We had ours with Marks and Spencer for years, all throughout many expensive investigations and operations and always found the claims to be totally fuss free and straightforward. The vet put in the claim direct and they paid the vet so it kept me out of the whole paperwork loop.
However, we took out insurance with them when they were new to the market years ago and I think his first premium cost about £6 per year when he was about 3 years old. It’s rocketed each year until last year they wanted nearly £80pcm for an 11 year old crossbreed, which just was a no goer for us, espcially as you had to pay the first £x per claim per year and something like 20% of the cost of each claim on top of that to boot.
Have known of a lot of pet owners who took out policies with them at a low premium and they’ve hoiked the prices up. Not all of those people have claimed either, so it’s not just down to that.
From what I hear of everyone who’s been on Petplan, their premiums may seem a bit steeper than others out there initially but they don’t seem to have the crazy big hikes in price that Marks and Spencer have done.
And it’s definitely worth looking at the small print – not all policies offer the same level of cover.
There’s a good basic guide on moneysavingexpert about different sorts of insurance levels.
Good luck, he’s gorgeous!