Pet Insurance - Read and learn

fantasia322

What shocks me most about this thread is the fact that a lot of peple(not all) do not even consider pet insurance when they take on the responsibility of a pet, adopted or otherwise. It's like ' a pets a pet, its only an animal''
Yeah, BUT people got the NHS,....................!!
What do animals have..............?????
Owners who don't think,
Owners who just get them put down (alot happens, I just lost my 17 year old lab on Wednesday to Euthansia for old age),
Lucky....... Yeah because Jack never had to see the vet just because of injections yearly as all dogs do, and checkups every 6 months because of arthritis.
But I would have given my last brass razoo if the vet could have kept him alive (with a quality of life & pain free).
!!!!!! get pet insurance and if you can't then you dont deserve the love of a living creature that has no choice but to rely on its so called human owners.
This isnt intended as a criticism for those that do have insurance. its just a lot of people dont and the consequences are beyond belief.

gettingready

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Those on a low income who are lonely or have mental health problems could take in a long term foster which means the charity will pay for veterinary care.

There is a lot of truth in FF's statement above.

Both my cat and dog are insured for pretty much everything (including "third party" ie damage to car if they are hit by one etc etc)- I am paying about 50 per month for both now but this year both needed vet treatement (Zara had an operation on her leg, removing a growth that became infected, was not cancerous thanks God but costed nearly 500. Tiger had tests and was diagnosed with kidney cancer - will be on medication for however long he may have left).

Friend's dog had an operationand follow up treatemetn that costed in total well over 3000. (insured he was).

So for those who say "instead of insurance, put 20 per month away in case of..." - pls tell me, how many months would you have to put that "20" away to have the 3000 ready "in case"?

cinderellacomplex

My young dog is insured with PetPlan - nothing has come up so far that even topped my excess but I think that it is worth having it.

For my cats though I am more hesitant. I won't insure my younger one right now because he wanders a lot and it seems like the two things which are most likely to happen to him are 1)incidents with cars and 2)being locked in someone's garage/house/car for a couple weeks while they are away on holiday. At this stage in his life my priorities are to minimize those risks by considering building him an outside run for during the day or something along those lines. I'm not happy to pay for insurance when he is such a risk for simply disappearing. After that side of things is sorted then I am more likely to insure him.

My older kitty isn't insured either because someone I know had a bad experience with the people I had insurance with before and I cancelled his years ago. That being said, aside from bite wounds in his very young days the only health problem he has ever had was eczema, and that was treated by a change in diet. When I insured my dog I considered adding him on too, but though he's only ten I can already see him slowing down a lot so I need to think carefully about what he is at risk for developing and whether I am willing to put him through many of the treatments.

Sorry, that was a little bit of a ramble. All that I am trying to say is that sometimes the decision to insure isn't so clear-cut, it doesn't always mean that people haven't thought about it or don't care - everyone just tries to make the best decision for their situation.

Debt_Free_Chick

fantasia322 wrote: »

!!!!!! get pet insurance

NO!

Pet insurance is not a panacea - there are terms and exclusions so if you choose to buy insurance, then be aware of what you're buying.

My dog has needed no treatment in the past five years, so I would have wasted my money.

I accept I am fortunate enough to have savings to cover "emergencies" and I consider unforeseen treatment for my dog to be one of those emergencies.

Pet insurance is sold on a fear factor - fear of huge vet bills. In practice, very few pets are ever likely to need that although you may be unlucky and find that you are in the minority of those that do. So allow people a choice - to insure, or simply to have the means to pay.

System

So you have been lucky that you have not needed major vet treatment in the last 5 years.

Our dog is now 11 and we have had him insured from the first day that we had him.. With the various accidents and illnesses that he has had in that time we are still in profit when you compare our insurance outlay to the vet's bills that he has racked up.

In hindsight a definite no brainer

zzzLazyDaisy

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

So allow people a choice - to insure, or simply to have the means to pay.

Yes, but one way or another, please factor in the costs of vets fees when you get an animal and be sure you can afford to pay them, come what may, over the life of the animal.

I have savings that mean that I could afford to have my cat treated if he needs it. Now. But I still have insurance because I hope he will be with me for a long time, and I don't know how long my savings will last as they supplement my income and with current low interest rates my savings are going down. The insurance I have covers him for life if he develops an illness - but suppose he develops an illness and then my savings run out? No insurance company will take him then, and by that time we'll both be elderly and I don't want that worry.

And not every town has a PDSA to help out.

System

I take it that the people who say they don't have pet insurance don't bother with buildings or contents insurance either because of the low risk of having to claim?

All insurance is sold on some form of fear factor (apart from motor insurance that is mandatory). You decide the risk and make your choice, but if you don't take it up then don't expect others to cover YOUR bad decision.

Debt_Free_Chick

!!!!!! wrote: »

I take it that the people who say they don't have pet insurance don't bother with buildings or contents insurance either because of the low risk of having to claim?

Low risk of claim, but potentially higher value. A hurricane is a low risk - but it would cost £200k to rebuild the house

lowis

pet insurance is the insurance that is most commonly claimed on out of all insurances - so why people don't have it i don't really know. a good, for life policy (not one of the cheap supermarket policies) will cover for pretty much all eventualities.

i would completely advocate insurance. vets can do so much for animals these days but it costs money - we don't have an NHS for animals, so we have to approach animal care in the same you would your own healthcare if you lived in a country such as the States, where it costs money to fix yourself and where private health insurance is big business and pretty much mandatory. vet care in the UK is a private, profit-driven business - like healthcare systems in pretty much every other country in the world.

some people are lucky and never need to take their pets to a vet for anything but routine visits. many other people are not so lucky and the amount of threads i see here from people either asking about free PDSA treatment because they don't have any savings, or they just can't afford the treatment tells me that pet insurance is needed by the greater, not the fewer. why people expect the PDSA and RSPCA etc to foot THEIR bill is just beyond me.

i would say if you don't have ready access to a few grand, without racking up stupid debts on credit cards, then you need pet insurance.

every single pet i have had has cost me over £4000 in their lifetime for various things (one cost £12k). without insurance i would have had to either given them up, gone into ridiculous debt or put them to sleep - not one of those options is acceptable to me.

pet insurance doesn't cost much if taken out from a young age, with a decent provider who doesn't hike premiums every year - and if you feel you really can'tt afford it then cut back by two packets of fags a month, or get a reduced Sky subscription, or lose it all together. there are ways and means.

shelly

We considered insurance when first getting Coco and again when we got Lily but dismissed it. We had had Coco for over over 15 yrs when we had to have her PTS due to cancer and in all that time if I said she cost us £1500 I would be guessing absolute max.
We have had Lily for a couple of years and she hasn't cost us any more than maybe £120, that includes £25 for chipping.

At the moment we have healthy savings that would be used for Lily should she need it. If something happened that meant we had to use those savings then we would consider insurance again but for now we don't need/want it.