Pet Insurance - does your premium go up?

daveshoelace

So I am claiming for the first time for vets fees on my Petplan pet insurance (dog ate a towel, naughty boy), generally does your premium go up on pet insurance when you make a claim? Im not just asking about Petplan here, all policies.

many thanks

bouncydog1

Premium has increased each year as the dogs have got older regardless of whether or not we have made a claim. Kennel Club insurance.

elsien

My petplan premium has gone up by a few pounds each year, but I have found that when I put in lots of claims (most years!) it doesn't affect the premium so much but they hoik up the excess. However this might be related to many of mutt's problems being ongoing/recurring.

magic57

Ours has gone up a lot. We are with Direct Line. Our beautiful Labrador is nearly 13 and has a bit of arthritis. We also claimed for lump removal. We now pay a horrific £58 per month. :eek: They have always paid up though with no problems.

We are too afarid to cancel it now as she is getting on.

I'd never have pet insurance again though. Well maybe just for the first year. Then I'd save money in an account for vets bills.

bouncydog1

Personal decision never to buy pet insurance again - I would have agreed with you at one time, early on when the dogs were younger and we had never claimed.

Then in the space of a couple of months, one had an illness when the bill for the stay at the vets was almost £1k and the other one had pyometria and needed a hysterectomy and the total costs for all of that was almost another £1k!

Then as one has got older she has needed medication for the last few years costing c£50 per month. This year the medication cost was cheaper than the insurance cost so we have finally cancelled the cover as the poor old girl is unlikely to survive for more than a few more months (although I would say that she regularly sees the vet for a check up to ensure that she is still enjoying life before anyone accuses me of cruelty)!

Personal decision of course, but with the way that the costs for treatment of animals increases you would need to be putting aside a fairly hefty sum each month to ensure that you could meet unexpected costs.

smartpicture

I would say stick with Petplan - at least they carry on insuring you with modest increases until your dog dies. I was with Virgin and as soon as my dog hit the age of 10 (she's a boxer), the premium literally doubled!! Even though there were no claims in the previous 5 years!