Insurance

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rachaelr

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Im looking into insurance in preperation for my new steed and was just wondering if anyone has any advice on the topic... :confused: what are the pitfalls, things to look out for, which companies are best/worst, i've even heard people saying just to put the money aside every month instead of paying it to an insurer. This will be the first thing i've ever insured... feel like such an adult! :p Any advice would be appreciated!

thanks!
 
I would never be without insurance. I've always insured with NFU who have brilliant on the couple of claims I've made.
 
I never insure, the one experiance I have of it personally was a LOU claim the horse was insured with the NFU they where brillant very very fair with the owner .
 
Rule of thumb with insurance - with regards price, you get what you pay for! There is only really one company to avoid - unless you want to have battles with claiming! All the others people will have good and bad stories about so really the best advice is to think what cover you actually need, what excess you can afford in event of a claim (some have co-insurance clauses - ie excess is £x or x% whichever is the greater which can make the excess quite a lot on a large claim) if they have a flat £ excess only then that is all you pay which can make things easier.
 
Goldenstar said:
I never insure, the one experiance I have of it personally was a LOU claim the horse was insured with the NFU they where brillant very very fair with the owner .
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can I be nosey and ask what you have in place in case of accidents? do you think puting money aside each month is a good idea?

thanks everyone, I'll check out NFU tonight. I don't have the largest of budgets to spend on insurance so hopefully they aren't out of my price range.
 
The risk with not insuring is making sure you can easily lay your hands on a couple of grand if needed. If you can do that - then no problem (imo).
 
ladyt25 said:
ie excess is £x or x% whichever is the greater which can make the excess quite a lot on a large claim) if they have a flat £ excess only then that is all you pay which can make things easier.
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Thats something I had actually never thought of before, thanks for highlighting that. Very useful info.

As for puting money aside, Its probably a very bad idea as I would most likely attempt to spend it all on wine :p
 
As an absolute minimum - completely irrespective of what else you do or don't insure for - you should have third party / public liability.
 
rachaelr said:
Im looking into insurance in preperation for my new steed and was just wondering if anyone has any advice on the topic... :confused: what are the pitfalls, things to look out for, which companies are best/worst, i've even heard people saying just to put the money aside every month instead of paying it to an insurer. This will be the first thing i've ever insured... feel like such an adult! :p Any advice would be appreciated!

thanks!
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I have always had my insurance with NFU I took advise from other horsey friends at the time and so glad I did.

I had a mare kicked in the field - I was on holiday at the time so thanks to my insurance they just went ahead and treated it. Unfortunately she had to be PTS in the end BUT at least she had the very best we could give her up until then and I got to say good-bye.

Without the insurance I wouldn't have known how bad it was BUT I would have had to tell them to PTS unseen as I would not have been able to afford the £3000 vet bill that thankfully NFU paid off directly to the vets no questions asked.

I've been with them for 10+ years now and will stay with them. Also I now have two horses with them and the second horse has been very cheap to add to my current horse's policy. :D

Avoid E&L I insured my dogs with them... bad idea... no pay out no support bad service.... waste of money!
 
I've been with south Essex ins brokers for many years. Claimed mega amounts for several horses and they have ways been way more than fair!
 
There are plenty of reputable insurers out there & all will give you suitable cover:
NFU, KBIS, South Essex, Petplan etc etc.

New owners usually get caught out by insuring with E&L or one of their subsiduarys, They heavily advertise in all the horse magasines & their pamphlets fall out of the books etc. They are cheap in price but when you need to claim they will think of 1000 reasons why they don't want to pay. They also delay payment for months & many Vets consider you to be uninsured if you have cover provided by that company so you would have to pay & then try & claim back your outlay.

STEER CLEAR OF E&L!!!!!!
 
Public liability is a must but good cover is readily available for a sensible price £60 a year from BHS Gold membership or membership of BD BS etc.

Vets fees is the next big consideration - as above if you have/ can get a few £000's easily then insurance might not be critical but it would be a tough decision to have to make if you didn't have the cash to treat something fixable. My old horse had a small kick on his hock (joint flust and associated treatment was £3500 - without complications and he fully recovered)
The trouble with savings is that you can have an accident on day 2 when you haven' t saved very much yet !!
On the other side of the coin is the fact that insurance companies only exist because overall people pay them more than they pay out - so overall insurance is more expensive - but individual people certainly can claim more than they pay !!
 
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