Insurance dilemma! Knowing vet costs would help.

stormCat99

jm2k wrote: »

* what the vet fees limit is per year or per illness. Aim for at least £5000.

Just a bit of clarification on this point. There is a big difference between a policy that covers your pet per condition, and one that covers per year.

Say your pet developed a long term condition like diabetes, and needed medication for the rest of their life.

If a policy covers you say, £4k per condition, then over the years of claiming you would eventually reach this limit, and no longer be able to claim anything. Yet your veterinary costs for the condition are still ongoing so you will have to meet them yourself.

Whereas if a policy covers you £4k per condition PER YEAR, this means on each new policy year, you have a brand new allowance to claim. So you can go on claiming for a lifetime illness indefinitely.

Please carefully consider these options, as ideally you would take out lifetime cover i.e. covering per condition per year.

HTH.

murphydog999

No wonder there are so many threads about insurance - this is really confusing. Is there a definitive list anywhere of the main players, and what they offer, i.e. per condition, per year, lifetime, pay vet direct etc?

jm2k

nope, not that i have found. unlike car insurance where you can go to compare your results. im finding the same with horse insurance but its even less choice than with dogs and cats.

petplan - expensive
tesco, budget, kwik-fit, e&l, asda, sainsbury, all do the same. but its a matter of entering all your details to each one and jot down their deals. but dont pay more than £7 a month, aim £5 as a benchmark. i would only pay more (ie £10) if my cat was older or needed cover for pre-existing etc. as you dont need any of that, go for £5 but check out their vet cover as the most important consideration

murphydog999

Well, after much mind-numbing deliberation, I think I am going with Argos insurance.

I found money.co.uk and comparethemarket.com, both of which do mass comparisons - but still not totally comprehensive. However, I did find that going through them, M & S was dearer than an M & S direct quote I had, and the healthy pets excess was wrong, as was the M & S vets fees amount.

'More than' looked good, with only a £50 excess but then you find out there are also 10% of treatment fees on top of that! Comparethemarket gives quotes without going to each individual company website, which is handy.

There is also cashback on pet insurance through topcashback.co.uk but it seems virtually no-one gets it!

Deep_In_Debt

I'd go for insurance too. My 2 rescue cats are both insured - they are 9 years old now and as soon as I got them 8 years ago, I took out insurance for them. Fortunately, I've not had to claim yet and they have their yearly routine stuff. I'm sure there will be a time when I will need to claim.

My last 2 rescue cats cost me a fortune in the last few years of their lives as I didn't have insurance. After many operations which cost a lot each time, one was diagnosed with cancer and the other had hyperthyroid operation and then later had kidney problems and spent a considerable amount of time staying at the vet during her last few months.

I believe insurance is worth it and it's only a fairly small amount to find each month.

tankgirl1

suki1964 wrote: »

Not having a personal pop here - but where are these figures??

Is that "most" as in the UK or "most" you know personally?

Like I say - not a personal pop - just wondering where these "most" come from

No worries

I'm talking about colleagues I have worked with. Granted this has always been in the north of england where wages do tend to be lower I believe.

Vets may get something approaching a decent wage once they have been out of uni for a good few years, but they get no where near what other comparable professions get - nothing like a dentist, gp, soliciter etc. Vet nurses get well below the national average wage - which incedentally was the cover story on this months VN times!

Vets/nurses in large/farm animal or mixed practice tend to get even less!

So over all, no it is not a lucrative industry - despite what joe bloggs may think!

ETA- My knowledge also comes from a recent nationwide, industry wage survey, and personally, as a newly qualified RVN, I get pennies above minimum wage!