A Payment Deferral is an arrangement that will allow you to make no payments of premium for your policy for an agreed period. During this time your policy will not be considered to be in arrears or trigger any cancellation of your policy due to non-payment of the premium.

Payment Deferral requests are subject to a suitability check; this is to ensure that this will not worsen your financial situation, based on your individual circumstances.

Please read below for more information on what happens when you apply.

If you are experiencing or expect to experience temporary financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19 you may wish to consider using the Payment Deferral option. However, please note that this is a temporary break to regular premium collections in order to support you.

We will still need to collect all the deferred premium payments at the end of the agreed deferral period. This means that we will collect from your account all deferred premium payments in one go, in addition to the next scheduled premium payment for that month. So, you should ensure that your future financial situation will enable you to make these future, increased, premium payments.

If you are less than 3 months from the end of your policy term, a Payment Deferral may not be best option for you. We will discuss your situation with you when you contact us.

If you are currently not seeing an impact on your finances and can continue to make your premium payments as normal, we recommend that you do so. This does not prevent you from contacting us in the future to request a Payment Deferral while this assistance remains available.

Payment Deferrals are for our Policyholders who are finding or expect to find themselves in temporary financial difficulty specifically due to COVID-19 and unable to pay their monthly premium payment.

When you contact us on 0345 200 3465 we will ask you to confirm all of the criteria below:

• You want to continue your policy; and
• You are up to date with your premium payments; and
• You are now experiencing or you expect to experience temporary financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19; and
• You understand that you remain liable to pay your full premium.

Following this eligibility check, we will stop your next premium payment from coming out of your account. We may ask you further questions to check that deferring your premium payments to a later date will not worsen your financial situation, based on your individual circumstances, and discuss other options with you, where appropriate.

After you have requested a payment deferral we will stop your next direct debit payment.

If your financial situation changed during the COVID-19 period or you are expecting it to do so as a result of COVID-19, please get back in touch with us to discuss your circumstances and to confirm that you now meet the eligibility criteria set out above.

If you have already made an application to us but have not yet heard back, we ask you to please be patient as we will be dealing with extremely high volumes.

Any premium payments that are deferred will not be considered as in arrears.

No, please leave this in place so we can restart your payments easily at the end of your payment deferral.

We are offering a month by month Payment Deferral process to our Policyholders, as long as you continue to meet the eligibility criteria. For each monthly deferral period that you require, we will ask you to contact us to make your application.

You will be able to defer your premium payments for a maximum of 3 months.

Please note that you will still be liable to bring your premium payments up to date in one go at the end of the agreed deferral period, so you should take into account your current and your likely future financial situation when making your application for Payment Deferral.

If a payment deferral is deemed suitable, we will be in contact to confirm how this will change your future monthly payments once the agreed deferral period has ended.

After your payment deferral period has finished we will automatically start collecting your monthly payment again, so please do not cancel your direct debit as this may cause your policy to be cancelled.

Your premium payments will need to ‘catch up’ with the premium payments that have been deferred. We will collect from your account all deferred premium payments in one go, in addition to the next scheduled premium payment for that month.

No, it’s important that you don’t cancel your direct debit payment so that there is no danger of any imminent payments failing (with a possible impact on your policy); and to allow us to recommence as normal after the deferral period.

You are still liable to pay your full premium, so the payments delayed during the payment deferral period will need to be paid by ‘catching up’ the payments at the end of the deferral period. We will collect from your account all deferred premium payments in one go, in addition to the next scheduled premium payment for that month.

In order to protect our staff and continue supporting our customers we are providing a reduced telephony service.

Please contact us on 0345 200 3465. We’re taking calls between 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday.

If you have a regular enquiry about your insurance policy with us, please return to our Home Page where you can find further information including our contact details for other types of enquiries, claims and complaints.

If you’ve recently changed your email address or phone number, you can quickly update your details on our online servicing portal, My Pet Portal.

Need to make changes to your personal information or payment details? Get in touch with our customer services team using the contact details below.

We’ll send you a renewal notice at least three weeks before your current policy is due to end. This will detail your new policy terms and conditions as well as the cost of your premium for next year.

If you’ve given us your consent, your policy will automatically renew and your monthly or annual payment will be taken from your bank account – unless you tell us otherwise.

If you haven’t received your renewal documents within two weeks of your renewal date please give us a call using the contact details below.

Can’t find the information you need online and want to get in touch? contact@petinsuranceonline.sainsburysbank.co.uk

Customer services

If you've any questions or need to amend your address or payment details, please get in touch with our customer services team.

Claims

You can make a claim online in My Pet Portal.

Complaints

We really hope you never need to. But if you have a complaint about our products or services, you can get in touch using the following contact details.

We'll deal with any concerns you may have as quickly as we can. Wherever possible, we’ll aim to do this within eight weeks of receiving your complaint. 

Due to the current situation regarding Coronavirus (COVID- 19), we are asking our customers to contact us via email only – contact@petinsuranceonline.sainsburysbank.co.uk. Please do not contact us by phone or by post unless absolutely necessary. Our teams are all working remotely so there will be delays in responding to you.

If you’re unhappy with our decision...

If you’re unhappy with our decision, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This must be done within 6 months of the date of our summary resolution communication or final decision letter. Visit financial-ombudsman.org.uk or write to:

Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR

If you’ve already contacted us and we haven’t resolved your complaint to your satisfaction, you could use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution service. This is an online portal designed to help consumers who’ve bought goods or services online to conduct dispute resolution.

You can make a claim online in My Pet Portal. Before making a claim, it’s worth checking your policy and certificate of insurance to see if you’re covered. You can find these in My Pet Portal.

Vet fees

Before your pet is treated, check your vet is prepared to complete a pet insurance claims form, provide invoices and a full medical history.

You can then complete your vet fees claim online via My Pet Portal.

All other claims

If you need to make a claim for anything other than vet fees, please download the relevant form from My Pet Portal, which can be found in the ‘Make a Claim’ section. Simply complete the appropriate sections, sign and return your form together with any documents, receipts or certificates that are required.

Once we’ve received your completed claim form and any supporting documents, we’ll aim to process your claim within seven working days. If we need any more information to process your claim, we’ll be in touch.

Once we’ve assessed your claim, we’ll let you know how much we’ll pay and how much you need to pay towards the cost of treatment.

If we can’t help you with all or part of your claim, we’ll explain why.

If you want us to pay your vet , that shouldn’t be a problem. We can pay most vet practices directly – letting you focus on helping your pet get better.