Dog Insurance

linz

Thanks a lot; the vets have recommended Petplan and have said the same as you about E&L. I'll see what they say tomorrow. I do want to get him on Petplan if I can, even if they won't pay for future cruciate problems. He's 7 now so doesn't run around as much as he did when he was a puppy so hopefully he won't have further problems though it's a good idea like you say, to put something away in case he develops arthritis in the future.

Many thanks

krlyr

Ah, one thing that may be an issue is his age. Petplan won't cover certain breeds with lifetime policies over the age of 5, as I discovered when getting quotes this year (5.5 year old GSD). I think it tends to be the larger breeds mostly, but they'll only offer a 12 month policy (so if you had to claim for anything within those 12 months, it becomes an excluded, pre-existing condition the next year unfortunately, so no good for on-going conditions)

linz

Yes I saw that when I was looking at the T&C's. Thankfully mines a terrier cross so I'm ok as long as I get the cover for life before he's 8 (later in the year). Think it's mainly pedigrees where you have to have it before they're 5. They didn't mention it on the phone when I told them his breed anyway. Thanks tho.

mrs_sparrow

One plan that does not get much of a mention is Virgin Money - it never appears on comparison sites but we have been with them for years and they are very good and always pay out within 3 weeks of the vet sending the form in. We have the lifetime policy and pay £58 a month for an old cat and 2 dogs. The dogs are £14 a month for the 1st, £16 for the 2nd (she is a pedigree) and the cat costs the rest as she is old. I've toyed with cancelling but I know if I did something would happen so I leave it.

Our other old girl, who was 16 when we went to the bridge, had diabetes, she cost around £38 a month but for 7 years they paid out £40 a month plus any other tests and checks she needed so we got back what we put in. Once they get past 7 (I think) you have to pay 20% on top of the excess but they bought this out only 3-4 years ago so for the last few years of our old girls life, I had to pay the 20%.

I've had to claim for Pyrometra (£800 op) for the pedigree when she was 7 months old and the other dog has Auto Immune Disease, on top of anything else that needs doing (she had had 6 surgical ops for it and numerous tests) they pay for her prescribed supplements and steroids, and they cost around £40 a month.

I could not imagine how we would ever cope without pet insurance but certainly give look them up: http://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/pet-insurance/

krlyr

A 20% excess would definately put me off - OK, for a £200 claim it's only £40 but for a £2000 claim it's a lot more, and a £4-5000 claim, the kind that makes insurance so vital for many people, makes for a very hefty excess that could rule out treatment as an option for someone, which kind of defeats the purpose of insurance IMO.

mrs_sparrow

krlyr wrote: »

A 20% excess would definately put me off - OK, for a £200 claim it's only £40 but for a £2000 claim it's a lot more, and a £4-5000 claim, the kind that makes insurance so vital for many people, makes for a very hefty excess that could rule out treatment as an option for someone, which kind of defeats the purpose of insurance IMO.

Many of the companies have 20% when they get older these days, my friend was with Petplan with her last dog and they charged her 20% excess when he got cancer and reached 9 years old - a few do not but you do pay very heavy premiums for those companies so you have to weigh up the pro's and cons. You need to read the small print very carefully as not many of them advertise this clause 'out loud'.

ETA: Pet Plan want almost £50 a month for their lifetime cover or £32 pm for £4000 a year or £36 pm for £7000 per year. Virgin Money give £6000 per condition, for life, for £16 a month.

I guess the question is, how many people do you know that have had one condition that costs more than £6000 to treat over the life of a dog. I do not know anyone - yes there will be cases, but it is certainly not the norm, is it?

mrs_sparrow

Also to add, the M&S policy that was quoted here has 20% of any treatment of dogs and cats over 9: http://money.marksandspencer.com/pdf/PetTC.pdf

Also to note that Petpaln ONLY reveal their excess when the policy is taken which I think is extremely sneaky and underhand. Lots of complaints about them online. I had them as it came with my dog when we got her and she sniffed up a grass seed - it was like trying to get blood out of a stone to get them to pay up. Horrendous, as soon as I could change, I did (we had a cross over of the op so had one years policy on top to be able to claim.

ETA: Apparently, Petplan have £100+ excess and 20% excess once they reach 7 too - if you google you'll find everyone complaining about it. If you do not think you have thie % I would check your premiums VERY carefully as it does seem to be the norm these days.

D&DD

We're with Virgin too (£38 a month) and have had no problems at all,very fast payout and premiums hardly moved in our 2nd year (went up £6 a month) although we claimed over £1000 in our first few months with them when we had her entropian done.

We had a job finding anyone to insure her as it was because of her breed (shar pei) and the kennel club wanted £160+ a month:eek: when we wanted to carry on her freebie one.

Dollardog

My lad is 9 and I am with Sainsbury's at £7000 per condition, the premiums have gone up a lot since I first insured and seem to be going up by about £10 a month each year so its now nearly £65 per month. I had thought that if I had another dog, I would go with Petplan as I had heard that the premium doesn't go up much a year, but hearing about having excess increased and % of claim having to be paid is putting me off. He has had regular claims over the last year but all I have had to pay was £75 excess for each new condition, not been asked to pay any % of the claims.

marmitepotato

My old boxer was with Pet Plan, they always paid out, but as she got older the premiums shot up to £113 a month, with an £120 excess for every condition and I also had to pay 20% of every claim. Towards the end of her life it was very very expensive for us to keep up with exactly what we owed the vets and Pet Plan. There was no mention of all these excesses when we first took the policy out.