Has Anyone Had Any Dealings With Bow Wow Meow Pet Insurance?

[Snippy]

Hi all

I (like many of you) have been looking around at pet insurance recently. I had a look at a few of the common ones like RSPCA, Woolworths, Petplan. I also looked at Prosure and PIA and a couple more I forget the names of now. And now I am utterly confused. :laugh:

One that caught my eye was Bow Wow Meow and I was wondering if any of you have had any dealings with them?

On paper (ok, screen) they look ok. A quick quote online for a 16month old Samoyed returned me three results:

Accident plan only: $20.95 monthly

Accident plus illness: $39.42 monthly

Major medical (accident plus illness) lower premiums, higher excess: $32.92 monthly

They also had a choice of benefit limits $8000 or $12,000 and a few excess options.

Pet insurance aficionados; does this seem good/bad and why/why not?

They certainly seem to have their PR sorted out. I found them through productreview.com.au. They were the highest rated pet insurance company (when I looked) and seem to get a fair amount of positive feedback. Any feedback that wasn't positive was given a comment from a spokesperson as well as an email for them to follow up with, which (although it benefits them by making them look responsive)is a good sign IMO that they are at least willing to make the effort to look like they care.

I also took a look at the CANSTAR site and found an interesting PDF It was for Feb 2013 though. Pity there is not a newer one.

[JessieA]

I recently read through their many pages of comments on productreview.com.au regarding BWM and it left me sure of one thing, I'd never take out insurance with them.

Most of the comments are negative or if the customer has received their claim back, it is never without an issue.

All I wanted to say is:

Be wary of the few positive comments, you can't trust that they are actually genuine or real experiences.

[Lasareina]

I am with Bow Wow Meow ... I have only had one claim with them so far (thank god!) and I was pretty satisfied with the process. There was a little bit of a delay as my vet apparently hadn't put enough description on the invoice. It took a little while to get sorted out, as apparently the vet clinic wasn't very good at replying to the requests from BWM, or having the actual vet ring them back etc.

I have 2 18 m/o staffies on the comprehensive accident and illness plan and it is just under $50 a month for the two of them.

[cavNrott]

I have been with Bow Wow for 5 years. The low start premium is just that, a low start. The following year it will increase by...who knows how much. The increase in my premium for this current policy year was 98% on the previous year. I now pay $100 a month in total for my two dogs which I think is an average premium for 9yo and 10yo small breed dogs.

I copy and scan all paperwork for my own records before sending a claim to them and I send everything by registered post. This eliminates any 'lost in the post' problems with claims, which is not exclusive to Bow Wow. Other companies also seem to have a few 'lost in the mail' problems.

I advise to always send the claim yourself rather than leaving it at the vets for them to send away for you. You have no record of everything if you take this option and things get lost in the mail.

They do insure dogs for life, in that they don't kick them out once they reach 8yo or 9yo. They will continue to insure the dogs for their life span.

I have an $8000 accident and illness policy for each of my dogs. The excess is $100 and they cover 80% of the vet bill rather than the 100% they used to cover. However when they did cover 100% my excess was $250.

I had initial difficulties with them but now any claim I submit is reimbursed without any problems and without undue delay. I'm quite happy with 80% cover and a much lower excess. I've had just two small claims in the last 4+ years.

To sum up: As pet insurance companies go they seem to have fixed the bugs in their system and they send their policy renewal notifications on time, which is important. I have no problems with them and in my opinion, they're quite ok to deal with.

[VizslaMomma]

To sum up: As pet insurance companies go they seem to have fixed the bugs in their system and they send their policy renewal notifications on time, which is important. I have no problems with them and in my opinion, they're quite ok to deal with.

Thanks for the review.

My breeder gave us Petplan. I am having issues with deductions. This is documented by others too.

I am looking at other options.

I notice they won MDBA best insurer this year.

[Snippy]

I recently read through their many pages of comments on productreview.com.au regarding BWM and it left me sure of one thing, I'd never take out insurance with them.

Most of the comments are negative or if the customer has received their claim back, it is never without an issue.

All I wanted to say is:

Be wary of the few positive comments, you can't trust that they are actually genuine or real experiences.

I understand your point, but if you go and look at the other insurance-related threads on this very forum, you will find there are those who would rope and tie their insurer and there are others that are completely happy. As far as being wary: believe me, I am. That is why I have asked the questions on here in what I think to be a fairly neutral place ie. if they stink, then others will alert me to this! :laugh: Thanks for your reply!

I have been with Bow Wow for 5 years. The low start premium is just that, a low start. The following year it will increase by...who knows how much. The increase in my premium for this current policy year was 98% on the previous year. I now pay $100 a month in total for my two dogs which I think is an average premium for 9yo and 10yo small breed dogs.

I copy and scan all paperwork for my own records before sending a claim to them and I send everything by registered post. This eliminates any 'lost in the post' problems with claims, which is not exclusive to Bow Wow. Other companies also seem to have a few 'lost in the mail' problems.

I advise to always send the claim yourself rather than leaving it at the vets for them to send away for you. You have no record of everything if you take this option and things get lost in the mail.

They do insure dogs for life, in that they don't kick them out once they reach 8yo or 9yo. They will continue to insure the dogs for their life span.

I have an $8000 accident and illness policy for each of my dogs. The excess is $100 and they cover 80% of the vet bill rather than the 100% they used to cover. However when they did cover 100% my excess was $250.

I had initial difficulties with them but now any claim I submit is reimbursed without any problems and without undue delay. I'm quite happy with 80% cover and a much lower excess. I've had just two small claims in the last 4+ years.

To sum up: As pet insurance companies go they seem to have fixed the bugs in their system and they send their policy renewal notifications on time, which is important. I have no problems with them and in my opinion, they're quite ok to deal with.

Wowser, that's quite an increase. Thankyou for your feedback, it's really helpful

I notice they won MDBA best insurer this year.

That caught my eye too...

[Adnil444]

Hi Snippy, I've been with Bow Wow for about 6 years now - never had an issue with them. The times I have made claims, they have paid promptly. They sent me a text to say the received the claim(s) and advised payment would be in my bank account with 4 working days - and they were. I've always had a good response from them when speaking over the phone and they have provided good customer service. I haven't been able to fault them.

Hope this helps.

[VizslaMomma]

I recently read through their many pages of comments on productreview.com.au regarding BWM and it left me sure of one thing, I'd never take out insurance with them.

Most of the comments are negative or if the customer has received their claim back, it is never without an issue.

All I wanted to say is:

Be wary of the few positive comments, you can't trust that they are actually genuine or real experiences.

Is this biased comment? Bit unusal for a first post to involve slagging off a company.

Makes me wonder. Maybe you might expand your reasons.

[Boronia]

I am with BWM and they paid out (about three years back now) for Penny when she got a piece of pig cartilage stuck in her oesophagus. Penny's next renewal did have an 'object stuck in oesophagus' exclusion but I noticed it didn't appear on the next renewal.

I only covered her for accident (her age prevented me on covering her for illness), BWM paid quickly, there were no problems at all.

JessieA...I would be pretty interested why you are negative about BWM's reviews, I am pretty sure companies get in the poo for instigating false reviews, perhaps you should contact ACCC with your concerns.

[cavNrott]

JessieA has an agenda.

Bow Wow Meow rated the highest of all pet insurance companies on productreview.com.au. They rated 4 stars with 277 ratings. Out of those 277 ratings only 60 were poor or bad.

Allianz rated 5 stars but they had only 2 ratings so they're not in the race.

[VizslaMomma]

Maybe a relo of Rhys the fake turf guy?

:)

[Mercedes]

Hahaha, VizslaMomma that made me laugh :laugh:

I too am researching pet insurance, so watching threads like this with interest...

[cavNrott]

I'm wary of them eating dirt. Someone posted on here some time back about a dog needing surgery because the dirt had caused a blockage in the intestines. I don't recall if this was her dog or someone else's dog.

edited to add: LOL at VizslaMomma.

Edited July 26, 2014 by cavNrott

[Steve]

BWM has been nominated many times for the MDBA Pet Insurance Company of the Year. These nominations come from their clients and are checked and are genuine.

Having said that Petplan has done well in previous years too.

My frustration comes through trying to contact them to tell them they have been nominated. Most are hard to contact and some you cant get to speak to anyone at all . It is for this reason Id go with BWM because at least you get to speak to someone who cares about the brand of their company.

[Snippy]

Thanks to everyone who contributed with a constructive reply I am pretty happy now to take steps with getting the fluffaluffagus (Jester) insured. :laugh:

[VizslaMomma]

BWM has been nominated many times for the MDBA Pet Insurance Company of the Year. These nominations come from their clients and are checked and are genuine.

Having said that Petplan has done well in previous years too.

My frustration comes through trying to contact them to tell them they have been nominated. Most are hard to contact and some you cant get to speak to anyone at all . It is for this reason Id go with BWM because at least you get to speak to someone who cares about the brand of their company.

Now that's informative.

I may change. Not sure yet.

Thanks, Steve

:D

[4darlingdogs]

Hi all

I (like many of you) have been looking around at pet insurance recently. I had a look at a few of the common ones like RSPCA, Woolworths, Petplan. I also looked at Prosure and PIA and a couple more I forget the names of now. And now I am utterly confused. :laugh:

One that caught my eye was Bow Wow Meow and I was wondering if any of you have had any dealings with them?

On paper (ok, screen) they look ok. A quick quote online for a 16month old Samoyed returned me three results:

Accident plan only: $20.95 monthly

Accident plus illness: $39.42 monthly

Major medical (accident plus illness) lower premiums, higher excess: $32.92 monthly

They also had a choice of benefit limits $8000 or $12,000 and a few excess options.

Pet insurance aficionados; does this seem good/bad and why/why not?

They certainly seem to have their PR sorted out. I found them through productreview.com.au. They were the highest rated pet insurance company (when I looked) and seem to get a fair amount of positive feedback. Any feedback that wasn't positive was given a comment from a spokesperson as well as an email for them to follow up with, which (although it benefits them by making them look responsive)is a good sign IMO that they are at least willing to make the effort to look like they care.

I also took a look at the CANSTAR site and found an interesting PDF It was for Feb 2013 though. Pity there is not a newer one.

I was with Bow Wow for exactly one year....the premium was affordable for my 4 dogs so I signed up. Made no claims. Roll on to the second year and they put my premiums up by 110% !!!!!!!!! Be warned.

[Lasareina]

i get a bit worried about all these huge increases people are posting about ... mine only went up by about 5 cents this year, but my dogs are both you (18 months). Are the people experiencing the spikes in premiums insuring older dogs? Something to look forward to I guess :-/ Maybe by the time the dogs are getting older I will be rich

[Snippy]

i get a bit worried about all these huge increases people are posting about ... mine only went up by about 5 cents this year, but my dogs are both you (18 months). Are the people experiencing the spikes in premiums insuring older dogs? Something to look forward to I guess :-/ Maybe by the time the dogs are getting older I will be rich

I'm glad you raised this point. I was wondering that too. My boy is only 16 months old so I wonder if that has any bearing on the prices?

Well fingers crossed for both of us being filthy rich!

[fluff1234]

We have just got bow wow for our husky after reading heaps of great reviews.

we have petplan with our other dog, but their huge price increase and heaps of negative reviews lately, put me off as well as issues with contacting them and them taking too much out my account!