Kitten insurance

stranger12

Hi Guys,

I am an owner of 4 month old kitten and in a dilema on whether I should insure him or not.

His is an indoor cat only and will never be let to go out so in my view accident insurance is useless.

The local pet has scared me about potential costs when they get diseases or liver problems.
She mentioned it can go to thousands and also have seen so many people coming there and paying £600 or more for their dogs or cats.

obviously it is my cat and one will fall in love with it so cannot have the attitude of some people whom say if he developed a problem put him down. it is totally wrong

so question is should I get a cover?

if yes then i will be looking for lifetime as all others only work for a year once you make a claim and you cannot get policy else where after that year. please correct me if wrong

if lifetime and i am paying £7 now, would the price always be £7 pcm ?

pet plan and tesco are around £30 pcm where as using moneysupermarket I found some reasonable £10-15 pcm with annual payout of 4k rather than 7 k they offer and excess of £70.

please share your experience.

thanks

takethatfan1978

I also have a 4 month old kitten- a moggie and have her insured with Petplan. She is an indoor cat but that doesn't mean she might not ever get ill or have an accident so I have insured her.

Cats can be just as expensive as dogs when things go wrong, our 11 month old Labrador retriever is also insured with Petplan and wouldn't not have them insured. They also deal direct with our vet which is a bonus.

ElusiveLucy

£30 pcm for PetPlan for a kitten? That sounds a hell of a lot, I pay just over that for my 13 year old cat (who has had £1000s of claims in the past) with PetPlan.

stranger12

mine is £24 pcm from pet plan for life time and it seems rather very expensive

it is indoor only
I have seen quotes from animal friends and petprotect and nci insurance been much more reasobale around 10 pcm

what do you think ?

if it is a life cover does it cover everything?

is the excess payable once so if a cat develops a illness you pay that excess once and never pay it again for that particular illnes even if it takes 10 years ?

sheramber

Your premium will increase annually. Some companies make bigger increases than others.

Premiums are based on statistics- type and age of animal, your postcode which relates to vet fees in your area, the amount of cover you have, also some take into account previous claims and the likely hood of further claims for that condition.

There will also be an increased based on inflation and the general increase in vet fees as more expensive options for treatment become available.

If you have lifetime cover per condition you may pay one excess with your first claim and no further increase. Other companies will charge an excess every new policy year. You need to read the policy document to make sure you know what any company charges.

With a lifetime policy with an annual vet fee limit you will pay a new excess for every new condition and a further excess each new policy year for each condition.

Cheaper policies may be false economy when they wriggle out of a claim.

I avoid anything underwritten by E& L due to their reputation for not paying out. Animal Friends seem to have limits on how much you can claim for a condition in one year despite an overall high vet fee limit .

You do need to read the policy document ( not the policy summary) carefully to make sure you understand exactly what is and what isn't covered.



If it is important that the company pay your vet direct check which companies they will direct claim from.

pinkteapot

Avoid Animal Friends like the plague! There have been shocking stories about them on Watchdog, bit of a summary here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5296226#16

With lifetime cover, conditions keep being covered but the premium can still change each year at renewal. Animal Friends have a terrible reputation for putting the premium up massively after claims, effectively forcing you to cancel the policy so they no longer have to cover the ongoing condition.

Pet Plan are always more expensive to start with, but have a good reputation for not putting the cost up so much over time (with the pet's age), or after claims. So, more expensive to start with but better over the whole life.

We're with More Than and have been happy. £11/month in our first year for our cat. We had over £600 in claims :eek: and it went up to £17/month the next year. Yes, quite a big increase in percentage terms, but still not as much as we expected given how much we claimed.

If I could start over, I'd go with Pet Plan, but as we've now had claims we can't move from More Than (things we've claimed for wouldn't be covered).

How the excess works varies so you have to check the policy wording. With our policy, we pay the excess once per year, on the first claim. Even if the next claim is a completely different condition, no excess! However, if we claimed for the same condition in multiple years we'd pay the excess each time.

questionss

Petplan are also one of the few companies that will ocassionslly cover non traumatic dental work

ElusiveLucy

The excess with Petplan is payable per condition per year. One of my cats has medication for arthritis and for a skin condition so I only lodge a claim for each of those once she has gone over the excess amount each year.


You also find as they get older you end up with and excess plus % to pay, mine's currently 20% of any treatment, but mine are now 13.


Having said that, Petplan are good in that they don't hike premiums for an animal that has had claims - I have two cats, one was very ill and the other had no claims, but I paid the same premium for each of them.

Lil_Dee_2

I can't understand how you're paying £24 pcm - mine is just over that £27 - and I have two cats, over the age of five, one of whom I have claimed approx. £5k over the last 2-3 years (due to pancreatitis) and who I would be paying out £25pcm for lifetime medication that she now requires (Petplan cover this, and will continue to do so for her lifetime)
Please also note that mine are both pedigree, fully inoculated, indoor cats. Didn't stop one of them getting very ill though ! Thankfully, I have Petplan life. Basically, it costs me about £3 a month for both of them, if I take the costs of on-going medication into account !
Oh, I do have to pay the excess each year, but hell, it's a one off £80, and means she's covered for anything else that happens to her !

*~Zephyr~*

I can recommend Healthy pets as insurers. I'm paying £9 p/moth for my 9 year old female cat and I was paying £12 p/month for my 8 year old male until he died last month.

We spent just over £3k over 4 months trying to diagnose my male cat's illness and Healthy Pets paid out without a single quibble. They were really good.

And yes, the premiums go up a little each year. When I adopted my two (at 18 mths and 10 mths respectively) they cost about £5 and £6 p/month.

Trina90

I bought a brother and sister pair back in September, 4 months old then. 2 months later the male was sick with FIP. He was about £14pm to insure. £500 it would have cost, have I not had insurance, and kitten was sadly put to sleep.