Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

hethmar

How strange, why does it vary that much? I note Halifax is underwritten by AXA. I think you should just double check that quote, it cant be more than double they quoted for my dog.

Cant make out why your quote is so low with PP - youd think it would be the highest for you (as for most people) rather than the lowest.

hethmar

Right guys, think Ive made my decision. Ive just rung NFU - you cant get a quote online which is a bit off putting but its worth the free phone call.

They cover £4k per year per condition - that is, if the dog had 5 different conditions in that year, £4k would be paid for each of them and then topped up the next year. So real for life cover.

They have all the usual stuff covered £1k for holiday cnacellation, etc. and you can include public liability or not - the chap said to me he would price that in, but to check your own house insurance doesnt already cover it.

£50 excess. I asked him how the excess may go up in future and he said, I quote "It wont". Once you take a policy the excess is kept for the rest of the dogs life.

They only insure up to 7 or 8 year olds, but once you have a policy you can renew for the rest of his life.

The premium is £196.51. This isnt the cheapest in my list as you can see above, but I think for the benefits and the security/stability of the insurers policies (as he said, "we arent a new reel them in with low costs and then double in the next year company, we have been insuring animals for over a hundred years") then I think this is going to be my best choice. They are sending me all the policy details in writing to peruse but its certainly looking a good deal at the moment.

Greencode, Id be interested to see what they quote you if you give them a ring?

greencode

hethmar wrote: »

Right guys, think Ive made my decision. Ive just rung NFU - you cant get a quote online which is a bit off putting but its worth the free phone call.

They cover £4k per year per condition - that is, if the dog had 5 different conditions in that year, £4k would be paid for each of them and then topped up the next year. So real for life cover.

They have all the usual stuff covered £1k for holiday cnacellation, etc. and you can include public liability or not - the chap said to me he would price that in, but to check your own house insurance doesnt already cover it.

£50 excess. I asked him how the excess may go up in future and he said, I quote "It wont". Once you take a policy the excess is kept for the rest of the dogs life.

They only insure up to 7 or 8 year olds, but once you have a policy you can renew for the rest of his life.

The premium is £196.51. This isnt the cheapest in my list as you can see above, but I think for the benefits and the security/stability of the insurers policies (as he said, "we arent a new reel them in with low costs and then double in the next year company, we have been insuring animals for over a hundred years") then I think this is going to be my best choice. They are sending me all the policy details in writing to peruse but its certainly looking a good deal at the moment.

Greencode, Id be interested to see what they quote you if you give them a ring?

Well, I thought I'd give them a call as well and they've given me an annual premium of £217. To be honest the guy on the phone was annoying me so much I wanted to hang up. I now realise why it's best to do this kind of thing online so you don't end up speaking for 25 minutes about everything! I've no idea why they can't just put this on their website so you can do it for yourself!

Bromley86

I called NFU when I was looking and they were great. Good spot hethmar on the £4k per condition per year point, as most don't catch the implications of that .

The only down side to NFU was the £4k limit. However, that's going to cover most things. A hip replacement costs ~£5k and AFAIK that's about as expensive as things get, although you might expect to have another say £1k of medication/hydro/consults in that year. So worst-case scenario you're looking at a £2k bill, which is not bad on an elective surgery.

The main plus, as you noted, is that NFU should be a stable insurer. Your premiums will go up as your dog gets older, but that's the same with everyone.

If it were me, I'd go for the HSBC or Halifax policies for that slightly higher annual limit, as I see that as more important than the multiple conditions @ £4k limit. If you claim £8-12k for 2-3 separate conditions in one year, you're dog is probably on the way out anyway.

Even if HSBC/Halifax increase their premiums in following years, they have to increase by over 30% to match the NFU starting premium. Whichever you go for though, they're all great. We're talking about minor nuances really.

EDIT: You do need public liability I believe as, unlike cats, if a dog causes an accident you're responsible.
EDIT2: I should say that we're with Halifax and they're great at paying out - we've had over £1k from them this year for hip stuff (and that's without any surgery).

hethmar

The only thing is Bromley that although the others have a higher limit, say you had two or more smaller conditons? So if your dogs £6000 hip replacement/therapy was covered, your erm, for example, £2k ear operation wasnt - because the total pay out had been used up? And I dont think your dog would need to be in dire straits to have more than one costly condition Bromley? As you say, unlikely scenario but ................

The other thing I take on board is about the costings having to increase a fair whack to be more than NFU's premium BUT if you have already had a claim when the costs have increased, then you are stuck with the insurer. Like I am with my other dog - I cant leave M and S even though their policy is now unrecognisable to how it was when I took it out three years back. And Im stuck with them, with the premium nearly double, with a £70 excess + 20% - I feel right now that having been "conned" by them I am very wary of going along with another newcomer to the market. Swings and roundabouts.

But I really appreciate your input - its very valid and helpful - this insurance for pets is a minefield, much worse than any other type as far as I can make out and Im so shocked how misleading a lot of the insurers' blurb is. Appreciate dogs need public liability - the point the guy was making was it may already be covered by your household insurance so you could deduct that part of the premium from the NFU policy.

shelovestobuystuff

I have 2 big labrador retrievers.Insurance is expensive.In general through my searching I have found that insurance covers you for loads you will never need and doesnt have very good terms for the areas you are likely to use.I just cancelled the m&s insurance I took out for my dogs as the paperwork came through and I saw the excess was £90 per occassion.The insurance itself was over £165 per dog and I have not been able to find cheaper.I can get insurance for about £180 each with a £60 excess but wonder if I wouldnt just be better putting the money in a bank account and using it if the need arose.
£330 seems an awfull lot to spend every year 'just incase'.

greencode

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

I have 2 big labrador retrievers.Insurance is expensive.In general through my searching I have found that insurance covers you for loads you will never need and doesnt have very good terms for the areas you are likely to use.I just cancelled the m&s insurance I took out for my dogs as the paperwork came through and I saw the excess was £90 per occassion.The insurance itself was over £165 per dog and I have not been able to find cheaper.I can get insurance for about £180 each with a £60 excess but wonder if I wouldnt just be better putting the money in a bank account and using it if the need arose.
£330 seems an awfull lot to spend every year 'just incase'.

I thought about doing it this way but I just fail to see that whatever you have in the bank would be enough if, god forbid, your dog does develop an illness or injury that requires veterinary work. Vets charge a fortune nowadays for the smallest of things so I reckon having insurance is a small price to pay "just in case". With that said with you having two dogs it is a lot of money to pay for insurance.

Bromley86

heth. In the example you give, we'll both end up paying £2k - me because I'm only insured for £6k p.a. and you because you're only insured for £4k of that £6k hip . Actually, I might pay less as it's often possible to delay one operation or the other into the next year .

That said, no one option is better as it all comes down to our personal views on risk. Go with whichever makes you happiest - as I said I was very impressed with the NFU set up and they are a more stable, established option.

sltbs. I feel very strongly about not self-insuring, assuming that you can afford real insurance of some kind.

The bottom line is that in the (admittedly unlikely) event of a serious problem, you will be faced with the choice of having your pet put down or taking out a loan/dipping into savings. Even though I believed I could make the hard choice, I knew that my wife could not.

It's turned out that she's saved us a lot of money and anguish as our lab !!!!! has hip problems. If not for my wife I'd likely have gone for a lower cover policy.

In our case we're looking at surgery of £5-£10k. Of course, if we were uninsured she could just do without, but that would not be nice for her. Costs this year have been about £1,250 and, without surgery, she is likely to have arthritis by the age of 3-5. So that's 5-10 years of medication and/or pain, which won't be cheap or pleasant.

Anyhoo, as you can see we'd have to own a lot of dogs over our lives for self insurance to break even for us. Of course, we have been unlucky with our first pup having such bad hips.

I'm actually a fan of high excesses as it's the really serious stuff that I want to insure against. Small things I'm happy to self insure against as you really will be able to do that cheaper yourself. Of course I do prefer £50 excess policies if the premium is similar and, anyway, I don't think anyone offers a £250 excess policy .

hethmar

Sheloves, thats the trouble with insurance - its seems a waste of money til you need it doesnt it. Its a gamble. And you could put away the same amount of money every year in a savings account but £165 a year would take about 4 years of saving just to pay for a simple skin allergy test Check out the companies listed above in my trial runs to see what deals you can get for your dogs. Note the Halifax gives 10% discount for 2 dogs and you can go through quidco for £20 cash back. And again, as lab/retrievers are traditionally farming type dogs (as terriers are) it may well be worth ringing the NFU for their quote too.

I also wish there was a pick and mix policy - I thought Id found one in Petguard, but it turned out more expensive than the comprehensive insurers! I dont need cover for going abroad, I dont want to be paid out if my dog dies, I dont want lots of the minor bits they add to these policies but in the end those bits and pieces probably dont add anything to the premium as few people actually use them. (One amusing add on with the National Farmers Union is "emergency recovery" for your dog - this is if your dog disappears down a rabbit hole or whatever and needs excavating out - I larfed when he said that, but with two terriers that may actually be a useful add on)

Bromley you have much better financial brain than I have but in the end, as you say, one tends to go with the heart - Im very wary now of insurers doubling their premiums and changing the excesses. It costs me £20 now just to walk into the vets surgery - and recently I paid out £50 for a shampoo and some eye ointment for the older dog - £70 in one 10 minute visit - gawd, should have encouraged my boys to go for a different career

System

I have just choked on my coffee.

I keep saying that i am going to have to do something about my two dogs pet insurances. Millies runs out in September and Lucys runs out in January.

I nearly died when i tried to insure Lucy when we first had her. Presently i am paying £13 a month for Millie but when i phoned to insure Lucy (who is the same breed) Marks and Spencer wanted £21. Hubby had a blue fit and i know theres going to be another increase when Millies policy finishes.

So anyway i thought i would try Pet Plan. For Millie who is presently £13 a month, they want £35 a month!

Its really hard putting a price on your priceless animals heads but even if Lucys runs a few months later at the same cost. Its going to cost me £70 a month to insure them! Thats nearly as much as my gas and electricity.