“Absolutely outraged and disgusted with Helpucover pet insurance!! Our dog Millie had an accident on 9th Sept and since has had to go back to the vet on multiple occasions costing close to £200 for treatment! Today I contacted our pet insurance provider "Helpucover" who we have been with for over 3 years and never had to claim. When I called and explained Millie's accident and our claim they advised that because the accident happened on 9th Sept and our renewal started on 23rd Sept we would have to pay our excess fee of £90 twice as this is classed as 2 claims over 2 contract years!! Had our insurance not been due for renewal at the time we would only be charged one excess fee yet because we have remained a loyal customer and continued our pet insurance with them changing nothing on our policy just continuing with them, we are being charged double???? I don't understand how they can do this when it's the same policy, same excess fee, same injury?? Why can we not just pay one excess fee??
With the service we have received from the customer relations team I would not recommend anyone to go with this provider as they were completely unwilling to help with our claim or as a gesture of goodwill only charge us one excess fee terrible customer service and terrible attitudes from the staff!”
“I just read a review from someone who was annoyed that his renewal premium had increased by 25%. Well, I can beat that by far as my renewal came in this morning and has been increased by 100%!!! I have claimed in the last year to be fair but I am now forced to pay it or take a risk as it's a lifetime policy and so my dog's now "pre-existing condition" will not be covered by another insurer. Of course, there is nothing that helpucover can do about it!!”
“They auto-renew unless told otherwise. I phoned their customer services and was asked to hold the line while the request was actioned. I was then told I would be passed to someone else who started to waste my time by asking questions about my new insurer. She then proceeded to cancel the policy rather than the auto-renewal - deliberately misinterpreting my request. She was very rude and said I would not get a refund for the remaining days of the policy. She said I would have to go back to customer services to get the policy reinstated. So they were deliberately obstructive when I said I would not renew.”
“After the death of my father ive seen that my mother's cat is insured for just over £70.00 a month! how a cat that has never claimed in it's life has managed to be insured for over £800 a year is beyond me. As soon as paperwork has been changed i will cancel. This is disgusting of a company to up the premiums by so much. with no claims. The cat may well be a pedigree..but is an inside cat! Will be switching to another company as soon as i can.”
“We tried to make a claim for an injury to our cat in July only to be told that it was not covered due to an exclusion put on the policy regarding abcesses. My Vet even wrote too them saying there was no connection but they still did not want to know.”
“My 3 year old cat was hit by a car and was severely injured. She needed an urgent operation on her jaw as well as another major operation on her back and leg. She was insured for £6,000 so I paid the excess and informed the insurance company of her accident. My cat was in the vets hospital for 3 weeks, she had 2 operations on her jaw. Firstly it was wired but was not stable so had plates inserted instead. She had 3 major breaks in her legs and back and again had to have them pinned and plated. My vet bill was £6,800 by the end of all this plus the medication and recovery food she was on. I filled in the forms, my vet filled in his part and a cheque for £6,000 was sent direct to the vet. I cannot praise this company enough, in fact I have recommended them to my friends with animals. My cat survived and almost a year on she is 90% back to normal. If it was not for the insurance I would have loved st her as there is no way I could have paid that amount. Thank you helpuncover.co.uk 5*****”
“WARNING. I have two dogs aged two insured through this company. I have just received the policy renewal notifications and the premiums have increased by 25% per annum. This is for young dogs with absolutely no previous claims. Helpucover say they take into account the breed (the breed is unchanged), the location (we have not moved), vets fees (local vets have not increase fees by very much at all), claims history (no claims) etc. When I asked for more detailed information to justify the increase they say that they are not willing to provide any detailed justification, which to me says that they know such an increase cannot be justified. I wonder what the increase would have been had I made a claim in the previous year or if the dogs were not young dogs.”
“Do not go with this insurance company, first sign of paying out and they didn't want to know stay away, I have had lots of insurances with different company's and I can honestly say, I would never reccomend this company to anybody.”
“I took cover out for my Weimaraner when she was a puppy. After 1 year I renewed the insurance, at which point the admin team made the mistake of cancelling the first years cover and taking out a second year on a separate cover.
When she needed cover for a blood test, the helpucover refused to cover the test and then proceed to add 4 conditions to her insurance policy! When I tried to explain the situation, I was fobbed off with rude staff.
Even after having a conversation with my vet, where she stated that the conditions they had put on her insurance policy were completely incorrect and they had misinterpreted everything which was stated in the vet records, they still refused to remove the conditions.
Please can I note that these 'conditions' stemmed from her biting her paw! She apparently has fore leg, hind leg and skin conditions!
These types of insurance companies put veterinary practice into very hard situations where vets don't like to write anything on their vets records because insurance companies hold this against you!
Please do not use this company; what comes across as being cheap at first glance is not! Cheap service is bad service!”
“I took out a lifetime comprehensive cover for my Cavalier KC Spaniel after a great deal of research believing HelpUcover offered good value. It is at best SHONKY. After contacting my vet for a medical history for my dog, the insurer provided a long list of exclusions to me, even for issues where no treatment was given as none was needed which had been discussed in passing and were on the notes of conversation. The renewal in the last days has increased the premium by a shocking 43% after no claims in the year (and this is on top of an increased premium during the year to take account of last year's Insurance Premium Tax - so no doubt my premium would increase again imminently. HelpUcover exemplify the worst of the insurance industry and I would suggest shop elsewhere. I have cancelled my policy with the surly and unhelpful customer service”
“Beware of switching to Helpucover if your pet has ever needed a vet in the past. I switched, and was only given a list of excluded conditions more then two weeks AFTER the policy came into effect. When I rang about this I was told that data protection prevented them from accessing my cat's medical history before he was insured with them, even though I had given them permission - three times . Excluded conditions include things so minor we never claimed under the previous policy as they were under the excess. Even things like cat bites and a sprained paw are now excluded. I switched as I wanted a policy without all the extras I was previously paying for, and have ended up much worse off.”
