Pet Insurance Help

chelle_bell

I am looking at pet insurance for my dog. Its the first time i've ever had pet insurance so I dont know what to look for. But I know that I would need one that pays out straight away. All the vets I have looked at are saying I would need to pay upfront for treatment. So I would need one that pays straight away. Can anyone advise?

I have a large German Shepherd, so if she requires treatment, I could be left having to pay hundreds of pounds upfront, that I dont have. I could start saving, but with treatment being anything up to 2k, It will take me a while to save.

Thanks

dacouch

Speak to your vet and ask for a recommendation as many vets will bill certain Insurers directly.

The Vet is likely to recommend Pet Plan who are expensive but very good so Vets like them.

Avoid anything underwritten by E&L as IF they do pay out it will take a long time.

chelle_bell

Thanks

I still don't have any insurance, because, to be honest I just cant afford it just now, I could maybe afford something at a low amount (£10 a month for example) but all the decent ones that I wanted, were around £30 which I could afford at the end of the year but not just now (can you change your plan?)

I've phoned all the vets around and every single one of them wants payment before treatment, and yes I was recommended pet plan. I'm really upset about it all because now it means that should something happen to doggy....i'll need to delay treatment, or wait until its very serious. I suppose you can understand why some people abandon their pets when they have something wrong with them, I'm not going to do that, but you see my point.....what a carry on.

I mean, effectively yes I could save up my only spare money, that would be ok, but we're talking £100 over the space of a year, not the hundreds/thousands it costs for treatment - makes me mad that these pet charities try and encourage you to re-home a dog or take in a rescue...but you don't hear anything about this do you.

:mad:

madasamonkey

I'm with M&S. At my vets, M&S and Pet Plan are the only insurers where they don't require a payment in advance. I just pay the excess. And I have (unfortunately) been there a lot.

A couple of years ago my cat had a chronic ear infection. They had to keep knocking her out so that they could flush it out. The bill for that came to around £1,500. M&S paid it, no quibbles.

Last year I found a lump on her side. Not a little lump - it was huge. It turned out to be a massive tumour (thankfully benign) on one of her kidneys. She had to have an operation which took them about 4 hours to perform, two vets, numerous tests, xrays (every time she was xrayed, she was knocked out). I think we're looking at around £4,000 in total for her treatment on that one. I stopped looking at the numbers, to be honest. It just got too scary.

Her premium has gone up to £30 a month. I think that's fair enough. If you tot it up over the years (I've had her for 4) I'm not even close to paying what I would have in vets bills if I wasn't insured. And there are conditions that cost way more than that to treat. I looked at it pretty extensively when I took out her insurance and M&S and Petplan were the best. I would probably go with Petplan because I've heard M&S up the premiums pretty steeply later on, but I'm stuck with them now (having one kidney could cause issues later on and it's would be a pre-existing condition on a new policy). Having said that though, M&S have been great on the claims, never a quibble, always nice on the phone and good to deal with.

Owning pets is an expensive business. My parents dog had cancer at 4 and had to have several huge operations to save her life. You can probably multiply the above vets bills by four or five (she was insured too, thankfully). She's 17 now. I can't think of anything worse than having to have your pet put to sleep because you can't afford its treatment.

*Scarlett

My dog is insured with AA Platinum and we claimed a couple of years ago - apprx £400 I think. The vet took insurance details and I only paid the xs. There may have been a couple of forms to be completed etc but there was no real hassle.

If you are having trouble chosing a policy maybe have a look here

http://www.defaqto.com/guides/insurance/pet-insurance-guide/

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/pet-insurance/

dacouch

If you're on benefits / low income you may qualify for free or subsidised treatment from PDSA