Hi guys, finally last month RSPCA/AXA insurance actually gave in and paid up. Thanks so much for all your advice, it was really helpful and inspired me not to give up. Also prevented me from making mistakes when sending letters, etc. Cheers, I will make a donation x

Hi again, Just to keep you all posted and thank you all again:- DCA continue to ring me twice daily - I do not pick up. Vet 2 has not replied to my letter asking for confirmation that they will accept my offer of £25 pcm and requesting written evidence that I agreed to deal with any DCA. Vet 1 has rung RSPCA/AXA for me and also faxed them a letter telling them they are WRONG. As a direct result they have agreed to re-open the claim and look at it again!! This Vet is my HERO, he is the only person (apart from you good-guys at CAG of course) who has not tried to just stonewall me. I will keep you up to date, Jules xxx

Thanks so much, this is so helpful and the links also, just finished reading! I will let you know how I get on shortly, Thanks again, Jules

Hi again, just reporting back developments with the above problem! To clarify there are 2 vets involved:- I will call them Vet A (our usual vet) and Vet B (our usual vet referred us to Vet B when the cat was taken ill. This is the Vet who is now pursuing us for the debt). I have now received a letter from RSPCA Pet Insurance stating they cannot pay my claim because our cat showed clinical signs of heart disease in Sep09, 6 months before cover commenced. I went off to our usual vet (Vet A) and obtained a copy of the medical records. There is an entry in Sept 09 made during the cat's annual examination which states "possible slight heart murmur RHS". I do remember Vet A mentioning this at the time but he said he wasn't sure if it was a murmur, and anyway it was quite likely just due to the stress of visiting the vet. Every annual exam since then, plus a thorough check prior to a anaesthetic for a tooth extraction in 2012, has stated "no abnormalities detected". Vet A is on holiday 'til Monday and his receptonist has suggested I go back and speak with him as he might be able to do a letter to the insurers for me. Meanwhile I have offered (by recorded letter to Vet B) to pay £25 per month until I can potentially settle the dispute with the insurers. This is the amount I am saving per month (on insurance and flea/worming etc) since the cat was put to sleep, and is all I can afford. Vet B has left me a voicemail asking me to contact them. Their DCA have also left me a voicemail asking me to contact them "to set up a payment plan". My question now, before I contact them, is can the vet insist I deal with the DCA? I didn't think they could just pass on my debt/details to a DCA. Would I have signed up for this when I paid the initial £75 to Vet B in December? If I did sign anything I can't remember, but I was very distressed at the time as the cat was seriously ill. Also, the first I heard of the bill not being settled by the insurers was by the DCA letter 3 months later. Vet B did not contact me at any stage to say the bill had not been paid, so can they just pass the problem to a DCA wthout even telling me? Hope you can help, Thanks in advance, Jules

I will do that, thank-you.

Thanks so much UncleBulgaria, you are very "calming". I am glad I didn't ring them now. Just to complicate the whole thing, our other cat has had to have an op recently which I am going to have to claim for as well. So it's probably doubly important that I don't go and upset everyone right away! I will write to the Vets as I could probably manage to pay a tiny bit each month, and also I will find out from AXA what they are disputing. It would be great if there were a Pets NHS which all pet owners paid into. £1200 is an astronomical sum for me, hence the insurance! Will post back when I have some developments, and thanks again, Jules x

Hi I am hoping for some much-needed advice! Last December our beloved cat suddenly became breathless. The vet diagnosed heart failure which he tried to treat with surgery and medications. Sadly after 2 days we had to have her put to sleep. I have RSPCA Gold Pet-insurance, underwritten at the time by AXA. I contacted them for a claim form which arrived and I completed it. As agreed I paid the Vet directly the £75 policy excess and left them with the claim-form for them to finalise and send to RSPCA Insurance. The total bill came to around £1000 I think. I heard nothing more until 2 weeks ago when I received a letter from a Debt Collection agency on behalf of the Vet! (Also, the bill now appears to have increased to £1200). I ignored the Debt Collector and contacted RSPCA, who said they had never received the claim-form from the Vet. The Vet said they sent the claim, and maybe it was lost in the post. I requested a new form and filled it all in again and sent it off to the Vet for them to complete again. After a few days I checked the RSPCA had received it, which they had. Yesterday I came home to a message on my answer-machine from RSPCA saying they had decided not to pay the claim and they would write to me with their "reasons". Back to square one. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just a claim for a car or something, but it is so upsetting because I still haven't really got over the loss of my cat so I know I am not thinking as clearly. Before I go off like a rocket, can anyone please offer me any advice on the best way to go about sorting this mess out? Thanks in advance, Jules x