Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

yalik

you can look at comparevetdrugs.com for other prices for insurance. CVD also comparing prices for vet medications and pet products

yalik

for exotics putting money aside using standing order is the best option. insurance companies are only good when it comes to dogs and cats. I got comparison by looking at comparevetdrugs.com

hethmar

Bryando wrote: »

£5.97 a month or £ 71.60 per year excess £75.00

This is to insure a 7 week old kitten. think that is GREAT! Plus I assume that money goes to help PDSA in helping other animals in need.

what do you think of these prices?

Well, as long as you understand that the cover is not "for life" and you feel its unlikely you will need more than the pot offered - its very good.

Bryando

hethmar wrote: »

Well, as long as you understand that the cover is not "for life" and you feel its unlikely you will need more than the pot offered - its very good.

what do you mean not for 'life'? I am going to assume you mean cover for life should it gain a life illness? If so I thought the plan I was going to take covers that? £7,000 for vet fees for a cat , that not good?

I've only ever had dogs and/or worked with them. Have no idea re cats, my partners .

hethmar

A "for life" policy is one where the pot of money is topped up every year to the cover you start with -say £7k. So if your dog had say a hip operation for £5k, next policy year the pot of money would still be £7k. Some of these policies are per condition per year or just per year (for all conditions).

With some, you can only claim for 12 months (the worse sort)

With a lot of others you can claim up to a certain amount - as in the case of the PDSA (£7k). In the above scenario, your dogs hip and any related conditons would only be covered for £2k for the second year and very quickly depleted down to zero cover for that condition.

As I said, its probably enough for most peoples needs but you should be aware of it as, for instance in my case I have a dog with a chronic, for life condition. If I didnt have the for life policy which is topped up again every year then Id run out of the pot of money that can be claimed in about 5 years and then be left on my own with all the vets bills and meds to pay for the rest of the dogs life.

See you are taking this out for a cat (do they insure under 8 weeks old?) - sorry only have dogs which is why I used them as an example. But the policy conditions will be the same.

Just checked for you, they do cover from 6 weeks but up to 8 weeks only for accidents not illness (still, thats pretty good, most exclude under 8 weeks)

This is also the wording re claims:
"Cover remains in place for each Incident until the Policy limit is reached subject to the payment of relevant
premiums".

As Ive said - probably £7k is enough for most pets.

clutterydrawer

GemmaBuckle wrote: »

Congratulations! Degu's are adorable.
I had awful trouble getting insurance for my rabbits. In the end I decided to put a set amount into a savings account and I will use that if I need to. Realistically, how much are you likely to have to spend on vets bills? It turned out to not be worth getting insurance for my rabbits.

Quite a lot! One of mine cost me over £500 in a few months and I have a friend whose rabbit's vet bills are now in 4 figures. :eek:

My rabbits are insured with petplan so I don't have to worry about covering sudden huge bills. I don't know if they do degus though :?

RHYSDAD

We have just got a Jack Russell pup and are also re-homing an older Jack Russell x Chihuahua. We are trying to get the best insurance for the least cost. On speaking to the vet the other day he recommended getting cover up to 5K absolute maximum BUT with no time limit on the cover. The 12 month limited policies were, in his opinion, practically useless (he mentioned skin conditions).

What do you other pet loving money savers recommend?

devildog

I think your vet is basically right. You need a policy that will cover a dog's condition for life, which basically means that say if your dog had a skin condition the policy would pay out up to the policies limit every year providing you remained insured with that company.
You need to do some research into your breed(or double check with vet) what conditions they 'typically' can suffer with.
This is what I did with mine(GSD) and obviously things like hip dysplasia sprang to mind, then found out what sort of cost this would involve if the dog was to suffer it and based the level of insurance cover on that.

Shop around carefully and be aware that once you are insured if the dog does have a condition and you want to change insurers they will not cover any pre-existing conditions

hethmar

There is a huge sticky thread at the top of the board.

Basically most of us seem to think the best are Petplan, NFU and AXA - the "for life" options of those

cyberbob

We have ours with M&S not the cheapest but the best cover I have found.