Dog Insurance

krlyr

Maybe speak to a few companies and see if they would be willing to accept a letter from your vets stating that the incident was a one-off relating to an accident rather than an on-going condition. Might prevent them excluding it altogether but it is a bit of a risk - a leg is such a large and potentially expensive area to be excluded, I would be tempted to stick to KC if it provides a good level of cover and is affordable enough for you.

david39

and the premiums have not gone up that much each year.

It's not the premiums they catch you on - it's the excesses. The proportion of the bill that you have to pay before they step in with the rest.

I think we started off with them at £30 excess but it went up every year until it reached £80 plus 10% of the remaining balance - and remember, the animal is more likely to use the vet's services in later life than when it is young.

Yes, you can add up several visits for the same problem and make one claim with one excess, but the other one-off visits are unclaimable or not worth the effort because the vet's bill is, say £52, and you have a £50 excess.

If you do not have a big single-issue claim but go to the vet say 3 times in a year for minor problems, you are paying your premiums and all the vet bills. As I said in earlier post, pet insurance is really for peace of mind to cover you for major incidents or prolonged illness - it is not cost-effective if you are looking at it as cover for every visit to the vet.

krlyr

david39 wrote: »

As I said in earlier post, pet insurance is really for peace of mind to cover you for major incidents or prolonged illness - it is not cost-effective if you are looking at it as cover for every visit to the vet.

Which is what I've always viewed it as - suppose it depends on what you're expecting to get out of it I suppose, but I've never felt insurance companies have been misleading in terms of excesses.

gettingready

I stick with having all my 5 insured.

George's legs op was almost 5k (cat), Zara's one leg was nearly 6k. BOth insured for 7k per year and I wish I insured them for more... sigh...

toniq

Marks and spencer have a fab policy, pricey but worth it for us, might be worth giving them a call and asking them.

£7,000 renewed yearly: http://money.marksandspencer.com/insurance/pet-insurance/landing/quote-and-buy/?WT.srch=1

Edit : Quidco offer
15% online discount + £35 cashback


for M&S pet insurance done via them

gettingready

I had M&S for Zara, within 2 years went double the monthly payments so switched to Argos Platinum, same cover 7k per year, renevable every year.

Then Argos jumped up like mad and moved 5 out of 6 cats (4 mine and 2 my daughters) to Pet Plan. Zara and George had to stay with Argos as both have pre-exisiting conditions now so can not move them

Tescodealqueen

We had a dog, insured by Petplan, which worked out well in the early years but Petplan increased the excess every year until, by the age of six or seven, we were paying all of the bill each time we visited the vet because the medical costs never reached the excess. In his final year (10) we were required to pay £80 excess plus 10% of the remaining balance for each treatment.



Have to agree with this. We were lucky not to have any serious illness til our dog was ten years old so no claims. His final short terminal illness went over two insurance years (3 months in total but overlapping the renewal period) so we had to pay two lots of £100 excess plus two lots of 20% of the treatment cost. Ten years of premiums seemed a lot in relation to what we could claim.

Though a friend is unfortunate to have a dog with cancer and is claiming £90 per fortnight for chemo. I guess we would be relieved if that had happened to us. I suppose that is exactly what insurance is for - the things you don't want to happen.

We have signed up with Argos Platinum
today for our new puppy, on a friends recommendation (Quidco cashback too)

marmitepotato

chris_n_tj wrote: »

Can i ask if your 10k cover is renewable every year? Or is it just 10k then when you have used it up thats it please?

My friend has a for life cover and has just found out her pot is empty, so life cover really meant nothing fo her. Its a mine field isnt it.

It's renewable every year. Hope this helps you.

linz

Hello,

I found this thread on a search, hope i'm ok to ask a question here.

I have a policy with E&L for my dog and am wanting to switch to Petplan as i've heard bad things about E&L refusing to pay out. I'm keen to get a cover for life policy and have rang them to try and get one but I need to wait til the underwriters are in tomorrow. The reason for this is doggy stretched a ligament in his knee in June, cruciate I think, and the guy on the phone couldn't complete the policy because of this.

I know about pre-existing conditions being excluded but as my dog is making a good recovery I am hoping he will be back to normal in a few months. The vet gave him anti-imflammatories and at his check up said he didn't need surgery as he's only small and should recover fine in time.

I wanted to ask are Petplan likely to refuse to pay for anything related to future knee problems on this leg for the rest of my dog's life, even if he makes a full recovery in the next few months ? What if he were to damage his cruciate again in years to come ?

I'm hoping I can still get a Petplan policy. Do people think they'll still insure ?

Many thanks and sorry for hijacking.

krlyr

I imagine you'll be able to get the policy but I imagine anything to do with that knee would be excluded. You may find even non-cruciate related injuries run the risk of being excluded, e.g. arthritis that they may argue was down to damage caused at the time - or they may possible exclude cruciate problems in the other leg. It's difficult to tell and I imagine they wouldn't want to promise you too much either, I suppose it's weighing up the gamble of E&L refusing to cover other big conditions (not relateeed to the knee) that Petplan would be very likely to cover, vs. Petplan possibly not paying out for a select few conditions.
If it were me, I'd probably be likely to change because E&L really do have a poor reputation, but putting some money aside if I could too for potentially excluded conditions.