Pet Insurance... is it a total waste of money??

prettypaula

Hi all

im trying to weigh up the options with pet insurance.

we have 5 cats. all are insured, to the tune of £40 total premiums per month.

one cat is now 12 years old and the renewal from pet plan states £105 excess + 20% treatment. I think this is extortionate.

he is a healthy boy, the age is guesswork as hes a rescue and we have only recently made a claim as he has a couple of pads that keep bleeding so they are investigating it.

the last time we made a claim prior to this is 2 years 4 months ago for a broken leg on one of our littler ones, she broke it in the house, turned out it had never formed propoerly when she was a kitten and now she has plates in her leg

so... my question is this... between then and now we would have saved almost £1500 if we had simply saved the premium amount toward vets.

none of our policies cover prescription food, teeth problems and we have loads of unneccessary stuff like cattery fees cover and the rest of it.

any advice really is welcome...

Sooz00

Hi Paula - I can understand why you are debating whether to save or go with insurance. It's a hard one but my opinion would be to stick with the insurance if at all possible. I think £40 for 5 cats is pretty good if all are with PetPlan on lifetime policies. It is harder when they reach that 11 year old threshold as you do have to pay the £105 +20% but as your eldest is 12 and (if all goes well) could potentially live another 10 years... there is a good chance you may want to claim during that period and vet's fees are not getting any cheaper. Some cats are very lucky and live to a ripe old age needing nothing other than an annual check up. Others as they age may develop problems such as CRF or hyperthyroidism. If you ever needed a referral to a specialist, then that again, takes it to a whole new level.

Some things I've claimed for with PetPlan are as follows (and I do think we''ve been very unlucky):

CATS (this is for 4 different cats):
VAS surgery/CT scans/treatment/monitoring during the last 6 years - around £20000 so far
Lymphoma chemotherapy/ultrasounds/CT scan/surgery - £10,000
Radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism for 2 cats - £2500 each
Specialist ultrasound exams - £200-400

Everything apart from £16000 of VAS treatment has been within the last 12 months. If I had not been insured, I hate to think what would have happened. If multiple pets are ill at the same time, it's a hard position to be in without insurance.

If I were you, I'd keep the insurance. For me, it's on the 'essential' list.

Edit: PetPlan's lifetime policies do cover teeth/dentals as long as the vet is checking the teeth during the annual exam. I forgot that one but they paid £180 for one of mine to have her top canines removed in March.

krlyr

With my first dog to be insured, I ended up claiming in the first year for an on-going condition which could have cost thousands. As it was, unfortunately the dog had behavioural issues too which meant the operations would have been too stressful for her, but at the time hip replacements were about £2-3000 a hip (and she needed both doing). Even just with the x-rays for diagnosis, the painkillers and supplements, some treatment and the checkups, the insurance paid out more than I paid them over the few years we had with her post-diagnosis. That wasn't including claiming for hydrotherapy too, as again that wasn't an option for her, but we could have if it was practical.
Currently my two dogs haven't cost me anything worth claiming for but I don't ever feel that the insurance money is a waste because I know how quickly an apparently healthy dog could end up needing thousands of pounds worth of treatment. If I'd saved both their insurance premiums for the past 2.5 years, I'd only have £1200 in savings. Wouldn't even pay half the cost of a hip replacement nowadays, and I'd have wiped out my savings and have nothing if the other dog was to get ill.

If insurance always benefited the customer rather than the provider, none of them would be in business. The way I see it, my premiums provide a service as a whole, the company making money from me (and many others who never claim) allows for the whole system to remain in place, and I will be grateful if I do ever need to claim on insurance, whether it's with my current dogs or future dogs.

chucknorris

I self insure. But if you can't afford to pay for the worst case scenario then you should take out insurance, your pets are relying on you. I just can't imagine being in the position of not not providing the necessary healthcare for my dog.

prettypaula

our other 4 cats are insured with Tesco/More Than... we cancelled the policies with petplan as they went up so dramatically!

the more than policies dont cover dental sadly

bacardi66

I decided to cancel the insurance for my cat when he was about 15 as the premiums went up to £50 a month and the excess was (I think) about £70. Ive been really lucky with him in that Ive never had to claim on the insurance and he has only ever had minor problems that have all cost less to treat than the excess was.

His late brother did have a minor op which I claimed back on the insurance (about £200) but other than that I definitely paid out shedloads more than I ever claimed! As they were outdoor cats I was always worried that if they were in road accidents any treatment would be incredibly expensive (one of my friends spent £3000 on her cat after he got hit by a car :eek:) but fingers crossed that never happened.

Ive put the money aside in case and also if need be would use my credit card. But he is now 17 and I honestly wouldn't want to put him through any kind of operations/cancer treatment anyway as I don't feel it would be fair on him.

Obviously its up to you - its all a gamble.

gettingready

All mine are insured as I simply could nto meet the cost if something bad happened - George's op on both legs came up to nearly 7k and he is just over year old, nobody could have predicted that. All will stay insured for that reason.

snozberry

My boy is insured and I am eternally grateful that he is. He became incredibly ill for no real reason a few months ago and without insurance I would be on beans on toast for the forseeable. £2k versus a £100 insurance policy is a nobrainer really.

rising_from_the_ashes

Have to agree ..... my old cat had kidney problems from the age of 3 and I was lucky enough to have him another 8 years +. During that time his treatment cost many £000s and there is no way I could've covered it without the insurance and for that reason, I'd never risk not having them insured.

They are about to be swapped to PetPlan as the older one (6) is now going to attract a £100 excess + 20% of total cost (so on a £1K bill, that would be £300:eek:) with my current insurer, whereas with PP it is only £70 total.


As others have said - yes you may end up paying more in premiums than you "get back" but what if major treatment was needed?

Sticking the premium saving aside each month takes a long time to mount up to an amount that would cover most treatments.

lozza1985

I agree, while hopefully you will never have to claim - I always think, "what if". What if they get something serious, especially something that needs on-going treatment, could you afford the treatment? I'd hate to ever make a decision based on if I can afford treatment, rather than deciding based on whether it will benefit them.

elsien

It's like any insurance, you're basically paying for peace of mind. If you need it you think "thank god" and if you don't you wonder if you've wasted your money.
It all depends on your personal circumstances. I have friends who put money aside each month and they've been fine. I've also seen a number of threads on here with people saying they've got huge vets bills they can't pay, adn their animal will have to be PTS. So you need to think what you can afford in the worst case scenario, and what you would do if the bill is huge. It cost me over £1000 for a days worth of tests (without treatment) for a specialist referral. Operations could be more.
I keep the insurance although it's very expensive because mutt has a lot of ongoing conditions and costs me a fortune at the best of times. Without insurance I'd be struggling to keep her going. Your cats are healthy so it's a bit different but what if they did get something expensive, could you still manage?