Axa Not Accepting New Pet Insurance Customers

Although we have seen nothing in the way of official statements or press releases, chat on the internet has alerted pet owners to the fact that Axa are no longer taking on new pet insurance customers.

Visiting the Axa pet insurance website, the statement is brief and leaves plenty of room for worry and confusion amongst policy holders. It simply reads as follows:

“Pet insurance is no longer available to new customers from AXA. If you already hold AXA pet insurance, you can continue to receive the support you need from us.”

Even if your pet insurance is not directly with Axa, you may still be affected. As well as selling directly to customers and via brokers, Axa are also the underwriters of many other UK pet insurance policies e.g. Post Office, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, RSPCA and more. Please note that this list is an example of a few and is not complete. Please check your own insurance policy documents to check who the underwriter is of your own policy.

Looking at one example, RSPCA pet insurance, underwritten by AXA, has the following statement on their pet insurance page:

If you took out an RSPCA Pet Insurance policy before the 12 July 2013 you can still view your policy documents and download a claim form. You can also retrieve a quote you got before the 12 July and take out a policy.

For existing policies taken out before 12th July 2013, or quotes taken up before 12th July 2013, RSPCA is an introducer appointed representative of AXA Insurance UK plc. Policies are underwritten and administered by AXA Insurance UK Plc. Registered office: 5 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1AD. Registered in England No.78950. AXA Insurance UK plc is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority under registration number 202312.

With no official statement from Axa or it seems from the policies that Axa underwrite, no one seems sure yet what all this will mean to existing Axa pet insurance policy holders. As quoted above from the Axa website, they say existing policy holders “can continue to receive the support you need from us.” It seems to have been purposefully left wide open for interpretation. Reading that does little to allay fears. Existing policy holders are bound to be worrying about the future of their policy, what will happen come the renewal date, whether the cover will be available for the life of the pet, not to mention what the price of future renewals may be.

Dogs Today magazine were heavily involved in the recent Halifax and Lloyds pet insurance scandal, so we turned to the Dogs Today Facebook page to see if they had gleaned more info. Upon request, they had received the following statement from Axa:

“After a strategic review of our business lines, we have decided to no longer offer pet insurance through AXA Direct and swiftcover.com, and focus on our core product lines of Home, Motor and Travel insurance. AXA will continue to provide cover for existing customers until a new insurer is secured. At the time of the switch over, existing customers will have their policies transferred to the new insurer who will continue to provide them with the same or similar levels of pet insurance cover. Customers will be contacted with more details before their policies are transferred.”

Dogs Today have an “insurance doctor” Neil Flint, from VIP, who they say is working on getting the correct advice together, so it may be worth while keeping an eye on their Facebook page for more news.

If you have any further info, have heard from Axa with regards your own policy or if you have seen any kind of statement from Axa with regards their pulling out of the pet insurance industry, please do let us know via the comments facility below. Thank you.

By Jenny Prevel

Cooling

ThermLOW Dog Cool Coat

from  £35.00

Dog Water Fountain - Outdoor

£29.99

Chill Out Dog Cooling Mat

from  £19.99

H202GO Dog Water Bottle

from  £12.95

Hydrating

Chill Out Turtle Dog Toy

£8.99

Sale

Chill Out Fresh Breeze Dog Mat

from  £26.00