Insurance newbie help - HelpUCover?

Up until two weeks ago I'd never taken out pet insurance before - I'd never been able to with Willow as my dad wouldn't pay for anything for her when I was young and when I started work (I worked for him) it was all unpaid and I had no money of my own. Later when I got Maple and Jazzie I found the complicated list of exclusions offputting and I've been going back and forwards over whether it's a good idea or not ever since. I started to reconsider insurance seriously a few months ago as since october we've had four emergency trips to the vet for the bunnies and two for my dog Max. Up until now I'd been 'self insuring' by putting money away.
A few weeks ago I took out insurance for the first time (E&L) for my German Shepherd as he was coming up to 8 and I wanted to make sure he was protected. Unfortunately this Monday, one day before the cover started, he collapsed and long story short it turned out he had spleen cancer. He'd never shown any symptoms. He had a leg infection over the new year but that cleared up after treatment and he seemed perfectly healthy. Again, long story short, we lost him the same day, he was too weak and the vet said he'd only have had two weeks even with a splenectomy, and there was no way he would survive surgery. Tests, x-rays etc came to £623 which obviously we paid as the cover wasn't in effect until the next day.
Now my insurance savings account is pretty much empty (there was also £223 for Max's cremation - in all vets fees for both him and the bunnies have been over £2000 since October) and I'm seriously thinking that I should be insuring the bunnies as it's going to take time to build it back up and I'm worried about something happening in the meantime. I've been doing quotes this morning and the cheapest seems to be HelpUCover at £8.37 per month per rabbit. I looked at some old threads on here and it seems they're pretty good at paying out? They also apparently give you a free month of insurance on each additional policy you take out for multiple pets. That works out at £66.96 per month for all eight bun's, plus a free month if they honour it. A lot of money but nothing when it comes to protecting my buns. Money's tight but they always come first. But what I'm worried about is coverage. If I'm going to pay that each month I want to be as sure as possible that they're going to pay out if/when it's needed. Otherwise I'd probably be better off continuing to save the money away as I've been doing. Like with any other rabbit insurance they seem to be less than clear when it comes to dental coverage. I'm also wondering where we stand on what they consider 'pre existing' conditions, or what relates to them.
All bunnies are currently in good health with no ongoing health conditions (that I'm aware of). All except Pixel and Pinot have at some stage been treated for something but all are now healthy and symptom free.
Do I need to inform the insurance company of everything they've ever been treated for even though they have no ongoing conditions? What if one of them gets something like, say, an eye problem but have in the past been treated for a blocked tearduct. Will they wriggle out of paying by claiming it was pre-existing? I assume they'll have access to all the bun's records anyway?

What about GI stasis? I can't see any reference to it being excluded in the policy documents. As I understood it it's considered a symptom, not a disease but would treatment for it be covered? What if they'd had stasis in the past? Three of them have been treated for it before. With Jazzie the other day it only cost £54 to treat as I noticed the very early signs and got her treated straight away but when Cody went into stasis he needed to spend 2 1/2 days on a drip, including transfer to VetsNow as my vet doesn't do overnight and came to £514 in all. We never knew the definite cause but he seems to be okay now. Had they been insured at the time there wouldn't have been any point in trying to claim for Jazzie but I'd have wanted to claim for Cody.

Also what about tests? They don't seem to make it very clear (or maybe I'm just really stupid ). What if the vet wanted a blood test or x-ray? Do they pay for those tests? What if the vet gives the option treating before investigating the cause - would the tests then be considered 'optional' and then excluded? I can't quite make sense of what they mean.
Here's what they say about it:
"We will not pay for"...
"•Any cost relating to routine or investigative tests, unless these are diagnose a condition due to specific existing symptoms and the
condition is covered under this policy. This includes but is not limited to
pre-operative blood tests;
•the cost of treatment for a dental condition and any related conditions, unless : there is a history of annual check-ups (or if not annual, as recommended by your vet) and evidence that any advice given has been followed within 6 months; the treatment is to relieve suffering due to illness; and the dental treatment was recommended and undertaken after the first 2 years of cover. This does not apply to the treatment of deciduous teeth. However the cost of trimming, burring or rasping rabbits’ teeth is not covered under this policy;"
If I understand it correctly they're saying they'll cover tests as long as it's to diagnose a problem that is presenting with symptoms. They wouldn't cover it if I asked for a test be done, only if the vet considered it necessary?
Also the dental bit seems to say they will cover dental treatment as long as they've had a checkup, but then go on to say they don't cover trimming, burring or rasping. So basically they don't cover anything that rabbit is prone to, such as spurs?

I was just hoping that maybe someone who'd had experience claiming from them, or even another insurance company for that matter, might be able to share their experience?
I'm still feeling torn over what is the right decision. If I take out insurance I won't be able to put much away for non-routine stuff, so if they end up needing something like dental treatment in the next few months I could be stuck, but at the same time it would take me a long time to build up enough to treat for something like a broken leg for example now that I've had to pretty much empty the savings account that I had for their emergencies.
What do you all think? What would you do? I feel inclined to take out the insurance but I'm not sure.

I apologise for all the questions and the extremely long thread but I've never done this before and unfortunately have no one in my family to ask. My only friends are my bunnies themselves so I don't think they'll be able to offer advice either. They think I should just spend the money on industrial sized packs of raisins

We use them and theyve been good. Paid out £2k in the summer when boey had stasis, included blood work on tron to see if his liver was due to poison plants, the only thing they dont pay for is thw critical care sachets.

The premiums started at 6 per month 3 years ago and now are 8.20

Theyll only pay for dentals after 2 years of the policy being taken out.

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We use them as well. The only claims we've had to make are for GI stasis (twice). They've paid promptly both times, once direct to our vet, and once to us after we'd sent them the paperwork from the emergency vet. Premiums have gone up to £11 for Peter (he's the one who's had stasis!) and £10 for Trixie as they're both now over 5. But given that we recently spent £370 at the emergency overnight vet I still think it's worth it.

We use petplan insurance & they've been great so don't really know of helpucover personally.

As far as insurance policies go whoever you decide to use, make sure you purchase a covered for life policy, this means they will cover a condition for the rest of the pets life, as opposed to a 12 month policy which will only pay out for a condition for a year.
They will not cover anything they class as a pre exsisting condition.

Petplan covered dental work for Ari she had been losing weight for months & our previous vet kept doing bloods which were coming back with high CK indicating muscle wastage, septicaemia also showed up. We were referred to a specialist who determined that Ari had dental disease & a rotated molar ! She needed quite a bit of dental work and roots removed & pet plan paid for all of this. I can not fault them. They also cover her acupuncture & laser therapy which she receives for her spondolysis which showed up when our previous vet took X-rays looking for reasons to why she was losing weight. They also cover Trebors heart condition.

Also some vets dont do direct claims meaning you need to pay for treatment at the time & claim the money back from your insurance company. Pet plan have always been quick to pay out after sending in claims as well. Our premiums are about £13 per month so a bit more expensive...

I'm with Petplan but used to be an insurance advisor in my practice.

In general, pre-existing related to anything they have been treated for prior to getting the cover. So anything related to stasis won't be covered, anything to do with tear ducts won't be covered, and anything to do with dental (if they have a history of dental spurs etc) won't be covered.

Your best option is to call them and discuss it with them. I know PP will often put a 12/24 month exclusion on, and if bun is symptom free for 12/24 months they will then cover the condition.

Petplan do cover dental treatment, and most insurance companies do cover gut stasis.

They will cover tests that the vet feels is nessicary in order to obtain a diagnosis.

If you'd like, PM me the wording that is confusing you and I'll try to explain it more simply for you. They tend to put in a lot of words that aren't needed.

I've had pet without insurance before, such as the ferrets. They ended up costing around £6,000 in vet fees for the 5/6 years that I had them (that was just for one of them). I was on around £4.20 an hour and was putting away £150 each month for them, I didn't ever need to borrow money as if they needed something I hadn't saved for I simply went without anything I needed/wanted.

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Hi - how are you getting on with the insurance?

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