Maybe it's better not to insure your pet?

hnt86

Hi,

If like me your pet insurance is increasing by a lot, you might be wondering if it is worth it and what the other options are. I've made a simple spreadsheet to look at what insurance costs would be vs just paying yourself. Clearly this is specific to my dog (8 year old spaniel) but it might be useful to others - interested to hear if you think I have missed the point anywhere!

For some quick context our bill with petplan is now £108 a month, with coverage of £4,000. (I understand 98% of all UK vet claims are lower than £4k).

Our cover has increased by 23% like for like since last year. It increases in line with costs, inflation and also the dog's age and risk factors. I have estimated a 15% yearly increase and assumed she will live to age 15 if we're lucky to have her that long.

On that basis we'll be paying nearly £18k for insurance over the next 8 years. That's with a £125 excess on each new claim and in common with other insurers, paying 20% of each claim after she is 10.

I then looked at a few common conditions for medium sized dogs / spaniels. Imagining she is very unlucky and gets everything on my list, that would cost £26,000. Allowing for the excess, the 20% payment and the premium, that's nearly exactly the same as what we would spend without insurance.

Surely insurance is therefore a bit of a con, if you can save up the same amount every month as your premium into a separate account? I guess the only risk is if your pet gets lots of conditions before you have had a chance to save up for them?

In any case this seems to suggest I should cancel the insurance as the downside seems the same whether you have insurance or not, and the upside is better providing you're not really unlucky with your pet's health. Keen to hear any other views!

Bue21

Have you factored in longer term treatments such as arthritis care or indeed chemo etc?
Having said this I stopped the insurance a couple of years ago as the premiums were rising so rapidly. He had a biopsy on a lump (confirmed lipoma) which almost doubled the premium (despite the actual payout after excess being well under £100). The insurance for 1 year was sufficient to more than cover the cost of the lipoma removal if needed and, of course, if I changed provider there would be more exclusions than cover!. I decided to save the money in a separate account and it has a healthy balance despite having had the lump removed (vet actually removed 3 lumps and did a number of X-rays). We also have sufficient other savings which we accept may be needed if the balance doesn’t cover future treatment. 

swingaloo

I have a nine year old spaniel with petplan, cover £2000 and the cost is £34 per month.

zedonk

It's a bit of a gamble, really, as to whether insurance or saving is better. 

My first two cats were insured and had few health issues, and I'm pretty sure I spent more on premiums + excess than I would have on vet bills.

My third cat came to us with some existing medical history and was hard to insure, so we went down the savings route instead. That worked well.

I then didn't bother insuring my current (4th and 5th) cats, and I really regret this as they both developed hyperthyroidism which is a lifelong condition. One had radioiodine treatment for this which cost £3K, it was supposed to cure him but it worked a bit too well and so he needs regular medication and blood tests. With the other I haven't done this but I'm spending £200 a month on bloods alone just trying to get the dose of her meds right.

Any future cats are going to be insured again... Of course, they'll then probably turn out to have few health issues.

Cloth_of_Gold

I was talking to my brother recently about pets' health issues and we both said that we don't remember the pets we had when we were growing up (1960s/70s) getting much wrong with them. We had two dogs that both lived until they were 15/16 as well as various smaller animals and they all seemed to live their lives without major health problems. Were we lucky or are animals less healthy now?

sheramber

Nobody complains that  hey never claimed on their car insurance. despite paying it each year.

I had a dog insured with Petplan who cost Petplan more than they paid out to me.

Another had a claim at 18 months old and it took 10 years of premiums to equal the payout , and I had cover  during tha time. My excess with that company was £60.

I have also had a dog who didn't have any claims in his 14 years. but knowing he was covered for £7000 per year  was imprtant to me.

Premiums are based on breed ( conditions related to that breed), pet's age ( older dogs tend to have more claims) and postcode ( vet costs  relative to where you stay) plus covering running costs, such as wages, utilities  etc

Insurance companies are in business to make a profit for the shareholders, not to subsidise pet owners.

Those who do not claim subsidise those who do claim.

But if you are on low income with no access to a large sum od money insurance can give you peace of mind.

There have been post on here from people who cannot afford to pay a vet bill.

My vet told me the worst thing for him was when a client could not afford to pay for treatment , meaning the animal would need to be euthanised.

If you have access to large sums of money then fine. 

Putting money away works as long as you have the willpower not to dip into it  and don't need to pay put until you have accumulated a sum of money.

On your list arthritis and diabetes are ongoing conditions that will probably cost more than £1500/£2000 over several years.  


 

Mnoee

I don't insure my cats.

We have generic emergency savings that'd cover anything they'd need, or any other household emergency, and had that before they arrived. I think that's the only responsible way of self insuring. If the roof blows off and the boiler packs in, I'd get insurance. 

I stack the odds in my favour by feeding them a good quality diet, and I've built them a catio for some outdoor space instead of letting them roam. They also have a big shaggy rug attached to a wall with beds and a scratching post at the top, so yes, my indoor cats do climb the walls. 

It is definitely a gamble, but I'm happy to take the risk. There's no questions on insurance about these lifestyle things - I think it's more pronounced in cats rather than dogs, but even then I have an Alsatian on one side who seems to be constantly stuck in the garden bored out of his mind and never walked and a Terrier opposite who is clearly doted on and walked daily. It makes a difference. 

Soot2006

I do insure as I have too many pets for things to go wrong all at once.

One year, I had £18,000 worth of vet costs across three animals within 6 months. Cost to me was £145 excess times 3 + £3,000 ish that were not covered. All three survived and live on happily, many years later, so for me it was worth it for that experience alone.

LinLui

My 8 year old BC is insured for £10,000pa, lifetime insurance, £41 pm. But then I shopped around because PetPlan are notorously expensive. Yes his premiums will increase over time, but I would rather depend on having insurance in place for when I need it than on "maybe" having the money when needed. Even the most assiduous saver can't guarantee that their "pet savings" will be there when they need them - other emergencies can crop up and eat away at them. I probably wouldn't bother if I had cats though - every one I ever owned threw themselves under a bus or something just after I'd shelled out for the annual vets bills! But none of them could have been housecats anyway... too wild for that.

twopenny

I'll be new to this if I get another pet and it's only the cost of vet bills that put me off.

I've always had an animal or two until now. As more was able to be done vetwise my last dog I used to put £2 a week into a building society account and it was surprising how it mounted up. With interest over 18 yrs. Would have to be a fiver now.
The money was instantly available.
I actually had some left over come the end.

Not sure there is the ability to put random amounts weekly into a savings account now with any reasonable interest. I must investigate.

Agree that pets didn't get much wrong in the past. Odd lumps investigated as they got older. Rat bites on cats.

Mnoee

twopenny said:

Not sure there is the ability to put random amounts weekly into a savings account now with any reasonable interest. I must investigate.

Any easy access savings account you could do that manually, rates are around 5% at the moment

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

There's also regular saver accounts that pay 7% which might be better suited.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts/#NTK

Finally there's also various banks and apps that monitor your spending and bills and whatnot and automatically move savings across. I don't use them, I don't think mse has a specific article for them, but I'm sure elsewhere on the forum you can find people talking about them!