Anyone who has a dog or cat or any other pet will know that they are a part of the family. People throughout the UK spend millions of pounds every year to ensure that their pet stays fit and healthy. This includes spending money on food, toys, grooming and training products and much more. Sometimes pets become ill though and for that reason most people also pay for pet insurance to make sure that they can get treatment for their pet should it need it.
Halifax had their own pet insurance policy until very recently which was extremely popular and very useful to customers. The cover was described as "life-long" by Halifax giving customers the impression that the cover would last for life as long as they renewed it every 12 months and maintained their 10 monthly fee. Halifax however didn't stick to their description and ended people's policies when it left the pet insurance business.
Halifax's policy provided people with cover for on-going illnesses but by ending their cover people would not be able to claim on a new policy because it would be classed as an existing illness. This left a lot of people facing huge vet bills. After numerous complaints about Halifax misleading customers the financial ombudsman service looked into the company's pet insurance policy to assess whether Halifax were in the wrong.
The financial ombudsman service decided that Halifax had misled their customers by describing their cover as life-long and that it was a major error on the company's behalf to advertise it in this way if they were not going to fulfil it. With this outcome Halifax are facing thousands of potential compensation claims from all of those customers who were misled by the life-long cover.
In excess of 30,000 people were paying for Halifax's life-long pet cover when the company terminated the product and of those an estimated 4,000 have pets with on-going illnesses. Halifax will now have to pay these people compensation to help them pay for pet bills but they are also likely to have to offer top-up cover to make sure that their former customer's pets can get treatment.
Halifax had their own pet insurance policy until very recently which was extremely popular and very useful to customers. The cover was described as "life-long" by Halifax giving customers the impression that the cover would last for life as long as they renewed it every 12 months and maintained their 10 monthly fee. Halifax however didn't stick to their description and ended people's policies when it left the pet insurance business.
Halifax's policy provided people with cover for on-going illnesses but by ending their cover people would not be able to claim on a new policy because it would be classed as an existing illness. This left a lot of people facing huge vet bills. After numerous complaints about Halifax misleading customers the financial ombudsman service looked into the company's pet insurance policy to assess whether Halifax were in the wrong.
The financial ombudsman service decided that Halifax had misled their customers by describing their cover as life-long and that it was a major error on the company's behalf to advertise it in this way if they were not going to fulfil it. With this outcome Halifax are facing thousands of potential compensation claims from all of those customers who were misled by the life-long cover.
In excess of 30,000 people were paying for Halifax's life-long pet cover when the company terminated the product and of those an estimated 4,000 have pets with on-going illnesses. Halifax will now have to pay these people compensation to help them pay for pet bills but they are also likely to have to offer top-up cover to make sure that their former customer's pets can get treatment.
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