Pet Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

blue_monkey_2

That is a good idea Ninja. I think I might do the same.

bulchy

GreenNinja, can I ask you which insurance company you were with? Its just that we've claimed a lot of money in the past 2 years for our weimy, and I'd hate to think we were going to end up in the same situation as you. We're with M&S.
Sue

GreenNinja

Sav4it,

Quite the contrary actually, many times we have been in a minus situation and they have patiently waited for the monthly payments to catch up with what we owe. Sometimes its the other way round, but not very often! my dog is old now and needs medical help on a reasonably regular basis.

Hi bulchy,

The insurance was with The Kennel Club. We claimed for a couple of investigative ops when he was around 2 or 3 then had him castrated when about 5 as a possibility of prostrate cancer so this could be why they suddenly hiked the premium up.

X

bulchy

Thanks GreenNinja. I was starting to worry there. I remember being offered insurance with the kennel club but the premiums were high to start with. We have 2 cats and 2 dogs insured through M&S and pay something like £40+ a month for the lot. I cant remember the exact figure. We've only ever claimed for one dog, but hes had a cruciate ligament op, ongoing treatment for arthritis and also for incontinence, and I'm expecting a rise in his premiuns next time. I cant move him to another provider as he wouldnt be covered for his arthritis and incontinence, so we're just praying it wont go up too far. Our vet is also very good, and we never have to pull out any cash, they just claim it direct, every now and again they ask me for a claim form, just as well as I have a feeling he has another cruciate ligament damage, looks like another op may be on the cards.
Sue

GreenNinja

Am fairly sure that the insurance options 5 years ago were more limited than they are today. There seems to be an awful lot of choice these days with M&S, Tesco, Sainsburys etc doing insurance. At the time when my dog was insured I think there were only a few doing it. This can only be good for the consumer!

Yeah a savings account would make sense, post discovering "martins money saving site"
I can see this.

blue_monkey_2

I am with Virgin Money and they seem quite good, I have 5 cats and pay around £40 a month, a couple went up this year and I started looking elsewhere but the same policies were much more expensive elsewhere. I have thought about what Ninja is doing but policy started in august so not sure if I have to see the full year out. one of my cats has diabetes and I am about to claim £180 - her policy is a month in and I only pay £120 a year so that pays for itself really, I claims around £350 last year when first diagnosed. When I started the policies I was getting the lifelong one and have just continued it, she is about 12 now but it is quite limited when you have an elderly pet, especially if they have been ill before. If you have a policy now then stick with it else you might find it hard to get another, or do as Ninja does and pop £20 a month in the savings account. not sure what that would cover these days though, this is why i am wavering. The amount have claimed over the years of having the cats to what I have paid evens up quite nicely. I always think about changing it - until something happens and then I am glad I have got it. my cat got run over and it would have cost me over £500 for the surgery and vists we had to do every other day to the vets for weeks - this is when I thanked god I had insurance.

Petal_3

Thanks for your replies.

Thing is.....he's never been ill and I've never made a claim until last week. He got a puncture wound (from a bite probably) which became infected so he received emergency treatment on a Sunday. Also, Tesco don't deal directly with the vet which is a pain (I didn't arrange this insurance btw... )

Would like to change over to an insurer that deals directly.

On a different note....I was looking at pixiebob kittens on line at the weekend....£1000 !! They are lovely though.....

x

Jo6673

Just insured my new kitten for 5.03 a month with Argos, quoted with Tesco then saw that for a few pence more Argos's gold cover was much better

Goleo

My kitty has turned 8 this year and the insurance has gone up to £8.69 per month with a £49 excess with Animal Friends Insurance.

I've just had a look on the moneysupermarket and the cheapest they come up with is with E&L at £7.60.

I ahve found another site (Healthy-Pets.co.uk) which only wants £6.34 for the Gold Cover! Are they a bit dodgy or something?
I've never heard of them before.

view

Hi all
We've had our wee furry boy, cat that is! for nearly two years.

He was a rescue cat and apart from the usual challenges you experience with a rescue cat he has been fine.

Last night at 1am he started howling and drooling and lay on his side, hardly able to breathe and became unconscious.

He righted himself after over half an hour as we were frantically trying to phone someone local to take us to the emergency vet in the next town.

We took him there and the vet thought that he might have had a fit, but she wanted to keep him overnight for a blood test and more testing.

Basically as we extremely stupidly didn't have cat insurance it's going to cost us over £200 and that's before we know if anything else has to be done to him. So the short break we were going on next week has had to be cancelled to pay for the vet fees [which of course we are gutted but am ok with as we would rather see our wee boy all better!]

Are there any companies that you can get insurance with that cover existing illnesses? ie whatever is wrong with him we would need to take out some sort of insurance as we simply cannot afford to pay these sort of bills.

Does anyone have any advice about pet insurance with reference to the above?

thank you so much for those who answer.

XX