Should I bother with insurance for dog

rising_from_the_ashes

gettingready wrote: »

Never seen this disalowed.

Neither have I - the ones I've seen that mention it (and it's most TBH) state that if you do happen to have 2 policies running they will pay a max of 50% of any claim - as the other company would also do.

At least this then leaves you the option of remaining with your original insurer (even if it may be more expensive) you'll not have the condition excluded....

MrsAtobe .... (((hugs))) how absolutely awful xx

MrsAtobe

chucknorris wrote: »

Who was your insurer? They covered you up to 17k? Mine was M&S which only went up to 7k anyway. Which I stopped and self insured when they started increasing the premuims significantly, introduced an excess and a 25% contribution when my dog reached 9 years old. He actually died of cancer on Monday, the cost was absolutely irrelevant it was the tragedy of losing him that concerned me.I would have gladly given up 3 years off my lifespan for him to have 3 more healthy years.

Insurance can't be good value, it stands to reason, they aren't a charity, they assess the risk then add their overheads and profit, it is only value taking out insurance if you can't cover the worst eventuality, because any dog is worth more than any vet bill.

We used AXA, and we only had £7k as well. I would have found the extra money somehow, somewhere, or begged for it. Hell, I'd have remortgaged the house if necessary. I only planned for IOHC, cruciate ligament damage, or road accidents, if I'd known she could get onto the tracks in a public park, she wouldn't have been off lead there.

Sorry to hear about your dog, I understand the pain and the sentiment

gettingready

MrsAtobe - so sorry... **HUGS**

G-WWBB

When you say you have sufficient savings for emergencies at the moment, will that cover if something happens and goes on long term? I don't mean an accident, I mean if pup develops an illness and the bills run in to the thousands?
I only ask as please think about the long term. Age of pup means nothing where illnesses are concerned.
Some insurance policies offer a lifetime illness cover, so if pup does develop an illness where treatment is needed over a long period of time, the insurance will continue to cover up to a certain amount detailed in the policy. Policies which don't have this will either refuse to insure the illness the following year, or quote you through the roof. Then trying to get insured with another company to cover the illness can be a nightmare.

Please do think about accidents, I can use a very recent personal experience for this, last night in fact.
Our fluffy ginger tom cat knocked over a wine glass last night as he was jumping up on the sofa, the smash shocked him so much, he fell back down...on to the smashed glass. His right hind main paw pad was slashed in half very deeply and the glass also lacerated several tendons to his toes. This was at 10pm, no vets are open and we weren't in the catchment area for the emergency vet practices which were open.
Thankfully the vets he's registered at is a chain (we hadn't realised this) we were put through to their emergency line and it was arranged to have an out of hours vet come out to our local branch there and then. By 11pm we're at the vets and he's being seen to.
He was kept in overnight and given painkillers to settle him before surgery this morning. He stayed in until 5.30 this afternoon to monitor and we brought him home, complete with meds he'll need for the next week.
He's back on Sunday for a check up and back in again on Friday for another check up. The bill for this came to £673, this doesn't include the costs for his next two check ups.
As we have insurance, of that £673, we've paid the excess... £65, that's it. The costs are recovered by our vets directly from the insurance (each vets/insurance have different policies with this, please be aware), his next two check ups are also included. £673 + check up costs might not seem like a lot to some people, to me that's nearly half my monthly wage.

What the insurance has paid out for this one accident is actually more than what we paid for all 5 of our cats annual policies put together.

To my partner and I, and I'm sure many of you, our animals are our children, our family. We would hate to find ourselves in a situation where one of our babies lives depended on our finances, this is why we would always insure to cover such eventualities.

MrsAtobe and chucknorris, I'm so sorry to hear of the losses of your little ones, my thoughts are with you both at this time

krlyr

chucknorris wrote: »

Insurance can't be good value, it stands to reason, they aren't a charity, they assess the risk then add their overheads and profit, it is only value taking out insurance if you can't cover the worst eventuality, because any dog is worth more than any vet bill.

It can't be good value for everyone, of course, that's how most (if not all) insurance companies work. But it will be good value for some - that's the incentive to keep paying out, the gamble will work out for some people that the premiums paid in are lower than the claims paid out. That's certainly how it panned out for me with my previous GSD, and now I have one dog who I've paid out for without making any claims for 3 years, and one dog who's claims last year outweighed the year's worth of premiums and who's premiums now will pretty much even out with what I will claim over the year (ongoing, uncurable condition - and she may slowly destabilise on her meds so as time goes on and premiums go up, so may the claims as we work to monitor with blood tests and adjust her dose).

The value of it for me is that my monthly premium ensures I can get treatment for most illnesses or injuries. OK, a £17k claim would wipe me out but it's an unlikely eventuality. £60 a month between the two of them is good value to me for the peace of mind it brings (and the medication/treatment that pays towards for one of them!). If I'd self-insured by putting last year's £50 per month away, I'd have blown through it all and more and then would be short £20 a month or more with my savings this year too, so not the best value option for me.

gettingready

Zara's insurance is £89 per month now.

cats

George's £23 per month
Fred/Teddy/Macius £20 per month each so £60 per month for 3 of them
Fiona/Phoebe are £10 per month each (they live in Windermere with my daughter so their insurance is cheaper then if they were in London) so £20 for the 2

Total insurance£169 per month BUT would not be without. Cut everywhere else but not on insurance, not in my position.

Just wish I insured Zara for 10k and not just for 7

loulou123

Definately in my opinion.

My last dog wasn't insured (he was officially my grandparents dog and they didn't believe in insurance..)

When he was 9 he developed cancer, we chose not to operate as he had hip dysplaia and a damaged cruciate ligament too, but he had palliative care, including steroids painkillers and weekly vets appointments. He lived happily for nearly 2 years, but did cost me over £5000 in vets bills (not including the cost for the former operation on his cruciate ligament.) I was made redundant during this time and had to resort to paying on my credit card, it took me years to pay off - he was worth every penny, but I would've loved to have insurance at that point!

chucknorris

krlyr wrote: »

It can't be good value for everyone, of course, that's how most (if not all) insurance companies work. But it will be good value for some - that's the incentive to keep paying out, the gamble will work out for some people that the premiums paid in are lower than the claims paid out. That's certainly how it panned out for me with my previous GSD, and now I have one dog who I've paid out for without making any claims for 3 years, and one dog who's claims last year outweighed the year's worth of premiums and who's premiums now will pretty much even out with what I will claim over the year (ongoing, uncurable condition - and she may slowly destabilise on her meds so as time goes on and premiums go up, so may the claims as we work to monitor with blood tests and adjust her dose).

The value of it for me is that my monthly premium ensures I can get treatment for most illnesses or injuries. OK, a £17k claim would wipe me out but it's an unlikely eventuality. £60 a month between the two of them is good value to me for the peace of mind it brings (and the medication/treatment that pays towards for one of them!). If I'd self-insured by putting last year's £50 per month away, I'd have blown through it all and more and then would be short £20 a month or more with my savings this year too, so not the best value option for me.

I think that you must have missed this bit from my post:

it is only value taking out insurance if you can't cover the worst eventuality, because any dog is worth more than any vet bill.

You aren't saying anything different to me, I just don't believe in insurance, even my house isn't insured. I do of course have car insurance, not only because it is required by law but also because the worst case scenario could run into millions.

I lost my Mills on Monday to cancer and I would have paid for any treatment that could have even given him even a remote chance. As a desperate measure I paid 2k for a consultation with a specialist and an MRI the week before he died, even though two vets had told me that I was just wasting my money. Im my opinion it wasn't wasted, I was buying peace of mind that I left no stone unturned and gave him every chance no matter how remote. I couldn't have went through life knowing that I had not explored every avenue.

whichwhydoIturn

Our fluffy family members don't have the NHS so insurance is needed.My boys , sadly I had to let Tommy go last August have always had insurance , both indoor boys , who will only go out the sun is out , however Jerry has had nose cancer , resulting in him loosing his nose tissue & also his tail due to a bite from an insect or caught on a holly bush when he was outside.
He also has just 3 paws , thanks to fireworks (happened before he came to live with us), his insurance is £13.73 with Mr T & his brother had a mass growth very suddenly, which sadly meant I had to let him go to sleep he had X-rays and treatments which when he did go to sleep I knew I'd done all I could before then .

lostinrates

chucknorris wrote: »

I think that you must have missed this bit from my post:

it is only value taking out insurance if you can't cover the worst eventuality, because any dog is worth more than any vet bill.

You aren't saying anything different to me, I just don't believe in insurance, even my house isn't insured. I do of course have car insurance, not only because it is required by law but also because the worst case scenario could run into millions.

I lost my Mills on Monday to cancer and I would have paid for any treatment that could have even given him even a remote chance. As a desperate measure I paid 2k for a consultation with a specialist and an MRI the week before he died, even though two vets had told me that I was just wasting my money. Im my opinion it wasn't wasted, I was buying peace of mind that I left no stone unturned and gave him every chance no matter how remote. I couldn't have went through life knowing that I had not explored every avenue.

I am so sorry chucknorris. It has been clear whenever you spoke of him how much you loved him.

We ARE insured in other ways, and its partly some of the personal insurance that we have that let us calculate we were better off not insuring IN OUR SITUATION. The fact is fewer outgoings means more held money. This only works if you have mone to hold as opposed to considerable debt or low manouvrebility within your budget. It was this general attitude that let us treat our old horse ( injections for arthritis) to increase her quality of life. This was deemed unnecessary by insurers because she was old, because she was retired and because she wan't lame. It was deemed necessary by us because we felt it would increase her quality of life which wa already quite good, and thus was a wise use of £6 or seven hundred from the animal account. That, btw, is less than a years premium was costing, and she had had no vet treatment for two years before that.( and ones before for many years were below excess).


It's a balance of finance. Credit cards are not the only way to extend beyond personal savings.....for example, many would see it as a good reason to have an offset flexible mortgage. The risk to spend balance s different depending ow many animals you have, what animals they are and what your personal financial situation is.