Pet insurance How does it work?

Maybeanotherday

Hi I know this sounds daft but how long are you tied into pet insurance? And who is the best company for a cheap and cheerful cover to just cover accidents/ major illness? My husband insists we need cover as one of our dogs has been run over in the past and we could not afford the £2000 bill...any tips?

PudseyDB

You insure for a year at a time (much like car insurance)...........mine are insured with a supermarket, but factors such as breed and age make a difference, so its worth shopping around. Some people like to put aside so much money a month in the bank for pet care and get interest paid on it, but I guess there's the temptation to use it for something else.

I'd certainly recommend pet insurance after my rescue dog managed to break her leg 4 days after getting her! For the price I paid to get it sorted, i couldve bought a cute pedigree puppy instead of a manic mongrel. Sods law - I hadnt actually set up the insurance yet - since my 11 year old dog has had no claims for the whole 10 years I've had her!

Maybeanotherday

Sounds like the same thing that happened to us with our first! Thankyou for the response I started worrying that I had locked in for the two dogs lives..abit like life insurance lol

meerkat2007

Skellett, bear in mind, though, that if you make a claim for an ongoing condition and then change insurers, that condition will be excluded as a pre-exissting condition by the new insurer,

gettingready

I had Zara insured with M&S and they were excellent - for a year. After a year their preminum jumped like 80% and nearly gave me a heart attack so shopped around and moved Zara to Argos Platinum.

Since then she was diagnosed with hips displasia and arthritis so I won't be able to move her insurance to anywhere else as those would be pre-exisiting so not covered, needs to stay witj Argos now.

Her insurance is about £31 per month at the moment but very much needed as just her Xrays were over £550.

Do not look at "cheap and cheerful" as you will be wasting money that way.

Look at "per life" policies, as high as you can afford. Read the small print and do not take "per condition" policy as those are not practical if a pet develops any chronic ilness - the money assigned to that ilness would run out pretty quick and you will be stuck.

Kinski

Also bear in mind that you would in all likelihood have to pay any vets bills and then claim from the insurance company, ask your vet if he will claim direct from any of the insurance companies. I've been back and forward to the vets with my elderly sheltie and it's taken the insurance company 3 months to pay out, I've heard that even thought they are now paying for her condition I might still have to wait 3 months for any other payment, I had assumed that because they are paying out on her condition any future payments would be dealt with quickly, with this insurance company I'm obviously wrong.

hethmar

Have a look at the pet insurance "sticky" thread on here.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/108056

pjread

I must admit I was disappointed with turnaround time on the one claim I had to make. That was with Argos.

Maybeanotherday

pjread wrote: »

I must admit I was disappointed with turnaround time on the one claim I had to make. That was with Argos.

Ive heard that a few times now, it's a shame theres not a sticky to report long pay out tmes on the sites then people could make a more educated decision on insurance policies:D

viktory

Pet Plan were great and paid out really quickly, but their prices are ridiculous. My crossbreed dog - £31 a month. Moggy - £15 a month. I've changed them to a much cheaper policy.

Oog

Petplan paid the vet I used directly so I didn't have to deal with the bills directly.
I'm glad I was insured as I was just about to cancel when moggie broke her leg. Still won't tell me how she did it!:rotfl: