pet insurance rip off

susieanne

I have been alittle worried about not having our dog insured hes 13 years old and i keep thinking i know when things start to go wrong with pets and you have to take them to the vets it costs a small fortune .I have just done a quote online with more than my premium to pay monthly will be £33 which i thought is fair enough my dog is getting old now .I was just about to buy the policy when i read if i do claim i would have to pay the first £70 plus another 20% of the final bill .Whats the point of me having the policy so the insurance is only going to be paying a small amount ,not forgetting i will be paying £33 every month .Is this the same with all pet insurance when dogs get old

golden_eagle

who was it with? have you tried axa? they are v good and reasonable.

cyberbob

Shop around look at all the small print M&S are good on older dogs. You may have to consider that its not worth while insuring (due to his age) and just put the money you would have spent in a high interest account.

susieanne

hi the quote was with More Than .thanks i will try axa.I understand my premium will be high cause hes an old dog but then to have to pay the first £70 plus 10% of final bill is a rip off

elsien

That's not such a bad quote. Admittedly mutt has had more than her fair share of problems which is why my insurance has rocketed over the last few years, but with Petplan I'm paying £40 a month premium with a £105 per condition excess plus 20% of any bill over and above that for a 11-12 year old dog.

I think most pet insurance has an excess even for younger dogs, and with a lot of insurers as soon as the dog hits 10 the excess goes up or you pay the percentage on top of that, (or in my case, both!)
Check as well that you've disclosed anything they might consider a pre-existing condition or you might find your claim turned down further down the line.

usernameisvalid

susieanne wrote: »

I have been alittle worried about not having our dog insured hes 13 years old and i keep thinking i know when things start to go wrong with pets and you have to take them to the vets it costs a small fortune .I have just done a quote online with more than my premium to pay monthly will be £33 which i thought is fair enough my dog is getting old now .I was just about to buy the policy when i read if i do claim i would have to pay the first £70 plus another 20% of the final bill .Whats the point of me having the policy so the insurance is only going to be paying a small amount ,not forgetting i will be paying £33 every month .Is this the same with all pet insurance when dogs get old

You know you are best off putting the amount into a high interest account each month as it is RARE that your dog will require expensive treatment and at this age old age ailments will be the expense - if you are unlucky. And Im guessing that each visit to the vet for little one offs will not see you being able to claim with that excess you have

If you have a credit card, or a good credit rating, I wouldnt be worrying about insurance at this late stage

welshmoneylover

I've noticed that not only has the excess increased but it has become quite common to quote a % of the final bill which I've seen as high as 30%!

Argh, whatever way they do it, insurance is definitely essential.

Apricot

usernameisvalid wrote: »

You know you are best off putting the amount into a high interest account each month as it is RARE that your dog will require expensive treatment and at this age old age ailments will be the expense - if you are unlucky. And Im guessing that each visit to the vet for little one offs will not see you being able to claim with that excess you have

If you have a credit card, or a good credit rating, I wouldnt be worrying about insurance at this late stage

Not sure I agree with that, if your dog needs treatment for something costing say £1000 would you be able to pay it? If there is any doubt that you could get the money immediately then you need to get insurance. Even if you have a credit card, putting it on there and having to pay it back over say a year could end up costing you double the amount of what it should due to interest charges etc. Also, as your dog gets older it is more likely you will need to claim off your insurance due to ailments caused by old age.

Ultimately you have to decide whether you would risk losing your pet for the sake of money - I know money is hard to come by but honestly could you live with yourself if something happened to your pet & it had to be put down because you couldn't pay? You insure your car and your home so why not your pet? Look at the sticky at the top of the forum to see what insurance companies offer good value for money & extensive cover.

usernameisvalid

welshmoneylover wrote: »

I've noticed that not only has the excess increased but it has become quite common to quote a % of the final bill which I've seen as high as 30%!

Argh, whatever way they do it, insurance is definitely essential.

Its only essential if you have to budget for every penny and dont have savings to fall back on

We have never had insurance for our dogs. Dog we have now costs us around £15 a month in meds and a trip to the vets every three months for a check up. An operation on the last dog set us back £300. Nothing that puting £15 - £20 a month away into a high interest account has not covered. No excess to worry about, and we get the interest at the end of every year

usernameisvalid

princessleah_ wrote: »

Not sure I agree with that, if your dog needs treatment for something costing say £1000 would you be able to pay it? If there is any doubt that you could get the money immediately then you need to get insurance. Even if you have a credit card, putting it on there and having to pay it back over say a year could end up costing you double the amount of what it should due to interest charges etc. Also, as your dog gets older it is more likely you will need to claim off your insurance due to ailments caused by old age.

Ultimately you have to decide whether you would risk losing your pet for the sake of money - I know money is hard to come by but honestly could you live with yourself if something happened to your pet & it had to be put down because you couldn't pay? You insure your car and your home so why not your pet? Look at the sticky at the top of the forum to see what insurance companies offer good value for money & extensive cover.

My dog has old age ailments - his meds cost on average £15 a month

Yes we have savings to cover any treatment needed, if we didnt a credit card would suffice - would still be cheaper then insurance - in the long term

As I say in my post above - every year we haven't claimed our interest gave us what amounts to a few free months insurance cover


Be honest - work out how much you pay each year in insurance and excess and bills you have to pay cos your insurance wont cover them - ie - existing illnesses and flea/worm treatments and then tell me you think it is honestly worth it -"just in case"

And as for liability - hes covered on the house insurance - as so many pets are but you get conned into taking out more with a pet insurance

Apricot

I agree that over the long term if you don't claim the insurance ends up costing more money than you use it for but, I would hate to be in a situation where I didn't have the funds available. I pay £12.80 per month for my two cats with a £60 excess per condition - if anything happens to my two I just feel safe in the knowledge that whatever it costs they will be treated to the best of the vets ability.

As Im paying of debts Im not in a position to have a substantial enough amount of savings so for me, this is the best option.