Insurance - am I being a bit dim? Please help!

[Feawen]

Firstly, I’m very excited; I am having a horse vetted on Monday! Eep!

One of the mysteries of horse ownership is insurance - I’m baffled. I’ve had a few quotes from insurers but they’re saying £65-£90 per month! Is that just what it costs or am I doing it wrong?

I have public liability cover via the bhs and am weighing up whether to stick with that. I have an emergency fund anyway and I’d rather stick £90 per month into there I think. Is this a bad idea?

-scratches head-

 

[Kite_Rider]

It really depends what you are insuring for really, are you covering vets bills, loss of use, tack etc, how old and how valuable is the horse, what will you be doing with it? All of those add up, I currently pay £40 a month for Belle who is 22 and only insured for vets bills, is worth nothing and all I do is hack, so yes I guess it could soon creep up.

 

[Feawen]

Thanks for your reply KiteRider - £40-50 was about what I’d expected.

A frustrating thing I’ve noticed is that, even though I only want to insure for vet bills and not loss of use, the value of the horse has an impact. If I say he’s half the price the cost of insurance almost halves .

I find the categories frustrating - we will mainly be hacking, schooling and competing bd, but I might do the odd entry level Trec, clear round jumping or xc clinic. Trec is in the same category as advanced eventing with one insurer . I assume whoever thought that up has never seen Trec. Affiliated dressage is also apparently more dangerous than unaff.

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

if you don't want loss of use then insure for the minimum value you can get away with if all you want are vets fees. Depending on the age of the horse look closely at what they do then it turns 15+ as some policies are very punitive once they become a veteran. Pet Plan are good for the older horse, a bit of a pain to deal with on claims but their basic costs are fairly ok. Ideally insure them for 2 weeks before they arrive as otherwise they have reduced cover, so if you get caught out in those two weeks, you can find you have cover removed completely for that condition i.e. they will cover a fracture, a colic, but other stuff they won't but you have to declare it...

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

Agree with loss of use. Albi who I compete bd is insured for the lowest they would cover even through now he is worth a lot more but vet fees are what was important to me.

Even if you insure for loss if use at current value but then after a couple of years the horses value goes up you have to prove that the horse was now worth that much more than purchase price.

Also please be aware that some policy class elementary bd as a higher lever and will cost more

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Some insurers let you choose what you are paying for, so you can see how the cost adds up. Vets fees are the lion's share of cost, not surprisingly. Loss of use and public liability less so.

You could try a broker. I ended up going with Jessey's recommendation of SEIB - they were very helpful and sorted out a policy that did what I wanted and didn't break the bank.

 

[Feawen]

if you don't want loss of use then insure for the minimum value you can get away with if all you want are vets fees.

Absolutely, though I can’t insure him for less than I’d be paying for him, despite not wanting loss of use. I really cannot see what impact the value of the horse has on the cost of any vet bills he might incur (rant at insurance in general, not at you )

Also please be aware that some policy class elementary bd as a higher lever and will cost more

Wah! Thanks, will look out for that.

 

[Jessey]

The value of the horse doesn't impact vets fees, it effects death pay out amount, that's why it effects premium prices.

 

[Bodshi]

I'm with SEIB and have always found them very helpful, the girls in the office are lovely. At my last renewal they talked me through all the ways I could reduce my premium and spent quite a bit of time with me adding and removing items from the policy to see what difference it made to the premium until we settled on a solution (then I added hunting, which took my premiums back up to where they had been in the first place )

 

[Jessey]

I'm with SEIB and have always found them very helpful, the girls in the office are lovely. At my last renewal they talked me through all the ways I could reduce my premium and spent quite a bit of time with me adding and removing items from the policy to see what difference it made to the premium until we settled on a solution (then I added hunting, which took my premiums back up to where they had been in the first place )

I've done the same with SEIB, got it down to about £35 a month now with tweeks to value and voluntary excess

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

in the past I have managed to insure mine for the minimum of £500 or £700 and get vets fees on that basis, check the forms if they don't ask for the purchase price then you can get a reduced premium but it will affect and death benefit.

 

[Feawen]

The value of the horse doesn't impact vets fees, it effects death pay out amount, that's why it effects premium prices.

Logically I would have assumed your explanation is right but insurance logic is apparently not my logic I guess some insurers must bundle those things together , because reducing the cost of the horse reduces the cost of the vet cover section in the breakdown. I checked by opening a private browser window and going through the forms again at half the horse's price.

in the past I have managed to insure mine for the minimum of £500 or £700 and get vets fees on that basis, check the forms if they don't ask for the purchase price then you can get a reduced premium but it will affect and death benefit.

Thank you - I'm a bit cautious as obviously it would be possible to prove that I bought the horse at the price I paid, if that makes sense. Maybe I should suck it up for the first year or so, then suggest that because the horse is older he has reduced in value...

Thank you all for your help. Interesting that there are a couple of recommendations for SEIB - they came out as the most expensive on my online research but maybe it's worth giving them a call to see what they can do.

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

I have used Pet Plan for years and found them the cheapest, used to use KBIS

 

[Jessey]

Logically I would have assumed your explanation is right but insurance logic is apparently not my logic I guess some insurers must bundle those things together , because reducing the cost of the horse reduces the cost of the vet cover section in the breakdown. I checked by opening a private browser window and going through the forms again at half the horse's price.



Thank you - I'm a bit cautious as obviously it would be possible to prove that I bought the horse at the price I paid, if that makes sense. Maybe I should suck it up for the first year or so, then suggest that because the horse is older he has reduced in value...

Thank you all for your help. Interesting that there are a couple of recommendations for SEIB - they came out as the most expensive on my online research but maybe it's worth giving them a call to see what they can do.

I think some companies give less vet cover for lower value horses but I've always just had 5k.
Seib aren't the cheapest, but there's some brokers and underwriters that offer lower costs but are known for being a pain to get pay outs from, it's a toss up.

 

[joellie]

I used to be with petplan but found they just kept increasing every year even though I hadn't claimed. I am now with NFU , public liability , vet fees and rider cover.
I pay £500 and even though I claimed for his cushings meds for a year after being diagnosed they didn't increase it the following year.