Pet Insurance News Articles

Insurers have reported a dramatic rise in fraud in the pet insurance market. It appears the grim economy has led many people to desperate measures.

According to the Association of British Insurers, the total value of fraudulent claims that are detected has risen to just under £2 million a year -- up from just £420,000 the previous year.

The cases involve a wide variety of tactics, most commonly exaggerating Full Story

The cost of the average pet insurance claim has risen by more than a third in the past year. It's been caused by rocketing vet bills for treatment.

The figures, from Sainsbury's Pet Insurance, cover all claims made in 2010. The average claim for crossbreed dogs was £416.35, compared with £333.83 in 2009. The average claim for crossbreed cats was £327.54, up from Full Story

A major pet insurer has cancelled lifetime policies for customers, giving some just three weeks notice. The issue is being taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

In the case of Petguard, the "lifetime" referred to the fact that annual limits for payouts for particular conditions would be reset each year if coverage was renewed. However, the small print stated that each year's policy was a standalone contract and thus the insurer was under no obligation to Full Story

Humans love their pets sometimes as much as people, which may be why they put up with the damage they cause! That's the conclusions from two separate insurance related surveys this week.

According to the Co-operative Pet Insurance, 28% of people believe a pet dying could be as emotionally painful as a family member's death, while 34% likened the experience to the death of a friend. Full Story

British pet owners will spend more than £100 million on presents for their animals this year, one insurer says.

According to a survey by The Co-operative Insurance, the average figure of £11.78 per pet owner is 10% higher than last year. That's in contrast to another survey question which found that 45% of people planned to spend less on gifts for human friends and Full Story

The Government has backed down on plans to force all dog owners to insure their pet against damage caused by it attacking someone else. The climbdown comes just a week after the scheme was announced.

The plan had come under widespread criticism, including a Conservative party poster using the Churchill insurance advert character, dubbing the measure a dog tax. Insurers dubbed the scheme unworkable, saying few firms would be willing to offer cover at affordable Full Story

The government is planning a scheme by which all dogs in the United Kingdom would have to be insured. The mandatory pet insurance coverage would be designed to pay compensation in the event that the dog attacked a person.

The scheme is part of a package of rules designed to cut down the number of attacks and make it easier to deal with those which do occur. It stems from concerns that with most breeds of dogs, an attack on private property makes it legally difficult to successfully Full Story

This year's bitterly cold winter has made pet insurance even more beneficial according to specialist firms. One company says a customer saved more than £5,000 by being suitably covered before an icy disaster.

PetPlan says a pet poodle belonging to a customer was playing in the garden, slipped on ice and wound up crashing into a patio door, suffering both internal bleeding and a broken spinal Full Story

UK pet owners are being urged to prevent access to medications following a large increase in pet poisoning reports according to Marks and Spencer pet insurance.

The growing problem of pet poisonings has resulted in a 34% year-on-year increase in reported cases to Vetfone, a 24-hour advice line available to M&S Pet Insurance policy holders.

One of the major increases of Full Story

The Post Office has today increased it's growing range of financial services products with the addition of a new pet insurance policy.

Underwritten by Axa, Post office pet insurance is designed to meet the real needs of UK cat and dog owners with a comprehensive policy that covers vet bills up to a maximum of £5,000 per condition. With the majority of pet insurance Full Story