I think looking at all the quotes above I would personally go with the M&S policy with the full amount being reinstated every year

I have my two insured with MoreThan and M&S and the M&S is the best policy by far.

Yes, I would agree it looks the best policy, but my worry is that alot of members seem to say that it starts as a good policy but then the premiums shoot up for no reason, even if you haven't claimed.

Is that the same for you Carole?

The premiums shot up in policies from August 2006 as there was some kind of restructure within M&S and Axa. It was nothing to do with giving you a cheap policy to reel you in and then bump up the prices.

The policy I had for Finn was £8.70 a month for the first few years and then with the new higher rate it went up to £14.36 a month which is still great value for the policy. They have also paid out around £500 - 600 in claims no questions asked last year.

If you do decide to go with them phone and speak to them first just to make sure they are not intending to do this massive increase again though

I know Carole said that Dogs are a lot more with M&S than bitches but when my renewal came & it had doubled I asked them for a quote for a non-existting bitch same age same breed & all other details the same as my dog & it was only a couple of pounds chneaper per month. M&S are underwritten by AXA & I have seen somewhere that if you go to AXA direct you can get similar cover to M&S for a
lot less. That may be worth persuing.

Same here, I pay 75%more for my dogs than I do for my bitches. . I'm with E&L by the way.

I had insured Oscar with Direct Line. They settled my claim within 1 month of his death. During that month they sent a condolence card and offered free counselling service. The premium was less than most and I think the excess was £60.

Well I found a pet insurance reviews site and so have been reading through there. The M&S one did get a good review generally, although people were complaining aboout the jump in premimums, but there was an experts review on there and they seemed to think it was reasonable to restucture prices according to dog breed as the vet charges per size of dog.

Anyhow, I also got a quote from AXA just to see, and it was cheaper ...
£106.66 for the year with £50 excess. "All reasonable and customary costs for treatment of your pet by a vet up to £7,000 per policy year". I think this is a life cover policy, but I would have to phone and confirm that I have got that right.

Again though, in the reviews, people were upset by a 'premium review.


This is proving quite a learning curve for me, and just want to Thank everyone for their help and comments.

I'm hopeful I might actually get to sort this out by Wednesday yet!

Edit to add: Direct line seem to be £6000 limit per policy although the premiums were ok at £12.58 per month and £65 excess but again, I would worry about the limit running out on me.

When I read this post I got a bit worried re the bit in bold above and phoned More Than and the guy I spoke to explained it like this. If say your dog was injured in an accident and had to have a few big ops which used almost all the £7,000 then say a year down the line something cropped up with your dog resulting from this accident then they would only pay the remainder of this £7.000. But if your dog a year or so down the line had another problem say a heart problem or anything not related to the accident then the £7,000 is payable again. So it does not mean that you can only claim the £7,000 once . If it is a different illness, but it would mean if your dog developed Arthritis or similar and you claimed for the medicines that it had to be on for life say at £60 per month which is approx £720 per year then after 10 years you would have used up your £7,000, for this parcular illness and that it what they mean by £7,000 per illness or injury for life. Hope this has explained it and helps you in your decision.

The quote from Axa sounds okay, but other than having been told that they work out cheaper I really don't know anything else about them.

Thanks, that does clear up that issue for me.
Sorry if I gave you any worries over it.

I am between M&S and AXA at the moment I think.
I phoned M&S and their policy is £7,000 per year.
AXA on the other hand are £7,000 per condition per year. (Edit to say I misinformed and this policy is also per year, NOT per condition).

They are very similar policies, the other difference is that M&S give £750 cover for accidental damage to your own property whereas AXA say £500 accidental damage to someone else's.

M&S, as I said quoted £123.83 with £50 excess for the year.
AXA £106.66 with the £50 excess.
Both are life covers.


I think on balance it looks more favourable for the AXA one at the moment.

Just wanted to post an update as I'm hoping my 'journey' along the minefield of pet insurance has been helpful for others as well.

I have finally chosen and paid for my policy!!!

I finally chose the M&S policy for £123.83 as being 'Mrs Cautious' I phoned AXA and M&S once more this morning to get final confirmation of their policies and it turns out I was misinformed and that AXA is also per year and NOT per condition.

Thanks again to everyone who helped and commented on this thread.