A little slow but no quibbles

For the first time in years, I actually saved money by sticking with Axa rather than switching to a new policy (healthy, middle age dogs with no pre-existing conditions, which has always put me in good stead to shop around and compare the top policies). Their premiums rose by just under £5 for each dog, but this was in line with costs of new policies elsewhere - and a very good deal considering the quotes I was getting back at similar or higher prices included new customer discounts or deals. Axa's renewal even came in 50p or so cheaper than their own new customer quotes, so I was very impressed.
Having dealt with my first claim this year, I felt it was worth giving the company a review - often you find people moan about bad experiences but forget to post the good ones.
The first hurdle was getting my vets to claim direct. No problem at all, really! Although my vets usually work on a policy of needing a pre-authorisation form, Axa don't issue these for claims under around the £250 mark, but were happy to note on my account that I had given permission for my vets to phone in and discuss my policy. My vets the called in to check for exclusions and clarify that the procedure would most likely be fully claimable, and were happy to go by this. I dropped my claim form in and my vets did the rest. Axa did, sadly, live up to their reputation of being a little slow and didn't stick to their claim of paying out within 7 days, which wasn't an issue with a direct claim but may have been more of a problem if I was paying out myself. Once this was all sorted, my vet had to file a second claim for further medication for the now-diagnosed health condition and this went through a lot quicker than the first claim, which was reassuring.
I found that customer services was fab with all my questions - the health issue was a behavioural problem so I was unsure how it would work, but medical procedures come out of the £7k allowance regardless, which was a relief - the £250 behavioural allowance is handy but wouldn't go very far with multiple blood tests! They were also great at checking up on where my claim was progressing when I phoned to query it.
I will have to wait and see what happens come the next renewal date - hopefully my faith will remain intact and premiums won't rise too dramatically, I will make sure to review them again when I find out!