Pet insurance - best value, best benefits. Help!

roobee13

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help me please. It's renewal time for Codes and my quote states my new monthly payment will be £20.18. It has been £18.48 for the last year.

I realise this sounds really stupid but is this good value for maximum benefit cover?! It's really hard to tell, I've done some quotes on comparison sites but it all goes over my head tbh.

My 'baby' is a 7 year old chocolate lab in great health (always has been - touch wood).

Just to clarify, the money isn't an issue, I just want to make sure I get value for money and the best possible cover for him. I've always had maximum benefit but never used it so far (again, touch wood!)

What do you all do insurance wise? Would you stick with maximum benefit considering his age or does anyone self insure? Man I'm confused!

Thanks in advance

gettingready

What exactly is the cover you have?

Is it per year or per condition?

What is the max you can claim (if you need to) per year?

What do you mean" Maximum benefit cover"?

Who is your policy with?

roobee13

gettingready wrote: »

What exactly is the cover you have?

Is it per year or per condition?

What is the max you can claim (if you need to) per year?

What do you mean" Maximum benefit cover"?

Who is your policy with?

Aargh, this is all the stuff I don't get

I'm currently with 'Ultimate pet insurance'. I thought there were generally 3 types of insurance - accident, lifetime or max benefit. I must be totally wrong!

I've just read through one of my policy docs and it doesn't refer to a cover 'type' but has lots of references to maximum benefit. I'm trying to link the cover detail they've given me but my PC isn't playing ball. I will try and do it when I get home, hopefully that will explain it all...

Thanks for the reply though!

gettingready

OK, you really need to read your policy and understand what you have as "maximum benefit" on one policy wording may mean not much on another.

I am not familiar with this company so can not comment.

My dog is insured with Argos, Platinum POlicy, life time cover for 7k per year, renevable every year so that means every year I have 7k I can use for whatever is needed as far as vet care is concerned.

Some policies say you have so and so per condition - then when this money is used you can not claim any more for that particular condition in following years.

Pet insurance is a mindfield... read your papers properly xx

cheepskate_2

May as well tag it onto this one rather than start a new one as about pet insurance.

I have never had insurance for any of my pets , will now be taking one out as buying a high risk breed...

For all of you that have pet insurance is it better to take out a £0 excess or go with a high one,

I know all dogs are different, but what are the general amounts that are paid as one offs.

krlyr

Pet insurance doesn't tend to have a voluntary excess like car or house insurance, it tends to be set and that's what you pay. Normally excesses are between £50-100, though some policies (especially for "senior" dogs - usually 7/8 years onwards) have a % of the bill too.

https://www.pet-insurance-surveys.co.uk is a good site to compare policies/features, and explains the different types available

KxMx

Some companies have the facility for you to opt for a higher excess than their standard, which will bring the monthly cost of the policy down.

cullet

Why not self insure ?

krlyr

cullet wrote: »

Why not self insure ?

Why not expand on the perks of self insuring so OP could have more information for that decision?

There are pros and cons to both methods, over my past/current 3 dogs I have certainly claimed more than I've paid in, including the premiums for the dog I've never claimed for. For me, it has paid off financially, as well as the reassurance that I could claim should anything crop up (my vet does direct claims too, another plus as I don't have to stump up the cash immediately or put onto credit card as I would with self-insuring).

I'm not against self-insuring, but there are lots of factors to consider. I have to say, after all the palava with AXA insurance, I'm considering self-insuring for my next dogs. We'll be in a much better financial position to do so - I will likely save up a good buffer fund before we even adopt the next dogs, but for my current dogs I prefer the safety net of having insurance at the moment.

rising_from_the_ashes

krlyr wrote: »

I'm not against self-insuring, but there are lots of factors to consider. I have to say, after all the palava with AXA insurance, I'm considering self-insuring for my next dogs. We'll be in a much better financial position to do so - I will likely save up a good buffer fund before we even adopt the next dogs, but for my current dogs I prefer the safety net of having insurance at the moment.

This is where I am - TBH there's many of the treatments that some people choose to go down (which of course is up to everyone to decide on) that I would never do

Great there is an option - but this is partly why the costs of insurance have risen so much & will continue to do so

I also feel that for many, they lose track of 'what's fair' - again everyone will have their own limits

I will probably insure my next one for a year or 2 until I know they're 'structurally sound' etc and then switch to Accident / Injury Policies & stick money away for other bits & bobs

I was intending to do this with Maisie - but she unfortunately has frequent trips for several issues (all excluded conditions) so I'm not getting far with saving up .... it's actually a catch 22 as I'm paying insurance 'just in case' but paying for everything (so far) as well

I will switch her to A/I when she reaches 10+

Ellie0077

Has anyone else experienced their renewal of dog insurance having doubled yet again in the past year
My dog is insured with TESCO Pet Insurance and has been all her life.She is a 7 year old Cocker Spaniel and yes I have had a few claims but when I have telephoned the customer service department to query why it has gone up so much, is it because I have claimed I am told "no the price is not based on the individual dog but on the dogs age and if there are a lot of dogs of the same breed and age as mine claiming for a particular complaint" but when I asked what the complaint was they couldn't tell me !!!

When my dog was:
5 year old it was £26.58 per month
6 years old went up to £44.17 per month
Now she is 7 years old it has gone up to £71.78

She does have a couple of ongoing complaints so if I was to change companies I wouldn't be able to insure her against these conditions

I have a £60 excess and the maximum you can claim for each condition is only £4000, if I wanted to increase the maximum to £7500 it would be £99.78 per month!!!

I feel personally they don't want to insure your dog once they get to a certain age and if they keep hiking your renewal price up each year, eventually your leave. The person I spoke to in their customer service department gave the impression that they didn't care if I was to go elsewhere anyway:(