Bow Wow Meow Pet Insurance

All of my 5 pets are insured with Bow Wow Meow, we have been a member for the past three years. During this period we have had a number of claims, one of which was quite substantial for radiotherapy treatment. At all times we have had no problems with the claim and reimbursement process. I highly recommend Bow Wow and have done so to a number of friends

Cheap yearly premium. Lodged my claim and it only took a week before I had the money back in my account. It was my first time claiming and it was fantastic. All my pets are insured with bow wow meow. Cannot recommend them enough:)

The value of the policy is fair. It is easy to claim. Everything is done in a blink. For the last three years, I never had a problem with them.

I have been with bow wow meow for over 9 years this is my biggest claim and I received the amount I expected . The vet sent in his reports and I didn't have to do anything

This insurance was good until I had to make a big claim, then everything changed and they tried to get out of paying, and created excessive delays hoping I would go away. What they didn't count on was that I know how to read policy documents and know what they can and can't ask for, even though they tried to pull the wool over my eyes. If I hadn't persisted and eventually went higher up in the food chain, my claim would have been rejected.
Seriously folks, don't bother with this con that is pet insurance. Work out what your premiums would have been and put that away every month into a separate bank account. When the need arises (which is mostly rare), you will have the money there.

We purchased accidental & sickness cover for our new puppy when he was 8 weeks old (the day we picked him up). Since then, we have lodged a few claims. Most of these have just been absorbed by the per-condition excess. My bad, I should've been aware that this is per condition. One or two claims resulted in a few $ being paid out. As far as that goes, my experience has been good.

However, early on, our puppy showed some diarrhoea issues that were treated by the vet. Bow wow did not accept our claim due to the waiting period. Fair enough. Turns out he was allergic to his food so now everything is good, but it took us a while to figure this out. Bow wow rejected all subsequent claims, stating that his dietary issues are now a pre-existing condition. Under the T&Cs this makes perfect sense.

On the other hand, I was not able to purchase insurance earlier (given that puppy insurance is only sold from 8 weeks on). In my opinion you can't really have a pre-existing condition on an animal that wasn't pre-existing in the first place. I bought the insurance as soon as I could and yet we are still excluded under this process. Exclusions make sense to protect the insurance from someone purchasing insurance after an issue becomes apparent, so I get it for older dogs and such.

I contacted Bow Wow, quoting that I understand their T&Cs but expressing that I feel they shouldn't apply. I received a response saying that this is in line with their T&Cs... So I went through the formal review process and explicitly expressed that I feel the T&Cs shouldn't apply in this case. Yes, I get that I entered a contract under these conditions, I'm asking you to consider this case for an exception given that it's reasonable to ask for it. Their reply:

"The Committee notes that the diarrhoea Condition did not qualify for Cover during the 30-
day Waiting Period as during this time the policy is an Accidental Injury only policy. [...] Your policy
also does not provide cover for Pre-existing Conditions or their Related Conditions that arise prior to
the policy Commencement Date or within the applicable Waiting Periods."

In summary: "Under your contract, we did everything right." - I know. Which is why I asked for a review under special conditions (he is a new puppy) which was never addressed in the response. They also tried to call me once, but I was busy. No further attempt to contact me was made (I did get an e-mail saying they tried to call me). Next, I received the statement from the committee.

(+) Prompt processing of claims
(+) Detailed letters stating where you are at in terms of excess and refund
(+) Detailed, thorough complaint process
(-) Ignored the specific concerns I expressed repeatedly

As such, I can only give a mediocre review. I'm not against recommending them and I will stay a customer for now, but I did not feel as if I was treated as an individual but rather just piped through a process so the insurance has covered all bases. And in that regard, I would have hoped this company would be different.

We have been with this company for around 5 months and are very satisfied. To date I have found the staff a pleasure to deal with and they are very helpful.

$15 increase to our monthly premium and a policy that is $10 above a quote for new coverage. Worse still we didn’t get any correspondence advising of the premium increase. Really bloody poor way to treat an existing customer. Fail.

Claims process that is picky and quite frankly overly restrictive. Current policy costs more than home and contents to the tune of $500000. So yes, we will be cancelling our bow wow meow money sink policy in favour of better and cheaper coverage elsewhere. Will also be giving these guys a thumbs down on choice.

Been with BWM for 4 years. This claim was quite extensive for a bad injury. Insurers took their time to go over all the details (which is understandable) but I was very satisfied with the service overall. Happy to keep my three animals insured with BWM

I have been with BWM for 5 years. We have always had swift, caring, fair responses and claims processes and can highly recommend using this company for your pet insurance.

4 years we've had our dog insured with BWM after researching reviews for a decent insurance company with good service and insurance coverage that was not too expensive. We made 1 claim a couple of years ago when he was bitten by a snake and I actually just made a second claim today as he was bitten by a dog as he was walking past a gate! You just never know what can happen. The multi-antivenom is not cheap nor the VET bills, within a week we received a text on our mobile that the claim was processed. This time round I just uploaded the forms on the website for his dog bite, so easy to do in less than 5mins. Knowing we have good pet insurance allows us to give him the treatment he needs, when he needs it- not watered down by what we can afford at the time. Now we can get back to caring for our furry family member while he recovers across the next few weeks rather than worrying about finances. How pet insurance should be- cheap, great coverage for the unexpected, great customer service, easy online application, highly recommended.

5 1/2 years. Made one claim. Awarded tiny amount. Seems most things aren't eligible for claim & the few things that are are lost in excess fees and ambiguous language used against any attempt to claim. Today they lost one long-term, highly dissatisfied customer who will be advising all other known pet owners to simply pop what would be premium fees into a separate account for use when needed. Bow Wow Meow were a valuable waste of time & money.

I changed insurance companies to BW approx six months ago because they were dreadful to deal with...then Brutus was diagnosed with epilepsy. Hassel free claims, kind and understanding to speak with.

I haven't needed to make a claim. However, anytime I have rung to ask questions etc , the staff have been really lovely and helpful.

I have been with BWM for more than 3 years now. Excellent service , I will highly recommend it with pleasure to everyone .

My golden retriever has been insured with Bow Wow Meow for nearly six years. During this time I have been impressed firstly with the speed of the processing of any claims I have made, and secondly with the service I have received whenever I have had reason to contact the organisation. As my dog has aged, there have been more regular claims made and I have never experienced any problems. I highly recommend Bow Wow Meow insurance

Six years. Customer service has been very good, polite and answered all my questions when I have rung, and it was easy to set up. I recommend Bow Wow Meow highly

I have been with BWM Pet Insurance for 1 year and have made 2 previous claims for an eye issue but as the total of the two bills were not greater than the excess we received no refund, (no problem with that). We are now almost at the end of our 12 month policy. Unfortunately our dog needed to have a Laparotomy Operation for a bowel blockage. Making claims is extremely easy and I felt they were processed very promptly with no hesitation. I am really just disappointed with myself for not fully understanding that there is a seperate excess for each issue not just an annual excess like for humans. I am not sure how I missed this information prior to paying my premium, its possibly lost in amongst the brain numbing jargon you have to read through. May be it needs to be made more clear for the average person. So needless to say I am very confused as to whether it is worth having pet insurance unless my dog is having major surgery every year as I can not see that I would be receiving many reimbursements. My previous 2 dogs that I owned at seperate times lived for 16 years each. Their vet bills consisted of their normal vaccinations which you are not covered for anyway and of course when the time came that they had to be euthanised. I had no insurance for either of them so for 32 years I wouldn't of made a claim yet would of been paying my premium for nothing. Very unsure, to renew or not......?

Claims were communicated via text immediately and payment made seamlessly. Excellent service would highly recommend. We were going through a tough time with our dog having an aggressive tumour removed followed by radiation and Bow Wow held our hand the whole way. We didn’t have to think about making a claim and checking whether the claim had been paid or not. Thank you Bow Wow

We’ve been with Bow Wow since Sept I think. Our dog became very ill suddenly and was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour. We had to euthanise her much to our great sorrow. Our vet and vet specialist kindly made the claim for us. Bow Wow contacted us for more info and this was sent. The vets sent the claims on 10/11 December and even allowing time for Christmas holidays this is a long wait. I’ve sent them a message asking what the hold up is. They are still taking our premiums. She has no history of any health problems.