To claim or not? Pros and cons...?

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Charlie007

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Quick bit of back ground: Horse slighty stiff in back fetlock once or twice over last few weeks, not lame. Decided to get vet as he is 14 and wanted to make sure there was no underlying reason.

Last Friday vet came out, trotted up sound, flexion test sound.
Came back today to scan. Found nothing horrible so very hopefull. Today he examined him, scanned him, dope injection. Said give him bute for a period of time, bring back into light work, keep eye on it etc. He has also advised having bar shoes on the back, which farrier has kindly said he will write the invoice stating on vet advice so that I could claim that amount back if I wanted.

So so far
Call out x 2
examine x 2
dope inj
scan
bute
bar shoes

Any idea how much this will be? Will ring vet in the morning to check anyway. If I don't claim now I am worried that if he needs more treatment then I will be too late to claim, and If I do claim E and L will probably tell me that after this treatment his leg will not be covered anymore? Advice please!! also in NL
 
Claim as your policy sholuld state that you should notify them with any treatment your horse recieves. If you don't claim and have something similiar in the future they still won't pay so you might as well get what you can now.
 
Claim if I were you.
As its now on your horses vet history it will probably be excluded in future anyway i.e. when you fill out the claim forms E and L will also request your horses entire vet history since you'e owned him/her. May be a bit different in this case though in that there is no diagnosis yet.
 
You might as well claim because if you claim for anything else in the future the insurance company (E&L - what were you thinking of?) will request the horse's veterinary history and will exclude anything which appears on it, regardless of whether you have claimed for it or not.

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't......
 
as the others have said, you might as well claim because regardless of whether you do or dont it wont be covered in future as insurance company will ask for full history next time you try and claim. Mind you, i wonder if there's any point trying to claim from E&L - it's probably more hassle than it's worth!
 
Hi! Agree with others, claim! You will have a year on your insurance from first visit of vet so if your horse has to have more related treatment, it will be covered. And you will (unless you are very lucky) have to declare what you have the vet out for at renewal time, so they will then exclude any relative conditions. Don't you just love insurance?!
 
Thank you for all your replies. I eventually got through to the claims department and they are sending a form out. Once (hopefully) they have accepted the claim I will cancel my dog insurance and trailer insurance and move to another company! Wish I had done it sooner!
 
I have been with the NFU for years and they are brilliant. They are not the cheapest, but every aspect of their service is spot on IMO.

I have been really unlucky with my horses and have already put through large bills and a loss of use claim on one mare. Lightning has struck again and I am currently facing them with 3.6k vet bills and an 8.5k loss of use claim. As ever, they are handling everything promptly and professionally.

I know people whinge and moan about insurance premiums being too high etc, but just looking at the 'totally out of the blue' claims I have made, on two quality horses that were 5* vetted, x-rayed, and well kept, who you would never have thought would have either condition they do and you can see it is worth every penny!
 
PS NFU will put your trailer on the same policy too and I found them cost-effective for this too. They don't do dogs though (at least I think they don't). Try TESCO for that; I have also (unfortunately) had to claim heavily on Tesco for two spaniels who were very ill (one with IMTP, one with IMHA) and they too processed claims effectively and sympathetically....

Maybe I shouldn't bother with pets and horses... shame they ARE worth all the heartache!
 
I was thinking about going with NFU, so will have to look futher into it. Need to change my little dogs policy and also add the new lab pup so I will have a look at Tesco over the weekend, thanks for the recommendations xx
 
Tesco offer 10% off to new online customers. They were also running a bonus to recommend a friend, so if you have any friends who are currently customers, fill in the form and split the bonus between you. (NB check their website as I did this a few months ago when we added new cocker pup). Go for their best cover if you can afford it; well worth it.
 
The NFU do insure dogs I have my pup insured with them. There cover is excellent its for life, illness suffered is not excluded. My old Lab had OCD and had to be on medication for the rest of his life. So as long as you don't exceed your limit you are covered .
 
Ooh, I didn't know that. Shame I have my pup sorted now, but suppose I did already have Big Dog with Tesco anyway so makes sense to do same for both AND they were fab with my two old cockers. I'm sure their dog ins would be as good as their horse though. Sounds like you have some shopping around to do to see who can give you the best deal!
 
Charlie007 said:
Thank you for all your replies. I eventually got through to the claims department and they are sending a form out. Once (hopefully) they have accepted the claim I will cancel my dog insurance and trailer insurance and move to another company! Wish I had done it sooner!
Click to expand...

Be warned - you will have to pay the rest of your premium if you claim - you can't just cancel and stop payments (if you pay monthly). I learned from harsh experience :(
 
Really? Is this E&L specific? I've not heard of this before....or been in that position.... but I suppose if you are in essence defaulting on your contract whilst they are paying something that refers to that period, it maybe does may sense. Hhmmm....

My only query would be why did NFU reduce the amount I paid each month when my mare's value decreased after her loss of use claim (and they paid my loss of use lump sum)? If you apply the theory above, they should claim the same monthly amount until the contract has expired... Double hhmmmm. Anyone out there work in insurance who can advise?
 
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