£1980 a year for pet insurance? What can I do?

instaunt

We've been with direct line for about 8 years for our pet insurance. We never made a claim until 2012 and have made three claims in total over the past year = £1400.

So, last year we "lost" our no claims bonus and our monthly went from £105 a month to £133 a month. This year, it's gone up to £165 a month.

Our dogs are 13 and 10 so we can't switch insurers now. No-one will take them at that age, but Direct Line apparently have to keep them on? It feels like we're being extorted now that they know we can't go anywhere else. We'd cancel, but friends of ours have all had dogs that had accidents and had to be put down because the costs of treatment were £££££s. We don't want to be in that position, but can't afford the £165 a month and simply putting that into a savings account would never cover anything anyway. It would take years to build up to enough money.

Any advice?

dawn_rose

hiya we had pet insurance when we got our cat after a year of him not going anywhere or doing anything i cancelled the insurnce and we just save the money up incase hes ever needs help. he is 9 yet and so far only had go to vets once for 30 quid of cat paracetamol so lots cheaper than the 1080 i would have paid on 9 yrs of insurance.

huckster

I agree with the last response. You are going to have to weigh up the pros and cons of Insurance versus putting the money to one side.

Depends much on your pets overall health and life expectancy. We all love our pets and would pay whatever it takes to have them treated. But in some circumstances, you could be faced with having to decide whether it is fair to put them through a long period of treatment. One of my families Cats had cancer and we were quoted something like £2k for treatment, but as the Cat was 15 years old, we decided to have them put down. This was because the treatment would have made them very poorly and there was no guarantee that the treatment would have given them years more quality life.

InsideInsurance

instaunt wrote: »

We don't want to be in that position, but can't afford the £165 a month and simply putting that into a savings account would never cover anything anyway. It would take years to build up to enough money.

Any advice?

Unfortunately insurers realise the same about premium -v- cost of treatment -v- likelihood of claim.

As time goes on the probability of treatment goes up and the time to recoup money from future years of premiums goes down. It's therefore of little surprise that premiums go up.

Your options are fairly limited:

1) Pay it
2) Cancel insurance
3) Look at a lower level

Depending on what level of cover and what optional extras you have you may be able to keep some cover in place but reduce the premiums

phill99

The insurance for my 2 collies doubled to £45 a month simply because the eldest was coming up to 9yrs old. I know it not on the same scale as you osts, but I refused to pay so cancelled. I now put £30 a month in a seperate account and that overs them. There is only a few hundred in there now which won't cover major treatment, but then will put anything more on a 0% credit deal. I would rather do it that way than be ripped off by insurance companies.

spacey2012

You will lose money paying any insurance over a balanced period.
THAT IS WHY THEY SELL IT.

InsideInsurance

spacey2012 wrote: »

You will lose money paying any insurance over a balanced period.
THAT IS WHY THEY SELL IT.

The average person will, evidently not everyone given how many multimillion pound injury claims there are a year against people paying an average premium of ~£700 a year

dacouch

spacey2012 wrote: »

You will lose money paying any insurance over a balanced period.
THAT IS WHY THEY SELL IT.

I had a £50k Fire claim on my house when I was 21, my premium is circa £270 a year

Fiver55

We were in this position a couple of years ago with insurance for our elderly deaf and blind dog who has Cushings Disease. Because we regularly claimed, over about three years our premiums soared from around £400 to the last quote of £1600. I am afraid there was no way I was going to pay that amount to the insurance company, on top of which there would have been excess fees when claiming as we would have spent more than we were claiming for vets visits, medication etc. Of course, there is always the unexpected but its a risk you take. Recently, she had pancreatitis on top of the other problems which cost us about £1000 and this money went a long way to helping with the cost. Alternatively, if possible, you have to fall back on your credit card.
If you can't afford the £165 a month, you don't have a lot of other choices.
If you are currently paying £133 and put that amount in an easy access savings account, you would have nearly £800 + interest in six months. This would go some way to helping if money had to come out of your pocket, its better than nothing.
I'm afraid its the devil and the deep blue sea in cases like this.
The other benefit of not having the insurance is messing about with claim forms between the vets and insurance company.

System

This is so tedious. If you can't afford an expensive pet then don't have one. It's not a human right. It's not even a virtual necessity like having a car and buying insurance. It's a fashion and life-style option.

_Andy_

"I would rather do it that way than be ripped off by insurance companies."

How is it a 'rip off' exactly?