Unfortunately this is the way they work, mine had an op and they would not tell me if they will pay or not, all very strange, with my last ins co all I had to do was ring them and they would give the ok, it is very worrying when they wont let you know, I will be going elsewhere when my renewal is up as you cant, just go ahead with something and not know if they will pay up.

Dear Mr Mc Daid, thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing some frustration with the claims process. In the majority of cases, we do settle claims directly with veterinary practices to save our policy holders the inconvenience of paying big bills up front and in fact, this is our default procedure. However, if a vet will not accept direct payment, we have to revert to paying the policy holder once we receive a copy of the receipt.
In terms of the pre-authorisation of a claim, this is something we as an insurer do not currently do. This is because as the pet’s treatment commences, the diagnosis could change, which may have a bearing on the approval. However, we provide full details of your cover and any exclusions that will affect a claims decision in the Policy Wording document, which is sent to you when you take cover out with us and can also be accessed on our website.
Our standard turnaround time for claim approval is 48 hours of receipt of a completed claims form, we understand that it is important that you are aware of the claim outcome as soon as possible. Approved claims are paid within 3-5 working days. We hope this information has given some more clarity to your concern, if you would like to discuss this further please do call us on 020 3750 0022 and we will be happy to talk this through. Best Wishes, Lifetime Pet Cover