Cancel pet insurance?

rising_from_the_ashes

tbourner and anyone else facing a similar dilemma, just remembered about this:

Accident & Injury insurance
http://www.tescobank.com/insurance/petins/accident-and-injury.html

Might be worth considering if you'd like a basic low cost policy for peace of mind but not the full works IYKWIM

jumpedtheshark

Keep the insurance unless you can afford what it takes to keep your pet healthy without insurance. All insurance a gamble - you're betting you need it and the insurance company is betting you don't.

You mention £2k max and then you'd have to reconsider. Given that's monetary and not a position based on the nature of the illness, such as 'I wouldn't want to put my old dog through treatment for cancer', I think you're safer gambling on keeping the insurance.

We don't have insurance for our two dogs. They're both rescue mutts - one is very healthy, but the other is certainly not a healthy mutt. Regular check ups for her chronic condition run at about £60-100 every 2 months. Medication runs at about £1.50-2 a day. Initial emergency vet treatment, extra treatment from the local (not so competent) ex-vet, and specialist referrals for this condition have probably cost us about £6k. Separate knee surgery about £3k if you factor in both in-patient and out-patient treatment, maybe more if I consider the additional appointments with the local vet misdiagnosing and wasting money before I got her referred. I have a new localish vet now - £60 taxi fare every 2 months as we don't have a car.

I try not to think about it, and don't carefully add it up so it could be more! BUT I do know that the next dogs we rescue will have insurance as I'm prepared to do what it takes to keep my dogs healthy and that has ended up costing me dearly.

rising_from_the_ashes

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

That's who I've just moved to - and are a "you must vaccinate every year" according to the T&Cs.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Do contact AXA, they were absolutely fine about Noah not being vaccinated, just said anything related to non-vaccination would not be covered they would not exclude everything. Obviously I took the full name of the person I spoke to and asked for a note to be added to the account!!

Well - phoned & spoke to someone who said as long as they'd had the primary vaccinations x 2 (usually as pup / kitten but obviously as an adult if no history) then it was fine - and as per you've noted above.

Pointed out the wording which says "must" and "every year" and he went & checked with someone who said it was still OK.

I have taken his name & recorded this on the T&Cs page of policy booklet, along with the date & time so I guess that's all I can do!

tbourner

jumpedtheshark wrote: »

Regular check ups for her chronic condition run at about £60-100 every 2 months. Medication runs at about £1.50-2 a day. Initial emergency vet treatment, extra treatment from the local (not so competent) ex-vet, and specialist referrals for this condition have probably cost us about £6k. Separate knee surgery about £3k if you factor in both in-patient and out-patient treatment, maybe more if I consider the additional appointments with the local vet misdiagnosing and wasting money before I got her referred.

Well you see I'm spending £60 a month on insurance so £60-£100 per 2 months is cheaper than I'm paying for NO treatment at the moment! Then you've paid £9k for treatments and the insurance that costs £60 a month (for 2 dogs and a cat) only pays out £4k per condition, so I'd still be over my £2k personal budget even on top of the insurance!!

I looked at accident only insurance, but need to decide what the likely things are that I'll be paying out for - obviously you can't stop accidents happening, I think we're pretty safe from illness and genetic issues so maybe that is the way to go.

gettingready

As someone who's dog had over 14k of vet treatement since May this year.. I could never risk being without insurance.

KxMx

tbourner wrote: »

, I think we're pretty safe from illness and genetic issues so maybe that is the way to go.

No-one knows that though, that's what the insurance is for, to cover you if those do happen.
Sadly not all cats live until their late teens/twenties with no problems, I should know having had a cat PTS due to liver failure (unknown cause) at age 5.

There_Goes_Trouble

My lot are insured with Pet Plan. I accidentally let one of my cats boosters lapse by quite a lot, I used to always get her and the dog done together, the dog died and the reminders stopped coming and I just didn't notice!! Anyway I hadn't realised she was overdue and claimed for a bad bout of cyctitis last summer. PP paid up with no question so if you're looking at PP, they obviously don't insist on annual boosters in order to cover the pet against illness, other than for conditions that could have been prevented with vaccines.

Fire_Fox

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Well - phoned & spoke to someone who said as long as they'd had the primary vaccinations x 2 (usually as pup / kitten but obviously as an adult if no history) then it was fine - and as per you've noted above.

Pointed out the wording which says "must" and "every year" and he went & checked with someone who said it was still OK.

I have taken his name & recorded this on the T&Cs page of policy booklet, along with the date & time so I guess that's all I can do!

Thank you for reporting back, that is helpful.

tbourner

gettingready wrote: »

As someone who's dog had over 14k of vet treatement since May this year.. I could never risk being without insurance.

But the insurance only covers £4k, so it wouldn't help I'd still have to have them PTS. I also wouldn't have saved any of my own money up cos I'd be paying out each month for the insurance!

olibrofiz

Hmmmm, my little tale.

I paid approx £300 per year for my dobermans insurance, she was always healthy and I often wondered if it was worth it. I absolutely adored her, & kept it on as, well, you never know.

How glad was I that I did. When she was 8yr 3mth she developed AIHA. The vets went through the £6000 per condition in 3 weeks. 2 weeks after her 9th birthday she'd had enough, and I had to make the heartbreaking decision to pts.

So the £2700 I spent over her lifetime for insurance, even though she had always been healthy, paid for £6000 in medical bills.

She was my sweetheart, and worth every penny. My current two cost me £45pm for life, not condition, cover. Would never, ever, be without insurance.