pet insurance increase of %70

andjax

ive just received my pet insurance renewal and its a wopping 70% increease in two years. 34% for this year.
i cant move my insurance as my dog a pre-exsisting skin problems and i havent made a claim in three years although he has had treatments which ive payed for myself (in the hope not makeing a claim would bring it down ).
ive spoken to the insurance company and just receive the same (and i mean the same) drivel about vet prices and dog breeds re-jig in my area. i was offered last year 'a pet hamper' & 'an mot ' for my car last year. . . . i just want lower premiums.
i pay as more for the dogs insurance than i do for my own.
Please has anyone any sensible ideas.

gettingready

Just curiosity - who is your insurance with?

My Argos Platinum for Zara (GS) gone up from 31 to 44

Again, she has a pre-existing so can not move.. sigh..

rising_from_the_ashes

This is one of the big problems with pet insurance - once there's a pre-existing condition, you're really stuck with the insurer, and the prospect of ever increasing premiums each year.

elliesmemory1

Is it healthy pets by any chance? I have had the same problem

Fridaycat

No help to the OP sorry, but for those of you who are considering pet insurance who may be reading this, it highlights why it is so necessary to choose the right insurer at the very start, as once your pet has any sort of condition, you are pretty much tied into that insurer for however long you want/need pet insurance for.

The cheapest quote that grabs your attention when the pet is young is not always the best. My pedigree Bengal kittens are insured with PetPlan. It costs me around £24 per month for both of them, and I could have got it a lot cheaper elsewhere. Yet, I know with PetPlan that they will only increase their premiums by the rate of inflation per year, plus there is little likelihood of issues when it comes to paying any claims, plus it is unlikely that they will withdraw from the pet insurance market (as other insurers have done) as this is the core of their business

rising_from_the_ashes

Mine are being switched to PetPlan in a couple of weeks (allowing time for the exclusion period to elapse before the old policy runs out - just in case) for the reasons Friday's highlighted above.

It's working out about £5 / month (total) more but IMHO worth it - and especially as Archie would have a 20% of total claim added on top of the excess (as he's old .... at 6!).

Another job for today, I must go and finalise this!

I did get an email with a "click here to get 10% off" so must see if that brings it down even more (already got multi-pet discount).

I did see someone the other day saying to do the cheaper cat first (so you get the discount of the higher premium) so may try it again and see what happens! (every penny ....)

suki1964

This is the reason I now choose not to insure.

My money is in savings. His everyday medicines for his skin and eyes and ears I can cover as they wouldnt even meet the premiums wanted by insurers

If he ever needed more treatment then I had in savings I would first of all decide if the treatment was actually in the best interest of the dog and then if it was I would put it on the credit card

krlyr

Many insurers won't make their increases going by previous claims so it's worth checking - you may have faced the same increase regardless of whether you claimed for the stuff you were paying out of pocket so it could be the case that you might as well have claimed!
I would work out how much you're claiming/likely to claim with the pre-existing condition and how much you're paying extra to keep this policy vs what you'd pay elsewhere. E.g. if it's costing you £10 extra a month but you're claiming £20 of medication, you're still better off keeping it. However, if the condition isn't something you constantly have to pay out for, or you only pay out a small amount and won't have any big one-off claims in the future, and you're only claining £5 a month extra, it might pay out to move insurers, even if you exclude treatment for the pre-existing condition.

70% sounds a high increase but I would try to consider why. How old is the dog? Premiums can jump at certain ages. Did you start the policy with any 'new customer' offers, e.g. 10 months for the price of 12 or 10% off? In year two you'll lose this so even if the premium stayed exactly the same, you'll be paying that 10% or 2 months you didn't previously pay. They may have had more claims for dogs in your area, of your breed or at that age in the last year so increases are reflecting this rather than your personal claims, and so on.

Kimberley

I used to insure with Petplan but cancelled my policy and set up a pet savings fund instead and I put in £25 a month into it. I have done this because my mum has had pets for years who have never had to visit the Vet and she never had insurance. Can you imagine how much she would have had to pay out in 40 years for 2 dogs and a cat in insurance? She has always had 2 dogs and a cat even when they have died of old age so she would always have had to pay for 3 pets but if she had put £25 a month into a pet account then she would have thousands in savings right now.

krlyr

Kimberley wrote: »

I used to insure with Petplan but cancelled my policy and set up a pet savings fund instead and I put in £25 a month into it. I have done this because my mum has had pets for years who have never had to visit the Vet and she never had insurance. Can you imagine how much she would have had to pay out in 40 years for 2 dogs and a cat in insurance? She has always had 2 dogs and a cat even when they have died of old age so she would always have had to pay for 3 pets but if she had put £25 a month into a pet account then she would have thousands in savings right now.

Any insurance is a waste of money until you need it. I know I would regret cancelling my dogs' insurance if they developed a health issue soon after - OK, I may be "wasting" £40 a month but if I cancelled and they got an illness or injury in a year's time, all I have in the bank is £480. The breeds I own are prone to hip dysplasia and arthritis for a start - so an x-ray alone could use up most, if not all, of that (I paid about £300 for x-rays with my last dog - who was fortunately insured). I'd have to wait years before I could afford to have even just one hip replaced (my last dog needed both) - at £40 a month, it'd take over 6 years to afford the £3000~ op (which could well have gone up in price by then too), and I'd be spending out some of that £40 each month on pain relief, hydrotherapy, etc. to keep the dog comfortable in the mean time.
Pros and cons to both methods but given the size and breeds of my dog, I know I will always prefer to take the risk of wasting money on insurance than the risk of having to have my dog PTS with a treatable condition because of the money aspect. Money is replacable, my dogs aren't.

gettingready

I have all cats (3 of mine and 2 of my daughter's) and the dog all insured with Argos Platinum - excess £65.

Can not afford not to have them insured, Zara has arthritis and hips displasia and the op is a matter of when not if.

George, one of my cats was just over a year old when he needed an op for luxating patella and that came to about 3k in total so far, he needs another Xray on Monday as a follow up and that is about 300-400 on top. And this is just one of his back legs, he will need the same for the other later on.

So both George and Zara have now preexisting conditions that I can not move insurers.

BUT I am seriously thinking of changing the insurance for Fred and Teddy and the 2 cats that my daughter has - to PetPlan.

Yes, I took Argos Policy originally as they came with the best quote but the recent increase in Zara's insurance from 31 to 44 is quite steep, George's and other cat's insurance will be due for reneval in June, will see closer to the time.

If I do change the insurance for the 4 other cats (camt cange George or Zara) - will do the 2 week overlap to make sure they are covered.

I have no savings and no access to credit so no way I would be able to fork out 3k for the operation that George needed... so will stick with insurace.