Ridiculous increase in insurance premium

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MochaDun

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I will have to do battle with the company I currently insure my horse with on Monday as I've had my renewal paperwork through today and they have increased my premium by £62.88 for the coming year. This apparently is taking into account a discount of £53 already so can anyone tell me who knows anything about horse insurance what possible justification there can be for that money-grabbing increase? I hasten to add nothing has changed in my policy across the last year, I've made no claim and in 5 years of having horse insurance (first 4 years with a different company) I have never had such a ridiculous increase in premium.

Any tips from any of you who have challenged such price hikes and won and got it brought down a bit I would love to hear, thank you!
 
Last year NFU put my policy up by nearly £200 per year following 2 years of no claims!!! Funnily enough they no longer have my business....!!!

I didn't query it - maybe I should have! You could try phoning up and questioning them and tell them what other companies have quoted you. It works with car/house insurance some times so don't see why not horse insurance!!!
 
It wasn't Petplan was it? Mine has just gone up by £5 a month like it did last year and I haven't made a claim for over 3 years. Am thinking of changing as mine is £55.54 a month and back, spine pelvis and associated soft tissue structures are excluded anyway.
 
Have you actually contacted them to ask why? You haven't said how much % wise that s on your actual premium. If your premium is quite substantial then that could be a relatively small % increase.

I would suggest that this price hike is most likely down to rating increases in general premiums as, although people seem to think horse insurance companies try to 'get out' of paying claims, the truth is they pay out one hell of a lot (mostly in vets fees as you can imagine) and, seeing as average premiums are around £300-£350 you can imagine how much a few £5000 vets fees claims knock down the amount of money insurers actually make!

Hence sadly premiums do go up! However, if you are indeed claim free then i would siggest you call your insurance company and see if there is anything they can do with your premium. If you are claim free it is likely your policy has gone through on an automatic renewal basis - ie was not stopped and looked over so general rate increases would have applied.

If they cannot reduce your premium and they cannot help then shop about.
 
Well mine is £668 for a horse that is insured for £2500 and no loss of use. I grant you vet fees are high but if the average premium is £300 - £350 then why is mine nearly double that? I did ring Petplan the year before last and it was put down by £5 a month and then put back up again the next year and again this year. Ive had about a 20% increase in two years. He is 15 this year so maybe they think he is a bigger risk. I will be shopping around.
 
sussexbythesea said:
Well mine is £668 for a horse that is insured for £2500 and no loss of use. I grant you vet fees are high but if the average premium is £300 - £350 then why is mine nearly double that? I did ring Petplan the year before last and it was put down by £5 a month and then put back up again the next year and again this year. Ive had about a 20% increase in two years. He is 15 this year so maybe they think he is a bigger risk. I will be shopping around.
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You are JOKING?! I pay less than that for a horse insured for 5K, including for affiliated eventing, with LoU and 3K of tack cover. And no I am not with an ExtremeLy badly thought of company (if you catch my drift ;) )

You need to shop around, try Am-Trust - they underwrite themselves so do not whack ridiculous exclusions on policies, which is how I ended up with them after KBIS tried to put the most ridiculous blanket exclusion on my horse I have ever come across in my life, and refused to negotiate over it.
 
Ive just cancelled the insurance for my 2 with NFU as it was heading up towards £700 even tho Ive never ever claimed for anything in 11 years and already removed loss of use last year AND they are changing it from 'cover everything except excluded conditions' to 'excluding everything that theyve ever had even if no claim'.

Since my big chap is 17 (other one is only 6) hes had the usual leg knocks and mild colic, I didnt claim for these, but no doubt anything involving legs or body would now be excluded, so it only leaves his head. It means theres no incentive for people not to claim for every little thing now, and punishes those who havent like me! I hate arguing with companies so avoided claiming.

Am putting the cash in savings a/c instead.
 
LadyT will be ringing them on Monday as only got to post late this evening. I will try and talk them down a bit but otherwise will shop round.

I just feel utterly fed up as I've been scrimping all year due to being made redundant and struggling still to get back up to my former level of income and it's just gutting when you see savings you've made in your budget by cutting whatever you can out of your life end up going off to some company.

My horse is only insured for £2K!

I just can't understand how horse insurance can rise so much when I've just renewed my house and contents policy and that's only gone up by £3 in a year and we all know with recent years of flooding, etc, what pressure and payments house insurance companies will have faced.
 
SpottedCat said:
You are JOKING?! I pay less than that for a horse insured for 5K, including for affiliated eventing, with LoU and 3K of tack cover. And no I am not with an ExtremeLy badly thought of company (if you catch my drift ;) )

You need to shop around, try Am-Trust - they underwrite themselves so do not whack ridiculous exclusions on policies, which is how I ended up with them after KBIS tried to put the most ridiculous blanket exclusion on my horse I have ever come across in my life, and refused to negotiate over it.
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Thanks for that recommendation ....Am-Trust. I am going through a battle with another well known company for stupid exclusions which they agreed to remove if my vet wrote in. Vet duly did and company said 'oh sorry, due to likely incidence of this condition occurring again, the answer is NO!' Grhhh!

My horse had the condition once, 7 yrs ago!

Am seriously contemplating giving up altogether and putting money in a savings acct. It's just that I want my 12yrs of premiums back !!
 
Urm.... vets are going to kill the golden goose - soon no one will be able to afford a good standard of insurance, and most insurance companies will exclude anything that has been claimed for in the past. My friend has a horse that reacts very badly to its annual flu jab (dont get me started on this annual jab its a money making joke!) now she is dammed - if she doesnt jab he isnt inusred, if she does jab he becomes excluded as he has internal/external reactions...! try working that one out.
Having 3 horses myself - I no longer insure - I am with the BHS for my liability
 
Agree Gingerwitch on 2 points! (i) if cancel insurance make sure you have BHS for the 3rd party liability side, I too have kept that (ii) My big chap had a recurrent virus (like ME, RVC were baffled by it!) which I believe was triggered by flu jab coming too soon after worming. Took us 18 months to get him right, and at one point he was very sick. He is semi retired now and doesnt mix with horses at shows etc, and in light of the jab reaction is no longer flu jabbed (with vet endorsement of this). Young girlie still has it (but not every 6 months like they try to make you, she has annual), and he still has Tet every 2 years. We worm count for worms and blood test for tape worm too, no more routine wormers,
 
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