homebase dog insurance

fly_dragon_fly

Am looking at getting pet insurance and have seen this one a number of times and have always thought it was a good deal but does any one have any experience with them?

Sooz00

I'm guessing here but chances are, it'll be exactly the same as the Argos ones. They are both owned by the same company. My concern with either would be whether it ends up as another Halifax, esp in light of the group results released the other day. That could apply to any other retail company pet insurance policies though. It makes me think it's safer to go with one of the insurance companies such as PetPlan or Axa. Good luck deciding, it's not an easy thing to do.

krlyr

Personally I would be more inclined to go with a company that does pet insurance as their main business rather than a sideline, because if your dog ends up with a chronic condition and the company decides to withdraw their insurance products, you'll be stuck with an uninsurable (for that condition, anyway) dog.
Axa offer a similar coverage amount to Homebase's platinum policy (I woudn't bother with the other two policies - always go for lifetime cover) and have always been one of the lower insurance quotes for my dogs

krlyr

Just did a quick quote, they want £41.21 for the premium policy on one of my dogs wth a £50 excess. Currently pay less than half that with Axa! I think Petplan have quoted me cheaper than that for her too.

Just done a quote online, same details - £19.01 for Axa, you do only get £7000 rather than £7500 but I think £7k would be plenty for most conditions.
With Petplan, I could go for their Ultimate policy for under £2 more - £43.06 - and get £12000 cover. Their £7000 policy is only £26.79 a month. Also bear in mind that many vets will put limits on which companies they will direct claim from. Most will happily claim from Petplan but may be wary of other companies. I don't do direct claims so it doesn't matter to me, but consider whether you could stump up several thousands of pounds immediately and wait for the insurance company to reimburse you.

fly_dragon_fly

thank you thats a few things that i hadn't thought of, all though am only looking for forever not yearly.

krlyr

fly_dragon_fly wrote: »

thank you thats a few things that i hadn't thought of, all though am only looking for forever not yearly.

Lifetime policies tend to work in two different ways. You'll get the "per condition" and the "per year" allowance. Pros and cons to each
E.g. dog gets hip condition. Costs £500 for x-rays, £500 over the year for various pain medications and joint supplements, £600 for several courses of anti-inflammatory injections, £500 for hydrotherapy. At the end of year one you've claimed £2100 for the hip condition.
With a "per condition" policy, you will be covered for the rest of the dog's life but only to the limit. So in year two, you could pay the same thing (repeat x-ray to monitor progress, same meds, etc) and then in year 3 you decide to bite the bullet and have a hip replacement done. £3000 later, you're on £7200 total. If you went for £7500 then you're just about OK, with £7000 you may have to stump up the last £200 yourself (though depending on excesses paid, you may just about be covered). Hopefully the hip replacement is successful, otherwise any future treatment will have to come out of your own pocket.
The benefit to this method though, is that if, just after you've splashed out that £3k on the new hip, your dog ends up picking up a serious tummybug that requires an emergency vet on a Sunday night, a 3-day stay and a 2 week course of expensive antibiotics as the bug seems to be immune to a cheaper one - well, you start a brand new claim and you have £7000 to cover anything relating to that. Or the dog now develops elbow dysplasia because its gait has changed due to the dodgy hip, and you need to spend out £2000 on an elbow replacement - again, another £7000 to treat that condition.
With the "per year" condition, you have to remember that the £7000 has to cover absolutely any vet treatment in that 12 month period. It's going to be pretty hard to spend that all in one go but it can happen - back to our example, year 3, you've spent £3000 on your allowance on the hip op. Tummy bug ends up costing you £500. Elbow problems cost another £2000. Well, you have to hope that your dog's other hip or elbow doesn't cause them grief, or it doesn't get in an RTA, develop bloat, get an intestinal obstruction, etc. until your next policy year because you've only got £1500 left in your allowance to claim. But the benefit is that as soon as the next policy year comes around, you have a fresh £7000 again - whether that's to spend all on one condition, or on a mixture of different claims. So if a condition ends up costing you £7000, £14000 or £21000, you can just keep claiming for it each year with no cap as such for that one condition.

Benefits to each method, I would suggest you research the breed(s) of your dog and see what health issues they're prone to. I know that my breeds are prone to hip problems but one is also prone to elbow problems. I know that if her hips were to cause problems, this could end up having an effect on her elbows too, and I'd want to be able to treat them all as soon as needed, instead of having to space them out over time with her suffering inbetween, so I have a per-condition policy. It's unlikely that each condition would go over the £7000 mark because they're generally fixed by an operation - so one big expense, rather than lots of medium expenses that could soon add up, so I feel that's adequate cover. If I owned a breed that was more prone to more expensive conditions, I might revise my decision - Intervertebral Disc Disease, common in Dachsunds for example, can cost several thousands of pounds at a time, so if it reoccured just the once, that could be your whole budget blown for one condition. A dog prone to cancer - one that was perhaps more easily treated than others, but at a big expense - may require higher cover (e.g. Petplan's £12000 limit).

fly_dragon_fly

thank you again for all that advice, shall now look into all border collie issues, we have a 15 year old collie who lucky hasn't had any problems ever with her but you never know and our other collie is only 4.

Dollardog

I insured my dog with Sainsbury's but wish now I hadn't. the monthly payments started off low but then went up. After my dog had to have an operation on his eye for an ulcer, the monthly payments escalated. I thought it was too late then to change companies as he was 8 yo, but having thought since, it probably wasn't. He has since gone onto Vetmedin tablets as he has a heart murmer, I dread to think what the monthly payments are going to be next year, probably more than the tablets would cost as I am already paying over £40 odd pounds now a month.
I wouldn't go with a supermarket type company again and I consider Homebase to be of the same ilk.

HTH