NFU vs BASC/petplan

SimpleSimon

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I'm about to embark on the dog insurance minefield, can anyone offer any experience of either NFU or BASC/PetPlan?
My father said that he was happy with petplan until the dog (now long gone) started getting older and the premium flew up beyond the realms of reasonable. I can, to an extent, see why this is (the older the dog, the more prone it will potentially be to illness, injury, etc) but it seems a bit harsh that you could go 9 years without a claim and then be hit with double the premium because your dog got old. Is this the case with all insurers?
I have heard good things about NFU on here and elsewhere, are they good to deal with for claims, is the premium reasonable, etc?
I'm not simply looking for the cheapest cover going, but I don't have the money to be getting ripped off of it comes to a claim or finding out in a few years time that the only way to keep my dog insured is to start paying out more than it costs to insure my motorcycle.
Thanks all in advance for your insight
 
Hi SS.

My wife and I have four dogs ( 3 x Labs & 1 x GWP ) insured with NFU. Only the GWP is insured as a working dog, as he is / will be on deer full time. However, the 3 labs are `pets` as they do not work all year, and then only once / twice a week in the season.

I have had to claim twice so far... £ 750 for my lab who cut a rear leg tendon on Beaters Day, and then £ 1200 for my GWP who ran in to a tree and damaged a rear leg on the stifle joint. Both times NFU paid up without question, and were actually very helpful in the process in making sure that I had completed treatment for the dogs before they concluded the payment.

However, I think they will only do Pet Insurance for you if you have another policy with them, House / Car etc... but we also insure vehicles so I do not know for sure...

Based on their cover / premiums and their reputation we have been with them for over 10 years now, and they have never let us down.

BTW - one of our labs is 10 years old, and they have not raised the issue of age, or premium on that dog.

All the best.

Neil.
 
Thanks Neil, very helpful input. You say they're insured as pets, do NFU allow them to be worked "non-professionally" under the policy or are you just not letting on?
By happy coincidence, I need new contents insurance, so I'll enquire about both.
 
Look at the cover limits on the policy and whether that money is per condition or per year. You NEED a policy that continues paying for life. Any pre-existing conditions will be excluded.

Cheap insurance is only ever cheap for a reason. I'd have no problem with either of the above companies, but there are some out there who seem to not pay more often than they do pay!

Read the small print. I know it's long and boring, but you need to know what is and what is not covered. People moan when a claim is rejected and without fail they are trying to claim something that they are not insured for, but they did not read the small print. Some play sneaky ticks and won't pay out if the dogs boosters are not up to date etc.

I know quite a lot of vets who use PetPlan for their own pets. They are filling in claims for all the insurance companies so it's funny why they gravitate there.

We have practically everything insured with the NFU and they seem great. Never done a pet insurance claim with them, but farm claims sail through. Not sure anyone else is paying out for stolen Landrovers with the key left in......

Whatever you do don't plug the details into a comparison website and pick the cheapest. Please don't
 
My dog Katie is insured with Esure, claim came to over six thousand. Cannot fault the company. Best £25 per month I have ever spent. Other dogs are with direct line. Again no hassle but purely for pets. jim
 
Look at the cover limits on the policy and whether that money is per condition or per year. You NEED a policy that continues paying for life. Any pre-existing conditions will be excluded.

Cheap insurance is only ever cheap for a reason. I'd have no problem with either of the above companies, but there are some out there who seem to not pay more often than they do pay!

Read the small print. I know it's long and boring, but you need to know what is and what is not covered. People moan when a claim is rejected and without fail they are trying to claim something that they are not insured for, but they did not read the small print. Some play sneaky ticks and won't pay out if the dogs boosters are not up to date etc.

I know quite a lot of vets who use PetPlan for their own pets. They are filling in claims for all the insurance companies so it's funny why they gravitate there.

We have practically everything insured with the NFU and they seem great. Never done a pet insurance claim with them, but farm claims sail through. Not sure anyone else is paying out for stolen Landrovers with the key left in......

Whatever you do don't plug the details into a comparison website and pick the cheapest. Please don't

I went with John Lewis for the new Lab. I rang around all the usual suspects and JLP insure differently to most others, as they pay for a condition for life, not until the pot runs out leaving you with thumping great bills for the rest of pup's natural.

He is covered for shooting as long as he's only with me, and I'm not being paid for his work.
 
I would happily recommend MoreThan. We insured the pup with their premium cover for less than 12 quid a month (it was through a 'crowd discount' promotion offered for labradoodle owners! :oops:). There is lifetime cover with 12 grand annual limit. No exclusions for repeat conditions and the excess was low and only payable once per year even if you claim multiple times. As he got a fracture at 4 months we've gone through the claim process already and all good - £3 grand claim from multiple vets and over a period of time. It's all gone through without a hitch and they have been excellent to deal with on the phone throughout.
 
Thanks Neil, very helpful input. You say they're insured as pets, do NFU allow them to be worked "non-professionally" under the policy or are you just not letting on?
By happy coincidence, I need new contents insurance, so I'll enquire about both.

Hi SS.

We insured with NFU after discussion with our local office, NFU Marlow. The discussion was along the lines of 3 Labs `working` one maybe two days out of seven, from 20th Oct to 01st Feb ( so 30 days max out of 3.5 months approx ) with then 8.5 months ( approx 290 days ) of the year not even setting paw on the shoot....

NFU were really amenable to the logic, and as long as we increased our excess to £100 ( not standard £50 ) for any claim, then they would not class the dogs as `working`....

Accidents / injuries can happen anywhere - even when out walking your dog in the local wood / park, so while we were being honest with NFU, they were very open in setting the terms of the policy. I rate them very highly.

All the best.

Neil.
 
I went with John Lewis for the new Lab. I rang around all the usual suspects and JLP insure differently to most others, as they pay for a condition for life, not until the pot runs out leaving you with thumping great bills for the rest of pup's natural.

He is covered for shooting as long as he's only with me, and I'm not being paid for his work.

+1 for John Lewis, not cheap but my 2 Weimaraner's have £12,000 of cover per year on a "life policy". A good job as my 6 year old bitch was diagnose with heart failure in January, she's now claiming about £1,000 per month on the insurance and if (when) she dies before the age of 9 they will pay us her original cost, as they did with my dog who died at 7 1/2 years.
What Apatchy says about not going cheap is spot on, very wise advice
Wingy
 
Hi SS.

We insured with NFU after discussion with our local office, NFU Marlow. The discussion was along the lines of 3 Labs `working` one maybe two days out of seven, from 20th Oct to 01st Feb ( so 30 days max out of 3.5 months approx ) with then 8.5 months ( approx 290 days ) of the year not even setting paw on the shoot....

NFU were really amenable to the logic, and as long as we increased our excess to £100 ( not standard £50 ) for any claim, then they would not class the dogs as `working`....

Accidents / injuries can happen anywhere - even when out walking your dog in the local wood / park, so while we were being honest with NFU, they were very open in setting the terms of the policy. I rate them very highly.

All the best.

Neil.


I have done a lot if work for NFU (as well as all other insurers) over the years and I believe NFU are the best insurer around. They care more and their customer service is very good. I have 3 dogs insured with them.
 
Hi all,
Just thouget I'd update with my findings for anyone reading this who might be in a similar predicament.
I ended up going with petplan under the guise of BASC, which covers the dog for recreational (not for payment or gain) stalking/picking up/beating/tracking/whatever.
The bloke at NFU direct didn't seem to be able or willing to insure a working pet. It was either pet insurance or working dog insurance and as soon as I mentioned working her that's all he was interested in. To cut a long story short the BASC/petplan cover was cheaper, covers more and has the all-important lifetime cover which NFU only offered on the pet policy.
I do suspect that options still exist for a working pet type cover with NFU, but my local branch said they weren't able to do anything for me as I'd taken out my home contents with NFU direct. I am a bit disappointed as NFU have a brilliant reputation and only having one insurance company to deal with for everything was appealing, but at almost £10 a month more for lower cover, there was no way.
 
May I ask, if you get paid for beating/picking up, will your cover be void?

Having looked through all the paperwork, it specifically excludes "any dog used for security, guarding, track racing or coursing"
Then it says I must inform them if "(my) dog is connected in any way with a trade, occupation or business"
It also says they won't pay out in 3rd party liability claims if the dog is at my place of work (although I think BASC would cover that anyway in relation to beating, etc?)

So, I guess if you're getting paid for beating or picking up it could be considered a trade, occupation or business. But then again I think the chances of them querying it would be slim.

It was a tiny bit disappointing to find that all you get is a discount off a standard petplan policy, there's nothing in there that I can tell is bespoke towards gundogs/deer dogs, etc. Unless there is usually an exclusion in place, obviously I can't see what they might have left off the certificate...
 
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Just as a point of interest,when BASC jumped on the Gundog insurance bandwagon, I rang up the said company to insure two working gundogs only to be told by two different people that they do not insure working dog's!!!! .NFU get my vote.Wf1
 
I wouldn't assume anything from an insurance company, and in the event of a claim I think they will query anything that might void the claim
 
Evening all

Firstly - the 'place of work' exclusion on the BASC policy means in an office or factory for example, and not when beating or picking up. There is no exclusion on the BASC gundog policy if you get paid a few quid for you gundog work in relation to your recreational shooting activity.

Secondly, working dogs in the context of dogs used by way of business, like guard dogs, tracking / sniffer dogs for example are excluded. Working dogs as you or I understand them in the context of recreational shooting certainly are although I accept that there were a few teething problems with the Pet Plan call centre over this definition, but when ever a member contacted us over this, we resolved the issue every time.

The standard PP policy does not cover working gundogs- that's the difference between that and the BASC version

As to jumping on the bandwagon, well this was quite a while ago, we were offering dog insurance from before I started working for BASC, almost 19 years ago...

David
 
Evening all

Firstly - the 'place of work' exclusion on the BASC policy means in an office or factory for example, and not when beating or picking up. There is no exclusion on the BASC gundog policy if you get paid a few quid for you gundog work in relation to your recreational shooting activity.

Secondly, working dogs in the context of dogs used by way of business, like guard dogs, tracking / sniffer dogs for example are excluded. Working dogs as you or I understand them in the context of recreational shooting certainly are although I accept that there were a few teething problems with the Pet Plan call centre over this definition, but when ever a member contacted us over this, we resolved the issue every time.

The standard PP policy does not cover working gundogs- that's the difference between that and the BASC version

As to jumping on the bandwagon, well this was quite a while ago, we were offering dog insurance from before I started working for BASC, almost 19 years ago...

David

Thanks David. Could I suggest that BASC speak to petplan regarding the policy wording/accompanying info so that the points raised are clarified a little better in there?
As I said, when mine arrived it looked pretty much like I'd just bought a normal PP policy (the cover details just say Petplan Classic and there's no mention anywhere of BASC) so I could be forgiven for wondering if it was actually any different aside from being a bit cheaper.

Maybe they could include a note along the lines of your post "As BASC member, petplan offers you these additional conditions/benefits, etc... "

Just a thought.
 
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