Pet Insurance for multiple pets

Notsosharp

Hi,

I have the following animals:

Bill (cat) Age 7

George (cat) Age 7

Tinker (Cat) Age 4/5

Betty (kitten) Age 6 months

Minnie Jack Russell x Chihuahua (about 2/3)

They're all spayed and neutered, Minnie is chipped and Betty is chipped but the three Moggies aren't (I will get this done though) and *touch wood they're all in good health.

I am on limited budget but I really do need to get insurance for them all.

The problem is Bill has had an operation on his mouth not so long back to have two (benign) lumps removed. This will be a recurring condition so I am not sure where I would stand re pre-existing conditions etc. To be honest the operation only cost £200 and I could just about afford to cover this myself.

So, please could you tell me where I would get quotes and cheap but decent cover from.

Thank you

PS: I also have a 10 year old collie with severe hip displaysia but I don't think I would need to insure him as technically he is my mums dog and I just look after him for her, she has covered any vets bills that have occured.

But if I could it would be good to get some sort of insurance for him too.

At the moment I am putting £25 per month in a jar to pay for any vet's bills so this would have to be my budget for the insurance ideally.

krlyr

Is that £25 per pet, or overall?

Notsosharp

Overall if possible.

gettingready

4 cats and 1 dog - am I correct?

I have 6 cats and one dog, total cost of insurance per month is just over £200.00

I am really sorry but I doubt you will find anyone decent happy to insure 5 animals for £25.00 per month.

Hope someone can advise otherwise?

kellyt86

Firstly I'm sorry to say but I don't think you will manage to get all 5 covered for £25! If you do please let me know where!! Lol!

(not at a decent level of cover, or with reasonable excess anyway)

You would have to pay an excess (first amount) on any claim of usually between £50-£100. Watch out for companies that also charge an additional 10-20% of the claim.

If you unfortunately end up with a claim costing thousands a £50 excess is reasonable, but not if you also have to pay 10% of the total vet bill.

You don't mention any vaccinations... If their annual boosters are not up to date then most insurance companies will exclude those conditions.

With Bills condition this will be classed as ongoing and any new insurance policy will exclude cover. So if any further comes up you will have to foot the vet bills for Bill (ha!) separately for that condition.

In terms of prices try some comparison sites like confused.com, go compare, money supermarket etc. Bare in mind online you can usually only get prices for upto 3 animals at a time, and you will get extra discounts if all go with same provider. When shopping around use most expensive animals as a guide eg your dog and 2 older cats and then follow up with phone calls to the most reasonable to get the others included.

Also don't forget the companies not on price comparison sites, direct line being a biggy.

I highly recommend direct line for their levels of cover and the way they handled a big claim about 6 years ago, paying vet directly etc. however I have found their prices a bit high over last couple of years and their excess high.

For my 3 cats (1 x 9yrs and 2 x 8yrs) I pay £24 per month to more than.
This is on basis of £100 excess I believe. I don't mind such a high excess as less than that I aim to sort out myself anyway and tend to really have insurance for the big things such as accidents or operations, or long term illnesses.

Read up on differing types of pet insurance policies and decide what you want to be covered for here:

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

krlyr

I would say it will be very difficult to find a half-decent level of cover with that budget. Definately avoid the very cheap places like E&L (they also trade under some other names - pet-insurance.co.uk or something being another, so do check the underwriters), as they have a reputation for worming out of as many claims as they can.
You may possibly get some cheaper quotes from supermarket insurance policies but do be away that these places tend to do great introductory offers (20% discount, 3 months free, etc.) but this of course means that even without a premium rise, year 2 is going to be more expensive by that amount.
The cheapest type of policy you're going to find is a 12 month policy rather than lifetime/on-going. This means that you're only covered for a condition for that policy period. So if you got insurance this month, and one of your pets developed something on-going like hip dysplasia next January, you're only going to be covered until the policy expired in August next year. With an on-going condition, this not only leaves you without cover, but it's now a pre-existing condition that other insurers won't cover.

A pre-existing condition is basically anything you've had treated, or noticed developing, before you take out insurance. Different insurers will have different takes on it, but especially with cheaper companies, they may take the mickey with what relates to the pre-existing condition. Your cat, for example, could find anything relating to his mouth, throat or nose excluded as insurers may argue that it's related to the previous condition. Some exclude whole limbs - e.g. a sprain in a dog's shoulder could prevent claims relating to elbow dysplasia on that arm, with them saying it could have been caused by the injury, or an early symptom of the dysplasia, etc.

Notsosharp

kellyt86 wrote: »

Firstly I'm sorry to say but I don't think you will manage to get all 5 covered for £25! If you do please let me know where!! Lol!

(not at a decent level of cover, or with reasonable excess anyway)

You would have to pay an excess (first amount) on any claim of usually between £50-£100. Watch out for companies that also charge an additional 10-20% of the claim.

If you unfortunately end up with a claim costing thousands a £50 excess is reasonable, but not if you also have to pay 10% of the total vet bill.

You don't mention any vaccinations... If their annual boosters are not up to date then most insurance companies will exclude those conditions.

With Bills condition this will be classed as ongoing and any new insurance policy will exclude cover. So if any further comes up you will have to foot the vet bills for Bill (ha!) separately for that condition.

In terms of prices try some comparison sites like confused.com, go compare, money supermarket etc. Bare in mind online you can usually only get prices for upto 3 animals at a time, and you will get extra discounts if all go with same provider. When shopping around use most expensive animals as a guide eg your dog and 2 older cats and then follow up with phone calls to the most reasonable to get the others included.

Also don't forget the companies not on price comparison sites, direct line being a biggy.

I highly recommend direct line for their levels of cover and the way they handled a big claim about 6 years ago, paying vet directly etc. however I have found their prices a bit high over last couple of years and their excess high.

For my 3 cats (1 x 9yrs and 2 x 8yrs) I pay £24 per month to more than.
This is on basis of £100 excess I believe. I don't mind such a high excess as less than that I aim to sort out myself anyway and tend to really have insurance for the big things such as accidents or operations, or long term illnesses.

Read up on differing types of pet insurance policies and decide what you want to be covered for here:

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

That's what I was quoted for my three cats, is that for lifetime cover too?

I also got a reasonable quote from the PDSA, are they any good as insurers?

What would be the minimum monthly for decent insurance for four cats and the one dog (I think I'll have to exclude the collie, my mum pays for him anyway)

I don't mind a large XS, I have a fairly decent amount saved up for such things.

kellyt86

Notsosharp wrote: »

That's what I was quoted for my three cats, is that for lifetime cover too?

I also got a reasonable quote from the PDSA, are they any good as insurers?

What would be the minimum monthly for decent insurance for four cats and the one dog (I think I'll have to exclude the collie, my mum pays for him anyway)

I don't mind a large XS, I have a fairly decent amount saved up for such things.

That is for the lifetime cover, personally I wouldn't go for anything other than lifetime due to the worry about some long term ongoing illness. I think it's covered up to £8k per condition, so once you hit £8k on that condition you are no longer covered for that condition! But cannot imagine a condition that would reach that much! (Hope not anyway :eek:)

I would imagine and hope that PDSA are a good company as I believe they are a charity based organised providing low cost veterinary care to people on low incomes.
However it is impossible to say how good a company is until you claim with them. I have only ever claimed with direct line who where excellent.

The minimum for the older cats I would expect to be £7-8, for the younger two maybe £6-7. For the dog sorry not a clue, more though I expect! Maybe some people who have dogs will be able to better advise. I would think you are looking at nearly £30 for the four cats though.

As for excess go for about £100 then, you can often add a voluntary excess to reduce the cost.

Don't forget that you'll still need to pay for fleas treatments, annual jabs, worming etc. for to mention all those 'cheaper' vet visits that 'only' cost £50! These can all add up. I have barely 4 months without one of the cats needing antibiotics, or something, for the various scraps they get themselves into (abscess etc!)

gettingready

It also depends where you live - I am in London and look with envy at people who's insurance is so low as in London is very expensive....

Notsosharp

gettingready wrote: »

It also depends where you live - I am in London and look with envy at people who's insurance is so low as in London is very expensive....

I'm in Yorkshire near Bradford so it's not so bad

gettingready

Lucky you.

My daughter was paying £10.00 per month per cat while in Cumbria. Back in London, £20.00 per month per cat. same cats, same insurer - just a change of address... sigh...