Anyone Cancelled their Pet Insurance to Save Money?...

thistledome

Hello all

I am seriously thinking of cancelling my Dog's pet insurance.

We have no money at all coming in right now (long story, OH self employed and injured and can't work) and our insurance is costing over £50 per month.

Dog is 10 years old so if we cancel this we probably won't be able to re-insure him with a new policy in the future.

The idea is that if he needs vet treatment we will put it on the credit card, but if he doesn't need treatment then we are saving £50 a month.

Has anybody else done this and regretted it? We just don't know what to do.

FYI:
Dog won't suffer in any way - we wouldn't withhold treatment from him because of money, we love him.

Tropez

Statistically, dogs over 10 years old are more likely to need veterinary care and are more prone to illnesses that will require ongoing treatment.

Vet bills can run into the thousands and although it is a worst case scenario, are you prepared to pay out £3,000+ and interest until you can clear the credit card debt?

In the final two years of one of my dog's life, I had to spend close to £8,000 because she was uninsured (we had her at a time when pet insurance was never advertised) and this was on surgery and medication that she needed up until her death. She had never had a single medical problem before then.

Olokia

My two cats will always have insurance. Lily hasn't needed hers yet (hopefully never) but Fizz needed hers 2 months after we got her (she was 5). I have so far claimed about £1200 and probably will need to claim for her for the rest of her life.

bagginslover

You'll only save money if you never need to claim, If you do need to claim (or would have if you hadn't cancelled) you are likely to be spending a LOT more than you save. Also, if your dog has any ongoing complaints or previous illneses that are currently covered by being on a lifetime policy, you will never be able to get insurance for those illnesses again.

lostinrates

we caqncelled insurance when we held a fair bit in cash (our house deposit) BUT Its not worth doing if your income is stretched and you can't cover bills. You'll never forgive yourself if you have to have your dog PTS because you can't afford bills. it really isn't worth the saving IMO.

lilac_lady

£50 per month seems a lot for one dog even if it's 10 years old. Could you find a cheaper deal?

Soubrette

Questions to think about.

What is the life expectancy of your dog?

What is he like as a dog - an escaper or aggressive or anything which could mean that you need some kind of personal liability insurance for him.

Are there any known problems with his breed?

If he has a car accident/cancer, how much would you put him through at his age? Obviously the more determined you were to fix him, the more expensive it would be.

What if your credit card limit is reduced?

I don't insure my dog - he is old and at 12 is near the end of his average life expectancy range(we had him as a rescue at 8) so even the cheapest insurance had a high excess, we have a pot of "insurance" money, I would not like to put him through lots of invasive tests, ops if he were acutely ill but I would pay out an indefinite monthly fee for chronic conditions, he is very calm, doesn't like being off the lead and until recently was always muzzled.

So for my risk profile - if I couldn't self insure, I'd have insurance purely because he is old and so more likely to need a claim and I would want to pay out to make sure his last few years were as top quality as they could be. More people pay more in insurance then they would claim (although being older your dog is in a higher risk group for claiming) but if something happens and your insurance is good then it can be quite liiterally a life saver.

What should you do? If you stop the insurance then you are taking a gamble (although imo even with insurance it's a gamble, lots of people find they are not as well covered as they thought when they come to claim) so no one can tell you what to do, it depends on how you feel about your dog and his comparative risks.

david39

We had a dog for 10 years. It was insured with Pet Plan throughout its life. It was constantly ill, suffering from food allergies and other dietary complications. It involved at least 3 vet visits per year, sometimes more if anything else flared up.

The premiums started at £30 p month, and stayed at that for the whole of its life but what did increase was the excess that was paid for each claim. Eventually, these reached £60 on each claim and in the final year, they also wanted an additional 10% of the balance of the claim.

I kept all of the vet's receipts and after the dog passed away, I totted up all of the premiums we had paid, plus all of the excesses and found that if I had put £30 per month away in a bank account and paid all of the vet bills out of that, I would have been better off.

When you are evaluating pet insurance, it is not just the premiums you pay, but the additional excesses for each course of treatment. If you go to the vet for a one-off treatment in the later part of an animal's life, you will probably find that you cannot claim because the treatment is less than the excess.

Oliver14

£50 a month is a lot for 1 dog. Our two are insured of £35 for the pair. Our cats are not insured but our dogs are. I would always have large breed dogs insured as everything costs more due to size.

Considering your dogs age I would think very carefly before xeciding not to have insurance.

lizzyb1812

You could try doing what I did for my last dog - go on the comparison sites and select just illness and public liability coverage. For me it brought the premium down to an acceptable level.

snowmaid

My sister cancelled hers because they hadn't needed it in the last 5 years. I think they have just paid circa £500 because the dog had kidney infection and was extremely ill (catheterised etc). :eek::eek: