dilemma...

wyebird

Hmmmm. Difficult one..my parents spent over 2K treating their dog and my friend has been spending £50 a month on pills for her's..our insurance renewal has just come RSPCA £16 per month for one dog...we pay that on the other policy for 2 cats and the other dog. Tesco will do it for £7. Think I will stick with it.(cheaper one)..probably will be out of pocket, but who knows ?

Trying_to_Budget

For what its worth (Having worked as a VN for 14 years) I would say dont cancel. I have 3 cats and got them insured when I left work (While I worked there I could have them treated at cost price). While I possibly could pay out a lump sum following an RTA, I couldnt afford to treat them if they developed lifetime illnesses such as diabetes or kidney disease, the latter of which we had quite a number of older cats with where I worked. Having 3 cats, I cant personally see me getting away with it!

As far as unvaccinated cats invalidating the insurance, I have discussed this with my insurer (Petplan) and they said as long as any claim wasnt related to one of these diseases, then that wouldnt be a problem. Obviously if it was, you just wouldnt be covered for it.

You also need to remember if you cancel your insurance, it wont be as easy to insure them again if you change your mind. (Most insurers wont insure them after a certain age. Its 10 years old with petplan).

Is it worth ringing your insurers and discussing it with them. Maybe tell them you're thinking of cancelling and see if you can get the price down for been a loyal customer?? If you mention some of your pets dont go out, they may accept they are less risk anyway. Worth a try!

spud30

TTB,

I have had the same conversation with our vet this week.

Petplan will pay out on unvaccinated animals, as long as the illness doesnt relate to one of the diseases. Other cheaper insurers see a lack of vaccinations as an excuse not to pay out, whatever the illness.

My dog is insured, and it will be the very last thing I cancel if the budget gets too tight.

In_Search_Of_Me

Its so hard isnt it! The cats have more insurance than me but I have the NHS to fall back on!! Think I'll keep it for now and just cut back in other ways! I'd be devastated if I wasnt able to afford having them treated for something...it really would break my heart. Thanks all!

In_Search_Of_Me

Yes, thats the cost with the discount!! Will try & get more off though!

rog2 wrote: »

Doesn't any Insurance Company offer a discount for second, and subsequent, pets, or maybe a single multi-pet insurance policy?

msmicawber

How much do the vaccinations cost these days, Fishface? I'd worry that the one cat that goes out could bring back something that it's been vaccinated against to those that haven't and, because they don't go out, they'd be more susceptible.

Other than that, I'm not sure what I'd do in your case. The premiums are a lot to pay out, especially if you've only claimed once, but with 4 animals getting older you may find that changes. I suspect that the premiums would be very high if you cancelled insurance now, then tried to insure when the cats were older/ill.

I think you need to get out your insurance info. and read the small print, or call in at the Vet and check whether they know of cases where insurance companies have or haven't paid out for unvaccinated animals to get a clearer picture.

milkydrink

I don't have insurance on my cat Ted. But I think I will start it soon. Hes 6 in two days & I think the vet bills are likely to increase as he gets older.

So far what he has cost in vets bills I would have paid more in insurance. But I don't want to push my luck forever.

I will start comparing the different ones & see which suits us. My local vet does treatment without cash & deals with Petplan directly for the insurance payout. But with all the others they require cash up front & you have to wait for a refund, thats a good reason to go with Petplan. Who are the most expensive:rolleyes: .
Ted's a persian, I think pedigrees cost more to insure as well, probably due to genetic health problems.

Whats this Quidco thing? Does ithat mean I would get a discount on Petplan?

As to the OP, if you are on ANY benefits you can get treatment with the PDSA or the RSPCA or the Blue Cross.
Celia Hammonds offer low cost neturing, INJECTIONS, microchipping, flea & worm treatments.
The RSPCA sometimes run a free to all netutring & micro chipping clinics, they sweep an area at a time (they are covering my local area at the moment).

I help the CPL (cats protection league) & they sometimes help people with neturing &/or micro chipping vouchers.

looby-loo_2

I've never had insurance and so far I've been lucky (one RTA in forty year which cost £183 and always having minimum of two/three cats) However, in the old days the pooly cat was just 'put down' as there wasn't much they could do, but as there is so much more they can do these days I have been thinking that perhaps I should get insurance.

How much would it cost each month for vet and medication if for example my cat were to get a long term kidney problem? Any other info would be helpful to make a decisson - thank you

kazmeister

HI,

Please do not cancel the insurance - my story is an indication why I wish I'd had it.

Five years ago I got 2 beautiful pedigree cats from the RSPCA, stunning looking cats with beautiful temperaments. They were indoor cats as they had never been outside unsupervised and we were told to keep them that way as we lived on a main road.

After 6 months the weather got warmer and the cats started climbing out the open windows, and when we had the roof redone they got out onto the scaffolding and subsequently the roof! Needless to say we let them out after that and they enjoyed going out into the allotments behind.

One was a fat lazy thing and never went far but the other was a hunter and used to love coming back with presents. He was the one who went missing! Three weeks he was away and I was lucky enough to get him back after posting pictures in our local freepaper courtesy of the RSPCA.

Another year on, the other one started to disappear and several times we fetched him back from the allotments before I realised something was wrong. He went straight over to the vets - 48 hrs later I had a bill for £170 and a very sick cat. I was determined to find the money to continue his treatment but they wanted another £150 for a scan the next day. It took my 14 year old son to say to me (it was his cat) that he didnt want him to suffer any more. We were all heart broken but jointly made the decision to let him go and trecked over to the vets to say goodbye. We all came back feeling the right decision had been made and grateful for the chance to say goodbye properly.

Unfortunately the story didnt finish there as we still had his brother at home. About a month after we went on holiday to Spain for a week (courtesy of Grandma/Grandad!) with a neighbour looking after cat. On return cat No 2 had gone missing! We did all the usual searching notices, adverts in the paper but nothing. One sighting and we searched the area but couldnt find him.

5 months later I get a call from a vet to say they had our cat - identified by his chip and could I go to the surgery. I was elated and devestated as to what to do (as someone had been looking after him for 2 months having found him living rough). My cat looked as spectacular as usual and the chap had done a good job of nursing him back to health. Unfortunately he didnt recognise his own name, nor my daughter and myself. Worse thing was he was due to have an op under general anaesthetic as his mouth was in such a bad state due to living rough and the bill was going to be in the region of £400. I cried buckets as I couldnt afford it, I lost sleep over it, I felt guilty that my dog was insured but the cat wasnt, I was truly gutted as it had been my daughters cat and we had to let the couple who found him keep him as I couldnt afford the bill. Try telling that to an 8 year old.

Please please if you can - keep up the insurance. I wish I'd had it.

milkydrink

When you get a pet microchipped after paying for the standard chip, they will write to you & offer you an upgrade.

I upgraded, it was a one off fee.

Should Ted go missing they notify every ANIMAL linked place within the surrounding area with details, (vets, boarding places, animal charities ECT).
They will also distribute posters with his photo & details of a reward (I think the reward might be down to me to put up, but I'm not sure).
Also you get to change address when you move without paying an admin fee & if you go on holiday & your cat stays elsewhere you can temp change the details for the week or two with no admin fee again.

All in all I think its a great service.

I think we need to look into getting insurance for Ted asap, because I would pay whatever it was to have him treated & that could be very expensive.