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John Lewis: Pet Insurance reviews

Name: Pet Insurance
Rating: 1.54 (35 reviews)

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1.34

Based on 35 reviews, last reviewed 8th Nov 2024

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

67% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Great help renewing policy Adam helped me massively to renew my policy. We had quite a few technical issues, but he was able to help me overcome them. Will continue to use J... Read more Reviewed on: 20th October 2023

Latest lowest rating:

1

50 % Increase For No Reason Just got my renewal cover sent to me, 50% increase then there has never been a claim and my dog is still young and healthy. John Lewis are just rippin... Read more Reviewed on: 8th November 2024

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About this product

With such a large volume of providers on the market, finding the right policy to protect your pet can be daunting. At Smart Money People, we aim to make this process simpler for you. We collect John Lewis pet insurance reviews to help you make an informed decision when choosing your new provider.

John Lewis provides pet insurance policies for cats and dogs. Choose between cover for an annual online health check, or Lifetime cover. Lifetime cover has no upper age limit and comes with benefits such as dental treatment, behavioural treatment, complementary therapies and more. Policyholders can choose from a variety of flexible vet fee cover options without impacting the other policy benefits.

If John Lewis sounds like the right insurer for you, check out customer reviews to gain further insight into the provider. Find out how satisfied customers have been with their policy and how comprehensive they’ve found it to be. Learn about the pros and cons policyholders have experienced throughout their pet insurance coverage. Read all of this and more in our John Lewis pet insurance reviews.

If you’ve had a pet insurance policy with John Lewis, leave an honest review to help other pet owners just like you. Tell us what animal you insured and how satisfied you have been with the cover you’ve received. Did you find the price of your premium to be reasonable for the level of cover provided? Would you renew your policy and recommend the provider to family and friends? Whether good or bad, write a John Lewis pet insurance review today.

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John Lewis Pet Insurance reviews (35)

Beware high premiums and old age cut-offs

When we got a puppy ten years ago we took out a lifetime "Plus" policy, deciding to go with John Lewis above cheaper competitors due to the excellent customer service that goes with that name. In his first year we had to make two claims when our dog had a couple of 3 day residential stays with the local vet due to gastric issues. He fully recovered from these with no recurrence, and John Lewis settled the claims minus excess, as expected. However, despite no further claims in the following years, as the dog got older the premiums really ramped up, going from around £37 per month at the age of two, to £100+ at the age of six, then up to £180 per month by the age of ten. Obviously we considered cheaper insurers but having a lifetime policy with a company of John Lewis's reputation, which still covered the pre-existing conditions from when my dog was young, we decided to stump up the extra and carry on paying top dollar to ensure he had full cover. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago my dog suddenly fell ill; the vet did ultrasound, on-site blood tests, and visual examinations, etc., but sadly ended up having to put our dog to sleep and arrange cremation. The bill for all of the above came to over £1200. On submitting a claim to John Lewis we were expecting to pay the 20% excess specified in the policy document (standard when a dog is over nine years old, apparently). However, in their claim settlement they had broken down the itemised vets bill into the individual treatments listed and, quoting our dog’s age, had completely declined to pay for some bits and only paid a fraction of the others. We were left with £800 to pay ourselves. So if have an older animal and you’re renewing a high-premium pet insurance policy with John Lewis, make sure you’re aware of the age-related cover cut-offs and the ridiculously small cover limits for individual and specific vet treatments. This experience with John Lewis pet insurance has left us feeling grubby and used, but we hope this information helps someone. Reviewed on: 13th August 2023

Avoid - read reviews

Poor experience. We have paid for 2 years and have not made a claim. We have now moved house and they are charging a large premium as a result of the postcode change. Our previous house had no driveway, poor security and the front door opened straight out onto a busy road. Our new house is a 2 minute walk away from the previous house (no change to Vet catchment area / local area), but has good security, a driveway and is located in a much quieter col-de-sac. John Lewis are trying to charge us significantly more and even used a 'busy road' as an example of why this might happen in the generic response they sent us. Reviewed on: 7th November 2022

Disgusting Service

Sorry but will never use or recommend them again (and have recommended in the past). Had a claim which was paid quickly and saved our dogs life - so far so good as it's what we pay for and thanks for the quick turn-around. However, dog is only 6, made full recovery and has no expected risks now from the surgery, yet John Lewis put our monthly charges up from £90 to £149!! We've moved to Many Pets for a much better service. Reviewed on: 11th October 2022

Increased to a huge amount

Started at £30 a month 2 claims in 8 years now a extortionate amount of £400 a month avoid as huge increases if you claim or not. Reviewed on: 6th October 2022

dental care

we have a 5 year old dog who had 2 impacted teeth, when applying for the cover this was not an issues and online dental care was for 7500max. it was not clear online that we would only be covered for removing baby teeth if the dog was less than 16 weeks old and only covered for accidental damage. pointless going for the higher cover as the lower level cover would not reach the levels they show. just to know the cover the offer online does not clarify this issue really poor shame on John Lewis waste of time. Reviewed on: 28th September 2022

Avoid like a plague

Please Please stay clear of John Lewis pet insurance. They are happy to take you're money but won't pay anything back. Been with this company 3 years now. Vet made my very first claim and they have refused. Totally ignorant on the phone also. Please use another company John Lewis is a joke Reviewed on: 13th July 2022

Fifty percent premium hike

Got my renewal offer from JL for my one year old Bichon Frise with no claims. Premiums have increased by exactly 50%. Outrageous. The customer service advisor I called didn’t even try to explain or defend it but tried to get me to increase the excess to £500 to “reduce it slightly”. I have cancelled and taken out a new lifetime policy with More Than at a reduced premium for better cover - and still with RSA. I thought the practice of penalising existing policy holders was illegal? Reviewed on: 23rd February 2022

No value of existing customers

Premiums rise rapidly each year even if no claims made.. no hope of discussing this if yoy notice after new policy year has started. I looked and if i eas a new customer looking to take out same insurance on same dog as a new customer policy eas about £30 pound cheaper than i was paying as an existing loyal customer .rip off cancelled and eent elsewhere and saved £40 pound watch carefully your yearly premiums Reviewed on: 12th February 2022

Try leaving them!

A lot of positive reviews for JL pet insurance are around initial set up. That and their customer service (bar when you try to leave them) are great. However.... Every year you will be stung with huge premium increases even if you make no claims/ the claims you make are for one-off (not ongoing/ lifelong) issues. I was an idiot and kept paying it for 12+ years (ending on £95pm to insure a Yorkie that I've paid 95% of the vet's bills myself) because they cover your pet for life. Believe me this gains you no grace with them - they will never budge on the cost because they know they're one of the only providers who offer life-time. But when you look at what you can claim back for a life-long illness be aware; you have to pay quite a lot yourself first - luckily my pup didn't have a lifelong issue but had she it would have rendered the policy nigh-on worthless, depending on the ongoing costs. Their claim-back process is stuck in the 90's, none of it's truly online, you have to print things out and email everyone yourself trying to get back any money you want (after their hefty excess -which also sneakily increases some years) ... it's tiresome to the point you have to question whether any claim is worth your time. Then, when you finally can't afford to be with them and you try to leave - good luck! I cancelled my policy on 12/8/20 by email, no reply by 09/09/20 so I called to cancel. I got an email the same day replying to my email of the 12th asking me if I wanted to cancel in language that made no sense 'please let me know so I can do the needful' (?) and as I had cancelled by phone already and my email clearly stated I wished to cancel I disregarded it. If you cancel a policy by email a provider's response should not be to ignore you for a month, for you to repeatedly chase to then reply asking you if you want to cancel. 4th Jan 21 and my bank text me about an account I no longer use saying I'm being charged for unauthorised use because JL have been taking £95pm for the last 5 months after my policy was cancelled by email and phone. I called JL - on hold for 30 mins to get through, got through put on hold for another 5 mins when I did, got cut off, no call back. I called again, on hold for 30 mins to get through and the lady said that they need to check with their underwriters that they can refund me - even though they can see I emailed to cancel, and there is a call with no notes on the day I called to cancel. I will have to wait for 48 hours to find out if the underwriter's accept my cancellation and will back-date the money owed to me. All because JL didn't cancel my policy as requested by me. £500 for their mistake and rather than refund me and accept the loss if the underwriter says no - I have to accept the loss if they do? I've spent about £10k with them and this is the goodbye I get. Imagine if I went into a JL store and helped myself to £500 worth of stuff and on being stopped by security said 'You'll need to wait 48 hours while I check with my friend if you can have it back'. JL would have me arrested. They will happily steal from you and say that though. If you take a policy out with them it will be the most boring, expensive, experience of your life - you have to get everything in writing and be spot on with your own admin because they cannot be trusted. Reviewed on: 4th January 2021

Avoid!

They have just increased my annual premium by £400 I failed to notice this last year but they now want £1500 to ensure two mongrel dogs aged 5 and 6. I am appalled. Reviewed on: 5th February 2019

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