure how fraud could come into it. With both companies they cover the full 5K of vets bills when underinsuring, I deliberately checked with them when taking out the policies.
Of course you don't get back much money if your horse dies, that much is pretty obvious and is part of the calculated risk you take by underinsuring.

 

[Weezy]

I was very up front with my insurers, AmTrust - I explained that my YO was insisting that horses left in her care were insured, I didn't want to fork out £250 for a vetting, so what could I insure my horse for without a vetting. They told me, I said fine, bing bang bong - no insurance fraud going on at ALL! They are fully aware that my horse is underinsured, I fully understand that if he dies tomorrow I will get £2999 (or a percentage thereof), and not his full value, which is far more.