Pet insurance Dilema

Norfolk_Jim

I am facing a severe drop in my income this summer and I am worried that I won't be able to keep up my pet insurance on my two dogs. One is 4 and one will be 8, both cross breeds.
The insurance on the 8 years has greatly escalated this year - she has had 2 mast cell tumours on her hind leg in the last 6 years. I'm now paying about £55 to insure the two of them and It is a struggle to find it each month.
I asked the insurer (More Than) if I could pay less and have a high excess. What I really want cover for is major bills, £1000+ and I'll take anything else on the chin.
They said they don't do anything like that. I'm also concerned that if another mast cell tumour arises, any new insurer I might switch to would refuse to cover it.
I didn't know if I should post here or on the Insurance board but surely I'm not the only pet owner facing this problem. Has anyone been in a similar situation and come up with an acceptable answer?
All I've been told so far is to put them down if they get sick.
They are both rescue dogs with issues - I would not rehome them to anyone who does not understand fully what they would be taking on and know how to look after such dogs.

Misty_Blue

This is the problem with all pet insurance as the pet ages, especially if you've made claims. My insurance for one of my dogs started out at £16.99 a month and is currently £75.


If you do switch insurers, any existing conditions will not be covered, and insurance companies are also very good at saying that other illnesses are "related conditions" and so cannot be covered either.


If you will be on receipt of qualifying benefits you could register one of the dogs with the PDSA, but other than that I think you're faced with the choice of keeping up the insurance as it is now, shopping around for a cheaper quote but accepting that any pre-existing conditions will not be covered, or doing away with the insurance and accepting the associated risks that will bring.

krlyr

As above, your dog's age, claim history, and even just the general 'trend' of premiums rising (inflation, profit, cost of vet treatment rising, more claims nationwide, etc. are all reasons it may increase each year by varying amounts) won't help with the premiums. Unfortunately, pet insurance is one of those insurances that will just keep going up most of the time, unlike home or car insurance.

You're right in saying that no other insurer would be likely to cover a new/reccuring tumour, as it will be classed as a pre-existing condition. Some insurers will do their best to link other conditions too - so, for example, if a fresh lump was to occur that wasn't a mast cell tumour, they may still say "Well, she's had lumps removed before" and exclude the new lump regardless.

I would look into whether you're eligible for PDSA treatment, as that could be a good safety net. If not, it's a case of weighing up whether you can afford the current insurance (could you maybe scrimp elsewhere in your budget?) or whether to switch to a cheaper policy (and just deal with a mast cell tumour if it ever occured, depending on your finances/position at the time - they may never reoccur, or may come back when your dog was too old to put through surgery anyway) so you still have some cover.

Could you maybe afford to set aside a smaller amount, and get a credit card for emergencies if your savings don't cover the whole bill? Or consider just insuring the one - the older one to insure the mast cell tumours remain covered, or the younger one in the hopes you could set some more savings aside if you're paying the smaller premium?

If you do away with insurance completely, one thing I would suggest is to join the Dogs Trust - they offer 3rd party insurance to members, all dogs in your household, which will be useful if your dogs were to injure someone, damage someone's property, etc. - you'll be covered for only £25 a year.
http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/#.Up9bW-LDtcA

phill99

I was paying £22 a month for 2 collies last year and then they put it up to over £50 because one of them was coming up to 10 yrs. plus I was paying £60 and 10% excess. I opted to self insure. I put £40 each month into a separate account and when one needed a biopsy (£500+) a big chunk of the money was there and I just had to put a few pounds to top if up.

lostinrates

phill99 wrote: »

I was paying £22 a month for 2 collies last year and then they put it up to over £50 because one of them was coming up to 10 yrs. plus I was paying £60 and 10% excess. I opted to self insure. I put £40 each month into a separate account and when one needed a biopsy (£500+) a big chunk of the money was there and I just had to put a few pounds to top if up.

Self insuring is ideal when money is easy to get hold of IMO, not when things are tighter. (We choose to do that too, but then, one of the dogs has the cost of a luxury kitchen in each of her back legs.......consecutive summers ). We self insure because, with rearranging funds and managing expectations for the next few years we could stomach that, but if we couldn't we would have had to insure. It takes a while to build up the sort of money that insurance premiums cover, especially for multiple pets or older ones.

I think its a fantastic option, we continue to do it (though not for all out animals).

OTOH, one of the animals we kept insured, a horse, we did not get the payment for because on her PTS the insurance company wanted an autopsy in the field and we felt, under our circumstances here (free range poultry already at risk from predation without the smell of autopsy to further attract, clients inc children, never mind our own emotions) we decided to forgo payout......so our risk wasn't that well calculated there!