Hi all, I have two 4-year old cats on Healthy Paws pet insurance. I've seen the recent posts here regarding horrendous premium increases with HP, and am wondering if I should try to switch companies before my cats get older. My cats are healthy and I've never made any claims. My premium is currently about $80 for both cats (and yes, it did go up a good bit this year). I live in California (yikes). My major concern is that one of my cats has a history of struvite crystals in the urine. He's never had a blockage, a UTI, or any urinary problems - it was an incidental finding on pre-op labs before a dental cleaning. He's been on prescription food since then and the crystals have cleared up. But I know this would be considered a pre-existing condition if I tried to change pet insurance companies. My question is, how broad might this exclusion be? Would I potentially never get covered for anything urine or kidney-related if the insurance company tried to blame it on the history of crystals? And if there's a risk of that happening should I stick it out with HP (maybe the premium increases won't be as bad for cats?), or still try to switch? I do not have access to an employer-sponsored MetLife plan covering pre-existing conditions. I've read some companies might cover certain pre-existing conditions if they have been treated and symptom-free for over 12 months, would that potentially include my cat's history of crystals? Appreciate any opinions or advice. Thanks!

Location: I live in California Hey guys! Wondering what you thought. In summer of 2022, my mom and I were visiting some extended family in Switzerland. My Swiss cousin drove me and my mom to Paris, France in his car. The last night I was there, my cousin asked me if I wanted to go take pictures at the Eiffel Tower. I said sure. He drives his car, I am in the front passenger seat next to him. No other passengers in the car. We are on the street right next to the Eiffel Tower at a red light, sitting in traffic with all cars stopped. He says "OK you can get out here and get to the sidewalk, I will pick you up in a few minutes." As I open the passenger door, a motorcycle who had been weaving in and out of traffic going maybe 15-20 mph, slams into the car door. The driver and passenger fall over and the car door is smashed. We pull over, traffic around us is stopped. An ambulance comes and help arrives. Unfortunately (worst timing ever), I had a plane to catch to go back to the US. My cousin told me to leave, he would take care of it. I found a cab, took me back to where my mom was staying, and we went to the airport and flew home. I followed up with him a few days later and he said the motorcycle driver and passenger were fine, they had suffered some cuts/bruises and a sprained ankle. I told him to please keep me posted. He never really had anything to report. Fast forward to last Friday. I get an email from an insurance company detailing the incident from 2022, with the correct date and what exactly had happened. They found me liable and at fault because I opened the passenger door and caused the injuries of the motorcycle passengers. The insurance company said they had to compensate the other party, and requested that I reimburse the full amount. It's nearly $10K USD. I know this is definitely not a scam because my cousin verified his policy number on the letter they sent me. He also informed me they called the police that night and the police never came. He took it on himself to give the other party the insurance information so that his insurance would help out. He never imagined his insurance trying to recoup the money, especially from me. What do you guys think I should do? Shouldn't the insurance cover the driver and vehicle?Am I liable as the passenger? How would an insurance company in France enforce that I pay this? Can they take me to court? Is it possible that they might try to retaliate with my cousin instead, if I ignore the letter? Thanks in advance!!!

Hi all, I am in need of advice. I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate place to ask. Ive had Embrace insurance for my two kitties for a year now. For one cat, it's amazing. For the other, Daisy, it's been kind of a nightmare. I had to increase her coverage midway through which restarted the medical review. That was my first big mistake, because while I knew it would come back with a temporary exclusion of a one time ear infection, I did not expect a permanent exclusion for ALL SKIN MASSES including cancer. Now, yes she has a small polyp on her outer ear that has never been diagnosed officially. It has been told to me by multiple vets that it's not a big deal and to leave it alone since shes had it since she was 2 and it was harmless. So when I saw that exclusion, I went through her medical records and found that I mentioned to the technician that she had a "growth" in her ear that was not impacting the ear infection, and my statement was put on the official medical records despite the veterinarian never putting it on her notes or as a diagnosis. She had one diagnosis: ear infection. A two month long appeal process would ensue where no one asked me anything despite me sending my specific concerns via email to the vet about wanting it known to the insurance it's not a cancerous mass, it's a polyp and it should not exclude all forms of cancer. The insurance would only speak to the vet who obviously had more important things to do than to deal with insurances, so it took forever for this process to come to a conclusion. The vet had no record of the mass, other than my statement to the technician, and ultimately that's what she told the insurance: There is no diagnosis of a mass and she has never noticed one on my cat. The insurance concluded that the mass didn't exist and officially documented the rescinded exclusion. My next mistake: I didn't say anything after because who would?? After a nonstop, 2 month, constant back and forth to get everyone to work together, there was a solution so I shut up and let it go for peace of mind. Now I feel absolutely f*cked because the polyp needs to be removed because she wont leave it alone and its turned into a deep cut that doesnt heal. The technician today wrote that she's had it since she was two and it's officially been diagnosed. Its a benign polyp, it's been biopsied after the appeal. Im so afraid to keep her insurance or submit a claim now in case im now "withholding information" or being fraudulent. I never denied she had a mass, I just denied it was anything more than a polyp and that's what I was trying to fight. What do I do??? She gets it removed tomorrow. Im afraid this being found in her medical records will impact future claims and I won't be able to move forward with removing any other temporary exclusions like the ear infections. I also have another cat on the policy who really needs insurance and im scared if they drop her, they'll drop him too. If you got to the end, thank you for reading this 🩷

Car loan— 12,000 to pay off, interest rate is 7.8% Federal student loans— 6,000 to pay off, interest rates average about 4% I called Wells Fargo, as this is what my auto loan is through and they told me their is no benefit to paying off my car early (as in I won’t save any money) very confused as I know this is a “fixed loan”. Obviously it is better to pay off the higher interest rate, but if it’s a fixed loan does that matter?? Any advice on which to pay off first??

I’m moving from Oregon to Los Angeles & my wage is still quite low, but the move is justified because I should go up in salary much quicker in due time. I have to change my car insurance over & my rate with Progressive will go from $133 for comprehensive to about $400. What insurance do I really need in the event of an accident & how can I lower this cost as low as possible? Anyone have really cheap rates with other companies? Car is a 2015 Nissan Altima.

Is it even legal for Healthy Paws pet insurance to increase premiums at almost 200% in CA? This is outrageously high!! Anyone experiencing the same? #healthypawspetinsurance

Had 2 trees uproot one June 19th, one which put a big gouge in the roof and another broke a window in the family room. We have Erie Insurance, so this was in the middle of their IT outage. Luckily, we had ServPro button up the house pretty quickly. Erie was good with that, even though it took a week to get a claim number for ServPro. But after that, things have been moving at a glacial pace. Erie reached out on June 30th to say they were assigning a field adjuster. That adjuster finally showed up on July 7th. They mentioned putting the need for a structural engineer to look at the roof trusses, and they would put that in their report. They said it would take 2-3 days before the report would be shared with us. When we contacted Erie on Friday, July 11th regarding our report … our desk adjuster is out of office until Wednesday the 16th!!! Is this kind of timeline typical? I know the they had an outage. But it’s been almost a month since the incident. And between clearing the huge trees, the structural engineer, and time for the actual repairs … it will be at least another month before the house is repaired.

In two months, my husband and I are moving states and I will be 22 weeks pregnant. I am a teacher thus I will not start until August. Lapsing and insurance is stressing me out and giving me a lot of anxiety that I don’t need for the first trimester Please share any and all advice/ a step by step on what we should do in terms of health insurance, finding an OB, etc. currently on BCBS Florida blue through the school system, I work in.

I go through the prompts, I get connected to someone, and I just hear a conversation between two people talking about random things that I can barely make out. They don’t respond to me so I hang up and try again, same thing. What is actually going on? Do customer service reps just answer and then ignore people so they’ll hang up?

My dad just went through open enrollment and he opted out of employer Medical insurance since he is starting Medicare as of today (he used to have the Medical insurance but the increase in price made Medicare a better choice). He only signed up for dental and vision. I called his insurance company (aetna) just to double check and they say that it shows he has all three: medical, dental, and vision. I told them we didn't sign up for it so they told me to contact our employer so they can update the information. My dad spoke to someone in HR who says that there might be a delay since today is the first of the month and the first day of the insurance taking place after open enrollment. Does this sound correct? Should i give it time? Just trying to make sure everything gets updated correctly especially since my dad signed up for Medicare B with special enrollment (qualifying life event of losing employer insurance so that he doesn't pay a penalty for signing up after 65).