Cancelling CAT Insurance - bad move?

walwin

hethmar wrote: »

Thats the worrying bit, after 12 months you are on your own.

Yes, hethmar, you're right and in my opinion this is the worst type of policy but I don't think people always realise what the implications are

ali-t

I have been considering ditching insurance for the last few years as it is costing a fortune and the excess is generally set at a level that means you end up paying for minor ailments anyway (i.e. anything under £100). I currently pay out over £50pcm for the 2 dogs which is nearly £700pa. My oldest dog is 7 and is getting to the point that more and more exclusions are in place that it is probably going to be more beneficial to keep a bank fund for the dogs.

My other dog is a rott and they are prone to cruciate problems, bone cancer amongst other things so I would be more reluctant to give up his insurance but he tends to have less minor ailments.

I don't have any answers for you OP but following this one with interest.

gettingready

Thanks everyone - as I said before, I would NOT cancel dog insurance as with dogs.. one never knows... and Zara being a GS may have leg problems/hips problems in the future so need this insurance.

For the cats though, seriously considering to cancel the insurance for the 2 I already set it up for and not gettign one for the other 2 either (got 4 kittens)..

They are indoor, RTA is not going to happen (main worry with cats), do not have anything at home that would pose a risk to them (hight furniture they can cimb on/fall off etc) and I think the risk of acidents is minimal.

The risk of ilness - the very reason why I got each kitten from a DIFFERENT place/home/parents was to minimise a risk of an ilness running in the family and affecting more than one kitty at a time in the future....

Insurance does not cover vaccinations, neutering and normal "small claims" things which normally cost under the excess anyway so that is why I wonder if to cancel...

I may insure them when they are a bit older - do not know. Right now I just do not feel this would be money well spent...

LittleMissAspie

If your cats all live to be 13, you'll have paid nearly £10,000 on insurance. Do you think you'll have to pay out that much in vet fees? I think your cats would have to be very unlucky to need that much treatment, personally.

I don't have insurance for my cat, she stays in mostly but does go out sometimes during the day. Over a whole lifetime of owning cats I think it's cheaper to self-insure. Some cats will need an operation or ongoing medicine but others will need nothing. We do have savings that would cover anything she needed, so we've chosen to take that risk.

lucyq

Wow i can't believe anyone would pay that much in pet insurance! pet plan is notoriously expensive and its never one i would ever consider. I shop around every single year for quotes of course its more difficult if you have a pet with an existing issue and you have to bear that in mind.

I had one dog that developed crohns disease and the tablets were only £12 per month which was a lot less than an insurance policy at that time, we had one dog that bloated and he cost £2,700 but he did have a major operation and its a condition prevailant in the breed i chose which has to come under consideration when chosing a policy. Now we have one that is riddled with arthritis and i have spent an awful amount of time researching it on the internet and emailing experts in the breed about this condition and we manage it incredibly well with homeopathic stuff so he only has a £5000 limit per condition policy which i do find ample and he costs £19 a month with direct line.

Its a choice entirely upto the individual for us the cost of GA is enough to make you faint with the breed we have so we get a basic level of cover and thats it.

gettingready

I feel there is a lot of difference between insuring/not insuring a dog and insuring/not insuring a cat.

Everyone here seems to concentrate on dogs and I perfectly understand that dog insurance is an absolute necessity and would never cancel Zara's policy, it is the cats that I am thinking about cancelling.

Would like some input from cat owners though.....

Any cat owners on the boards?

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, I am a cat owner, I pay £6.50 a month for insurance through AXA. It is a lifetime insurance. To be honest, if he did develop a nasty illness I could afford to pay for treatment - at the moment. But he is only 4 years old, and my last cat lived to 23 yrs, and for the last 5 years of his life was on expensive medication and special food for kidney disease. Will I be able to afford that sort of treatment in 20 year's time - possibly not, I'll be in my 70's by then and a pensioner.

For me the peace of mind is worth it. He is a constant companion, very affectionate and loving. Having said that, all his scrapes so far (and there have been a few - he's a fighter) have come in around £50... the same as the excess on the policy

I think if I had several cats, especially if they were indoor cats, I'd probably self insure... but I would DEFINITELY set up a standing order into a separate account to build up a fund in case of vets bills in the future.

hth

gettingready

zzzLazyDaisy - thanks for that....

Very much appreciated.

My old cat, Tiger (in my avatar with Zara) had kidney problems which were later diagnosed as kidney cancer and only lived till he was about 10 yo poor thing, for the last year he was on meds and that was about the same price as the cost of insurance. He was an indoor cat and nothing was ever wrong with him till the cancer attacked him

lucyq

The issues you have to consider is can you afford lifetime treatment per condition? i doubt it would be significant to insure for an operation as its the cost of GA that bumps the cost up so for a cat that would be minimal, what you need to consider is if the cat develops a condition that needs lifetime care but realistically after the first consultation and tests the only outlay would be repeat prescriptions which on the whole are considerably less than an insurance policy payment..

But its your decision

HappyMJ

4 kittens...Self insure. They are not all going to be sick/injured at once. Put the £64 a month aside and if one gets sick then spend some of it. If you save it for the next 20 years you'll have over £15,000...

I self insure my cat and have saved loads. She is getting on a bit now but is still healthy. In the time I've had her (8 years) she's only been to the vet one extra time (other than the biennial checkup-although vet says it should be more often than that) so in total only 4 times.