HCF pet insurance

The worst pet insurance cover you could get – absolutely disgusting that they take your money every year to cover your pet on the essentials or in an emergency yet they don’t cover a thing. Take your business elsewhere, I am.

As most Pet Insurances are underwritten by only a couple of different Insurance company’s and policy’s are similar, it really gets down to how easy it is to navigate the sign up process, the claims process and customer service. And HCF’s Pet Insurance Customer Service is worse than terrible. If I could give negative 5 stars I would. I have been with HCF Pet Insurance for many years with over 6 animals insured over that time. When I’ve unfortunately had to make a claim in the past it was pretty easy. What has prompted me to write this review is the incredibly frustrating experiences I’ve had with adding 2 animals to my policy one in April 2021 and one yesterday 28th June 2021. In April I managed to get my cat insured but it was a painful process, I couldn’t understand the consultant, the phone line was terrible and it took ages to finalise. I have no idea why you can’t just sign up a new pet through the portal, all the Product Disclosers can easily be added to the sign up process. I stayed with HCF as I have HCF Health Insurance and I wanted to be loyal to a great company. The Pet Insurance has HCF name but is run by Petsure and it certainly does not have the same personalised caring consultants to deal with. I understand that yesterday Sydney was in lockdown, however, this should not negate the experience of the consultant that you talk with. Again the line was terrible, I couldn’t understand the consultant and she didn’t know what she was doing. When the consultant doesn’t even know how to spell Burmese you really are wondering what is going on, when I had been on the phone for an hour and still wasn’t close to finalising my policy I was getting very frustrated, I had to spell nearly every important detail and correct details again and again. I asked a question about continuity of cover from another policy and that created a whole other saga. I ended up being transferred to a supervisor that really wasn’t much more help and then guess what, I was expected to go through the saga all over again. I really couldn’t understand why the Supervisor couldn’t finalise the policy, but I’m guessing the consultant didn’t send the information on. When I remarked that I was just about to finalise the policy she was lost for words, suggested I sign up online and then have the policy transferred to my existing account, this would negate the discount I would get for having an extra pet on my policy and quite frankly from my point of view just more of my time being wasted. Or I could wait for the original consultant to call me back, this wasn’t acceptable to me at all. My time is as valuable as anyone else’s, but that didn’t seem to matter to HCF Pet Insurance. For it to take over an hour and not even sign up your pet up is unbelievable and very bad customer service. I ended up forgetting about HCF and signed up with RSPCA.

Although the app was simple to use and claims were paid quickly, the price went up by $600 over two years, from ~$950 to over $1,500. In the first year I did make some claims, one for cherry eye surgery and a scan but no claims in the second year. I felt like the company offered an attractive price in year 1 to get you in and then hiked the price. They ‘warned’ me that if I left I would not be covered by preexisting conditions. I have been with HCF health insurance for our family for 30 years but the pet insurance division is HCF in name only, it’s actually owned by another company and is for profit, unlike HCF person health insurance.

Significant price hikes year on year of over 20%. They also sit on claims and reimbursement without processing the money back..have been with the company for over 8 years and they now want $235 per month for coverage, crazy stuff

We are long term HCF members but now, for the first time, I wouldn’t recommend them to friends. We’ve had their human health insurance with them for about 15 years and for roughly 11 of those we’ve also had our pet insurance through them as well. Much of that time was with our old dog who we kept with them until she passed. Last year we got a new puppy and immediately signed up for pet insurance. He is now 1 year old and completely healthy. No claims at all in the last year and no hint of illness. We just got our second year premium and it has increased by $150 a year. Pet insurance for a perfectly healthy 1 year old dog is now $56.74 a month. We apparently get a 15% “loyalty” discount so their standard premium is coming in at $65.25 per month. If I do a new customer quote online the price is $35.97. I don’t mind a reasonable price increase. With insurance you expect it. But that is honestly ridiculous and, for loyal customers, a real kick in the teeth. We are now preparing to move to a new insurer next month. Beware the “honeymoon” rate of your first year premium with this company at the moment as their price increase inn the second year will knock you out of the park.

Absolutely shocking. Happy to take your money but don’t cover anything. Waste of time and money. This company are sharks

Be aware of the HCF Pet Insurance rip off. Unlike many other pet insurance plans there is a $2,600 “sub-limit” for cruciate ligament injuries that doesn’t go anywhere near covering the cost of surgery, which is well over $5,000. Signing up for pet insurance unless one has experience, they’;d never know how terrible the “benefits” are from HCF Pet Insurance and how little they pay. It is a rip off. After close to 10 years with one dog and maybe only one other claim, and 2 or 3 years with my other, I’m very dissatisfied. Most other pet insurance companies do not have sub-limits for injuries such as to a cruciate ligament. Be aware.

My pet insurance monthly premium for my cat and dog have just been increased by over 30% for each of the last 2 years – for the 2025 year from $126.05 to $168.79 per month. This is a 33.9% increase. How on earth can this be justified ? This is price gouging at its worst given the cost of living crisis in which we are now in. As a pensioner I am going to have great difficulty in meeting this impost and it may well have put me in a situation where I can no longer afford to insure my pets.

HCF Petsure claimed to be able to identify areas where I can reduce my premiums. They would probably suggest getting rid of parts of my level of cover eg Routine Care plus Dental, or increasing my excess. I can’t imagine what else they may have up their sleeve. How are these options going to benefit my pets ? I think I would be far better off to just self-insure. If my pets do suffer a serious enough illness or injury that I can’t afford then I would just let them suffer, surrender them, or let them die.

As well as the 2025 year, I note that my premiums rose from $95.97 to $126.05 in the 2024 year. That’s another 31.3%. I therefore presume that this will be the level of premium increases that I can expect every year from now until my pets pass away ?

They are going to be hard pressed to justify that sort of ongoing price gouging to me. I cannot believe that the salaries of vets are going up by this amount every year. Apart from their profits what other costs are going up by this amount ?

My dog is a very small Shih Tzu cross and my cat is a just an ordinary rescued moggy. My wife and I don’t have children so these are our only companions. They’ve had no serious illnesses or accidents in their 6 years. The only significant medical cost has been to have their teeth cleaned. These cost me about $525 for my cat, and $728 for my dog (which had to include teeth extraction). The cost was high mainly because they had to be anaesthetised. Guess how much I got back from HCF – $50 each ? It’s the vets that are encouraging owners to have their pet’s teeth attended to (not just for profit I hope). If this is so essential for my pet’s health then why isn’t it included in standard cover? They have forced me to add Dental to my cover for an additional cost, but with a 2 year waiting period, and even then I don’t know that I would get much back.

In 2022 I changed my pet health insurance from Pet Insurance Australia (PIA) to HCF because of an unreasonable rise in premiums. HCH offered lower premiums and increased benefits, although 2 year waiting periods on some items and refusal to cover existing illnesses, was an unexpected shock. Now I find the initial lower premiums have been increased such that they are not that much more cheaper than the ones from PIA – not surprising in hindsight as both companies are underwritten by Petsure. One wonders how much competition there is in this industry.

It’s about time the government took unreasonably high pet insurance premiums seriously.

We have been insured with HCF Pet since 2013 and added another pup to the fam in 2015. Over this time we have had multiple claims for one dog and not so many for the other. They have paid 80% of almost all claims and the policy has been value for money. As the dogs get older, the fee increases are substantial but HCF have been generous in giving us a 3 month fee waiver which has saved us quite a considerable amount of money when things are tough. Have appreciated being able to give our pets the best care in conjunction with HCF and our vet.

I recently joined with HCF pet insurance and can’t recommend them enough ! RV went above and beyond to help me and made me feel very happy. Good value, even better customer service ! Thanks RV