Has anyone successfully self insured a pet?

chanz4

I have x2 cats, one is 8 years old the other is around 6. The 8 year old has never had an issue, the 6 year old had a crystal issue and had to have an op costing around £500. Over the years I would of paid out £25 a month +

aniahill

dunstonh wrote: »

We self insured our last dog and was well into profit until the final years of his life. He had to have a hip operation and then got diabetes. We ended up worse off by a couple of thousand but it could easily have gone the other way.

We insure our current dog.
We also insure our horses but everything is bigger and more expensive with horses!

Excellent-thank you, this is exactly the kind of info I wanted!

vaio

dacouch wrote: »

If you mean Halifax withdrawing from offering lifetime cover, the Ombudsman ruled against them in a group action

Well remembered that man

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/pet-insurance-jun12.pdf

aniahill

vaio wrote: »

Well remembered that man

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/pet-insurance-jun12.pdf

I see that Pet Plan do this insure for life type deal - presumably the cost will just go up year on year as they age, and with costly conditions but they won't decline a renewal. Is this correct?

I've read in forums that Pet Plan are more expensive but I've not really seen that in the quote I got - about £20/month for 2 healthy theoretical cats seems about standard?

cherylsurrey

I insured with 2 companies over the years, I cant remember the first one, but the current one is morethan, and they paid out very quickly after a claim earlier this year.

aniahill

cherylsurrey wrote: »

I insured with 2 companies over the years, I cant remember the first one, but the current one is morethan, and they paid out very quickly after a claim earlier this year.

Thanks Cheryl - have you renewed your insurance since then or is it too recent?

ripplyuk

I would advise doing both. Get good lifetime pet insurance from a reputable company and save up each month to pay for anything excluded from the policy on inception. If the cat has a skin condition, depending on what it is, it could exclude any other skin problem as well.

Self insuring is ok if you have no problem finding £1000's to cover expensive treatments. Things like orthopaedics and cancer treatment can really add up. Even a scan isn't cheap.

gettingready

Ania - all my pets (one dog and 4 cats) are insured as well as my daughter's 2 cats.

Re Petplan - I pay £24.00 per month for 2 of my daughter's cats but around £24.00 per month for EACH of my cats. Reason? Daughter lives "up north" and I live in London, London's premiums will always be higher.

One of the cats is insured with Argos (Platnum) at £25.30 currently and his operations (luxating patella) when he was just one year old were around 5k. Insurance paid.

Dog - my dog;s insurance (Argos Platinum) is now £130.00 per month BUT he had double hip replacement that was around 14k.

So.... I rather have insurance

redpete

aniahill wrote: »

Thanks for explaining that.... It's more than not bothering - I'm talking about specifically putting money aside to pay for expenses and the reason I've asked is because I wanted to know if anyone has done this and it's messed with their pet's well-being.

With a reasonably large nunber of responders you are bound to find some who have saved up enough money to cover vet bills they've incurred, some who have saved up and not covered the bills but managed to find the money anyhow, and some who have saved up and not covered the bills and the pet has suffered or been put down because they couldn't afford treatment, and even some who don't save up and have had no bills to pay.

On average you are bound to be better off if you do not insure - but 'average' rarely happens.

saraih

We have Petplan for one cat, they paid out no problem for his accident shortly after we got him - I think we were still in the free month trial as well but had set up for the payments. The last cat was the healthiest ball of fluff ever and didn't cost us a penny until his last days. We knew where he came from though, no surprises.

It really is a risk unless you know the animal's parents and their medical history so the £120 a year has probably been worth it for the peace of mind.

You just have to be fairly sure that in case of accident you have access to the cash to cover it. There's no guessing the future, just look into what average disasters cost for a cat and decide if you can manage it alone. Do you live on a busy road, do you let it out during the day, is there a huge aggressive dog that hates cats living next door, is the cat aggressive, has it been neutered, etc.