Impact of previous vet claims for another horse when taking out insurance

FestiveFuzz

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Excuse the rubbish title, I couldn't think how best to word it...Admittedly I’m probably being massively oversensitive here so just wanted to get a sense check. I’ve just called NFU to sort out the insurance for foalie, as part of this I was asked if I’d lost a horse in the last 3 years and obviously had to mention Poppy. They’ve now passed my details onto the underwriters as I’m deemed higher risk. I’m guessing this is standard procedure and the questions asked aren’t meant to offend, but when you lose a horse through no fault of your own after giving your all to save them it’s hard not to be upset. I ended up coming off the phone feeling like the worst owner in the world and have been fighting back tears ever since. It’s probably naïve of me, but I had no idea losing Pops would have such a knock-on effect when it came to insuring others as I'd assumed each horse was judged as an individual whereas right now I feel like I'm being judged as an owner. M is insured by his owner and I just pay the premiums each month so I’ve not had to go through this with him.

Also any ideas on how much of a price hike to expect? I’d already anticipated foalie would be more expensive to insure because he’s a baby, but now I’m dreading to think what the cost will be.
 

Red-1

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I would not worry too much, I had this recently with my new horse, having lost my previous one. Some companies wanted to know if I had EVER made a claim - well hell yes, I have kept horses for nearly 40 years, often 2 at a time, using them for all sorts including hunting, team chasing, eventing, hacking, etc etc etc. Of course there has been a claim as they were all insured.

I had to wait, fortunately I insured even before the vetting to ensure the journey home was covered so it was all sorted before purchase. The price of my cover did not go up.

I think they just wanted to do a fraud check to ensure I was not habitually buying friends' broken horses, insuring and getting a payout.

I too had tears down the phone. In fact, I just re-read your OP, and I did not fight tears back at all, I howled down the phone whilst I was still on it! It was all fine once they (presumably) had checked that I was not a serial fraud monster.

In the end I stayed with the insurer I used before as they knew the whole tale and I did not have to go through it all yet again. I stayed with Shearwater, as Pet Plan left me feeling like never picking up a phone again! I think NFU showed slightly more empathy, but still asked the question. I just felt with Shearwater I could relax as they knew details. Goodness me, at one point I was trying to remember who insured me in the 80's!!!
 
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starfish8

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Another one who has just had this - I lost my boy three months ago and they insisted I provide details of the vet fees claims I had made for all the fruitless investigations when enquiring about a new policy for my other horse. I understand why they ask about history of the relevant horse, but to make you dredge up everything in relation to one you have lost is heartbreaking and seems utterly pointless.

NFU eventually quoted £150 a month for my one horse, whereas my renewal price was around £60 - but does have a couple of random exclusions that I'm hoping to get lifted after the year is up. At least they already knew about Hen, so didn't have to go through all that with them.
 

FestiveFuzz

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Thanks guys and so sorry to hear you've had to go through similar. I honestly had no idea it was a thing so was quite surprised when not only was I asked the question but then quizzed on the circumstances. I can obviously provide her entire vet record if they want which will show that I was just incredibly unlucky but it's not something I want to dredge up unnecessarily.
 

TheMule

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I put the phone down to the NFU guy when they started asking the most impossible questions. I used Julie Andrews as a broker, it took 5 minutes and I'm very happy with the cover. You'll find him relatively inexpensive to insure, youngsters that don't go anywhere are classed as low risk!
 

FestiveFuzz

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I'm really surprised as M is with NFU and they've been great but it has put me off them a bit I have to say.

I've requested a quote from Julie Andrews so will just see what comes back. I'd assumed as a foal the insurance would be quite high as he's more likely to self-harm but it'd be great if that's not the case.
 

TheMule

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I'm really surprised as M is with NFU and they've been great but it has put me off them a bit I have to say.

I've requested a quote from Julie Andrews so will just see what comes back. I'd assumed as a foal the insurance would be quite high as he's more likely to self-harm but it'd be great if that's not the case.


Mines around £400/ year
 

Cinnamontoast

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Also NFU, I was told my new horse’s insurance (5 stage, perfectly healthy, aged 5) would double on the vet fees’ aspect. I suppose, as they’d forked out over £8000 on the old boy then given me market value, they were wanting to recoup some money. I moved to another company.

At the time, I was still grieving and was very emotional. I thought it was wrong, too, but all insurance works the same way, even tho it’s not your fault, say, in a no fault car incident. Very annoying and upsetting when you’ve just lost a horse, but just the way it works (except for that awful company who use any excuse to not pay out)
 

chocolategirl

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I had this issue also. We bought a nice horse 18 months ago, and I rang to get a quote and was asked about any other horses I owned, and any health issues they had had. Now bear in mind, the other 2 horses have had a few issues, but as I don’t usually insure for vets fees, and made no claims ever, I didn’t see the relevance, only to be told that regardless of whether I had them insured, or made claims, this would still have to take their health issues into account! To say I was livid is an understatement. Consequently, I didn’t insure him for vets fees, and continue to PAYG as I have done with the others. The only reason I thought to insure this one was partly because of the issues I’ve had with the other 2, but also because I believe he’s quite talented, and could become quite valuable so wanted LOU etc.
 

Inda

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I wasn't asked by petplan when I was taking out my cover for my then yearling, found them really easy.

One thing to check is moving your youngster around. Moving between fields pushed my premium up. I have a single lane public road between summer and winter turnout. They viewed it as taking her out onto the public roads.

Since she's covered anyway, she comes out for walkies with the dogs. She unimpressed by their attempts to teach her fetch.
 

FestiveFuzz

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Also NFU, I was told my new horse’s insurance (5 stage, perfectly healthy, aged 5) would double on the vet fees’ aspect. I suppose, as they’d forked out over £8000 on the old boy then given me market value, they were wanting to recoup some money. I moved to another company.

At the time, I was still grieving and was very emotional. I thought it was wrong, too, but all insurance works the same way, even tho it’s not your fault, say, in a no fault car incident. Very annoying and upsetting when you’ve just lost a horse, but just the way it works (except for that awful company who use any excuse to not pay out)

I do get it, although Pops was insured elsewhere so it's not even like they're trying to recoup past losses via the new one. I just think it's a bit rubbish, especially their line of questioning which very much felt like they were judging me as an owner.
 

FestiveFuzz

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I wasn't asked by petplan when I was taking out my cover for my then yearling, found them really easy.

One thing to check is moving your youngster around. Moving between fields pushed my premium up. I have a single lane public road between summer and winter turnout. They viewed it as taking her out onto the public roads.

Since she's covered anyway, she comes out for walkies with the dogs. She unimpressed by their attempts to teach her fetch.

Thanks that's really good to know. He's unlikely to leave the yard at all for a fair while so should be fine but will bear in mind if and when I decide to take him for walks etc.
 

teddypops

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I have never been asked by petplan and I have 5 ponies insured with them, all starting at different times and I have made several claims on 4 of these policies.
 

dixie

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I’ve never been asked by Petplan either. I’ve just insured a new horse yesterday online, so will see what happens
I’ve had so many claims with them I wouldn’t be surprised if they told me to go elsewhere !
 

BlackRider

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I too got asked this by NFU, and my horse wasn't even insured when I lost him so I'd never claimed! They came back with an extortionate fee.

If you do pet plan on line you don't get asked.
 

Red-1

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I may have done Pet Plan a disservice, I called NFU, Pet Plan and South Essex and one of those had me feeling judged and awful, I *thought* it was Pet Plan, but TBH was so upset I may have got that wrong.

As I said, I went back to Shearwater as at least they knew all the details so I did not have to re-live it all again.

It did worry me that if I made a mistake, and subsequently had a claim, that the company could come back and say I had mis-represented the risk when giving dates of any previous claims.
 

Abi90

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NFU wouldn’t insure my horse as I’m in the armed forces and apparently therefore higher risk... horse isn’t used for work purposes so I still cannot fathom how this is relevant.

Not a single other insurer has ever asked for my occupation!
 

Slightlyconfused

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Scottish equestrian have never asked me that at all.
And when my sister insured her 18 month old with them and they knew her tb had died about a year before but didnt ask or put premiums up
 

gnubee

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NFU wanted extreme levels of detail about another horse I own who was not insured that I had treated for sarcoids a couple of years ago. Given that it can’t factor into my claims history etc and is a completely different horse I have no idea what the relevance of it would be!
 

Annagain

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I know someone who was refused insurance by several companies as she'd had so many PTS over a relatively short period of time. Some would call her unlucky, sadly those of us who know her well suspected some sort of munchausens.
 

AGray825

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I didn't even know that was a thing they could do?!
Both me and mum took out insurances with PetPlan relatively recently (I started in June for my girl and mum started last month for hers) after having lost our two last year (2017 was a terrible year for us) and even with mum's previous boy being insured with PetPlan, they still didn't ask anything of the sort.
In fact, from what I remember about the online form, there aren't any questions about any other horses other than the one you're insuring..... I would've thought that would be the norm?
 

FestiveFuzz

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Ah see I only rang as NFU don't have an online form as far as I can tell, but blooming insurance really is a minefield.

Have requested a few more quotes off the back of everyone's suggestions and it looks like NFU may still work out the cheaper of the quotes after all that, but still pretty upset by their questioning and kinda put off using them because of it if I'm honest.
 

FestiveFuzz

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Just wanted to pop back to say I went with SEIB in the end, who we also insure our horsebox with. Ended up paying less than £500 for £5k vet fees, which increases to £7.5k for colic surgery with a £300 excess which I'm more than happy with.
 
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