Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it will be shutting down its division for pet insurance, leaving tens of thousands of animal owners without any coverage for their pets’ veterinary care.
Lloyds TSB and Halifax have both sold pet insurance policies for a number of years and currently provide coverage for approximately fifty thousand animals. However, the owner of both brands, Lloyds Banking Group, has decided that it will no longer take part in that market.
A spokesperson from the company has explained that it has performed a thorough review of the insurance products that it offers, and has determined that by eliminating its pet insurance offerings, it will be better able to “focus on our core markets of home, motor and business insurance”.
This announcement is expected to hit pet owners very hard – at least those that had been taking part in the generous Halifax insurance policy that allowed policyholders to make a claim for specific illness or condition year after year. The majority of pet insurance policies offer only a twelve month limitation for each condition.
Most of the Halifax pet insurance policyholders will now see their premiums skyrocketing when they change to another provider. In fact, depending on the medical history of the pet, they may even struggle to find any insurance company that will be willing to provide coverage for ongoing treatments.
The policies with Halifax will continue to provide coverage until they have completed their term. Once the Halifax policies are up for renewal – sometime between now and September 2012 – each of them will expire and not be renewed. In the case of Lloyds policies, they will be renewable up until February 2012.