The policy starts off as a good price but after year one the prices rocket up significantly (this year my increase was 15%, last year it was even more). They appear to think because its described as a lifetime policy you will feel locked in and pay whatever they decide to charge you. My dog had a cut to her paw when on holiday. The vets fee was just under £100. Even though the policy covered me they insisted I pay for a full vets report and an official translation of the report on top of the vets actual bill / receipt. They said I must pay for the cost of the vets report and the translation as that was not part of the dogs treatment. I had a vets bill giving a brief description of the treatment and cost breakdown, a receipt to show payment and to me this shows my claim was genuine. They were the ones asking for the extra report and translation yet they said that had to be done at my expense. I got the impression they were simply making it more expensive to avoid paying out even though I have an excellent claim history. You pay a premium service but when you try to claim they duck and dive.

Lack of communication with customers eg. Renewing cover without letting customer knowing (thereby breaking the Direct Debit Guarantee law!). Ignoring customer's requests eg. I asked that you to not comminicate with me about claims by email please but you've sent 2 more to date since I made the request!! Was told by Customer Services that you had defaulted to communicating with customers via email. I had not been asked if I would prefer paper or email communucations regarding claims - you just did it! You didn't even let me know that you'd done this! I wondered why I hadn't heard whether my recent claims had been paid and if so, how much had been paid and to whom (vet or me). I just happened to check my junk mail folder one day and there was an email from you about a claim I'd made recently. I thought it was spam so didn't open it at first, especially as the email address it had come from had the word 'newsletter' in it! Eventually I called petplan to see if you had indeed sent me an email about a recent claim and lo and behold, you had. Without telling me this was going to be the way you communicate with me in future. Without asking me if I wanted you to communicate with me this way. I've had to make a few claims recently - I wonder how many emails about them I've missed as my junk mail folder automatically deletes junk emails after a certain number of days!! If only you'd COMMUNICATED WITH ME!! Once pet is 10 yrs old (and therefore almost impossible to insure with another insurer) premiums and excess go up extortionately even if your pet has had no claims in the last 12 months plus and even though your cat has no current health/medical conditions. Instead if rewarding your loyal customers, you lump them in with everyone else all other pets of the same age irrespective of how long a policy holder has insured a pet or the actual medical status of the pet! You tell me every year that one of the reasons my premiums rise each year is because of increases in vet fees. Yet the maximum amount I can claim in a policy year hasn't risen for as long as I can remember (and I've been with you for 15 years). So we pay more for less treatment each year due to increased costs of treatment! Nice. If I could, I would definitely move my custom to another insurer but 2 of my pets are 15 years old. So you've got me. I have no choice but to stay with you. Unfortunately.

While Petplan is the obvious choice of my vet, and has dealt well with a couple of my previous claims in the past, I was losing the will to live with these two latest injuries. After phone call after phone call, email, forwarding claim forms, losing claim forms, failing to update my personal details, I have only just received an email informing me that payment for an injury dating back to December '16 has been paid into my account. While customer service has usually been polite on the phone, it certainly hasn't been competent. Really disappointed with Petplan.

A lot of mmoney has been paid monthly for pet insurance but when claiming it doesn't seem worth having. After minor treatment for foreign body in ear costing nearly £300 I received £98. If I have another pet I would seriously think about doing a savings account for pet emergency, putting £50 a month into account instead of paying into pet insurance. Sorry but thankfully my dog has been quite well and not had to claim before, he's 11 now. When I work out how much insurance I've paid I could have put that into an account, you don't get the money back if you don't claim with insurance.

,Several contacts to and frow.Moved house last year,so changed vets, BUT current vet got previous clinical from my previous vet. Initial claim not accepted! Asked previous vet to fax through clinical history from previous vet, which they confirmed they had done. Then told by your "outfit" that they hadn't got it.I told them to contact my previous vet as I am sick of doing the right thing and not being believed.THEN request from yourselves to provide Dog Trust report when re-homed LUCKY I STILL HAD IT. PHEW...what a hassle.You need better communication.Frustrated old lady!!!!

I am very disappointed with Petplan. We were told when we got our dog that Petplan insurance was one of the best and my vet also said they were good. However over the last few claims I have submitted I feel they have tried every trick in the book not to pay out even when my vet believed they were justified. I would not use them again if I were to get another dog or recommend to anyone else.

pet plan staff very helpful emergency vets took long tim eto send over claim to pet plan which isn't good when the cost of treatment had to be paid in full up front

I am very unhappy with the amount my payments have increased over the years and also the vast increase in the excess amount. My dog who is now aged 13 needs medication for arthritis and because of the increase in my excess amount and monthly payments i am no better off with the insurance. When taking out a policy i think customers should be made aware that the monthly payments will drastically increase as their pet grows older.

First submitted claim I was told was either not received or could be held up in post room. Email was then sent by vet but was again supposedly not received. Finally another email was sent which was processed and hopefully I have been told money should be in my account in the next few days. Maybe I have just been unlucky but have been left feeling a bit disappointed.

It took over 2 months and lots of prompts to pay out a claim. They paid for the first episode but there are two episodes on the claim form. Every time I contacted them they said my vets needed to provide the history. I've claimed for this condition over 20 times. They contacted my vets but the email didn't get there as address typed in incorrectly so email wasn't received, so it just got lost off the radar - I had to chase it up. The claim wasn't checked properly therefore £300 missed from being paid. It took a lot of time and persistence to get it back. Eventually my vet had to ring and talk through the claim form to get some action on paying it out!

Yet again there has been an increase in my annual excess without me being informed as well as my monthly premiums. Every time I have submitted a claim it seems to get lost and instead of receiving payment in 10 days I have to phone numerous times and usually get the claim about a month later.

Took a month to settle claim. I spoke to an advisor who told me they had contacted my vet who had not responded. I spoke to my vets and they said this was not the case. I phoned Petplan again all within half an hour and this time a different advisor told me there was no reason the claim should not have been paid as they were not waiting for information. I asked to be contacted by post and I received an email. i asked for my claim to be settled by cheque and it was sent direct to my bank so not one thing seemed to be carried out as requested.

1. Arranging payment of my recent claim has been straightforward and reasonably quick, however I would value more information as to how the sum is reached e.g. How has the excess been calculated - I don't recognise this figure. I always ask my vet for an itemised bill and would like an itemised account from you. 2. A general point and the reason why I would not recommend to a friend is the compulsion to pay for pet overseas travel . The vast majority of people do not travel abroad with their pets and I see no reason why the many should subsidise the few. I feel especially strongly about this imposition as monthly cost of my pet's insurance now exceeds that of my own private health insurance. Can this be right?

The claim has been going on nearly 2 months with little information coming from PetPlan at all. Six weeks in to the claim there one request for full clinical history - why wasn't this asked for sooner? This was asked for after the out of hours vet chased it up as they are claiming their money. I was told the OOH vet organised the history. Then the claim was closed in under a week saying I hadn't provided information. I phoned and was told they had everything now and all was fine! Then a few days later one part has been paid and still waiting for the other parts with again no information as to why the claim is taking so long. Have used them a few years ago for my other dog and they were fabulous so this is a big disappointment. I am with a different vet now but that shouldn't be a problem. They need to inform customers what is happening. Target dates were set and long gone with no response from PetPlan. To date there has never been a response to any email I have sent. Shockingly poor from such a reputable company which I have been paying in to for many years.

Information told by your telephonist is not the same as received in correspondence from yourselves. This is very misleading and distressing to clients. Poor service.

First, thank you for finally paying my claim, although not in my account yet. I have never insured my dogs before doing so with Pet Plan now that I am retired and on limited income. I thought it would be worth the premiums in order to make me feel more secure if anything unexpected happened to one of my dogs. I have been with you for more than 3 years and this was my first claim. I was told that you were the 'best' and only wanted the 'best'for my beloved dogs. I have been extremely disappointed with your service,having waited 6 weeks to finally receive a communication from you. I followed the progress of the claim on line, it said it would be settled by the 1st of February. A few days before that deadline, I received a letter dated 24th January saying that I would hear from you within 10 working days! After that had passed, I sent an email asking for an update, that, and your self imposed deadlines were ignored. I did finally call and got a very nice man, who did apologize for the poor communication, and he said you were waiting for further past history on Tilly. Neither myself or the vets had been contacted about you wanting further information, and as I explained, she was a rescue dog and all the information we had on her was included in the claim. This whole thing has caused me a great deal of stress with your lack of communication in not knowing what was going on, or whether you would pay the claim or not. I hope you will make a very big improvement in your communication skills so that future clients do not have to go through what you have just put me through.

Although the service and payment was done with no fuss and pomp payment. I felt that the email sent to inform me that my claim had be delt with. It was the end of the email that I felt was insensitive as it wish me and my dog best wishes. As my dog had die due to this illness. Which they were aware of as I had tick the box on the claim form. This is the reason I have only given 2 stars.