Pet Insurance

Lavendyr

PS my kitty was from Blue Cross. A total mog. But he is priceless to me. 

in_my_wellies

It's all about the risk. I had my 18 year old puss PTS last week. It was only his second time at the vet apart from vaccinations, two years ago his mum died in my arms on the way to the vet, she was around 20 and had only been to the vet once as well. 

Will it be third time lucky if I get another? It's something I've been mulling over as vet prices have increased so much now and they can do so much more to treat them 

sheramber

If you self insure you need a cushion of money available- whether savings, credit card or acces to a loan.

If you rely on savings you won't have much put away for the first few years. that is when you need the cushion.

Yes after 10 years you could have built up a large sum.

That is a gamble not everyone is prepared to take.

I have been there when a vet told a client he could not give any more treatment to their cat as they hadnlt paid their last bill. This was a vet who was based on a poor area and did provide payment plans. Peolel regularly came in to pay £10  towards their outstanding bill.

My vet told me the worst situation he faced was when an owner said they could not afford the treatment for their pet

My son had 2 cats and was glad he had insurance whe needed.

I have had dogs who didn't incur any vet costs other than routine ones.

I have had a dog who cost Petplan more that I paid them.

I have had one dog whose one bill , at 3 years old, was equivlent to ten years premiums.

Mnoee

I'm a self insurer - we had a suitably large pot for them before they were even home, and haven't touched it in 3 years. The idea of putting £10 a month away for them and hoping accident or illness doesn't strike until old age is madness, in that case you need insurance. 

SensibleSarah

In the last 20 years I've had 3 dogs and 6 cats (currently 2 dogs and 3 cats), all have been insured and I've made single claims for 3 seperate animals (thus far) - probably total value of claims is around £3k. I've definitely spent significantly more than £3k in premiums over the years. With my cats, as they aged, I stopped renewing their insurance when they got to an age where anything big (i.e. surgery) wouldn't have been on the cards regardless of what was up with them - so normally around 16/17 years. 

I've always gone down the route of having fairly mediocre levels of insurance (so cheaper premiums than with someone like PetPlan) and saved an emergency pet fund alongside this. The insurance is there in case of something big. The pet fund I saved is there to pay up-front for any vet treatment needed while an insurance claim is ongoing. For example, one of my cats broke her leg last year. From the first time she saw the vet to being signed off as healed was nearly 2 months and I didn't put the claim in until then - so had paid out roughly £1,200 by this stage - then another few weeks to get the claim processed and paid. If I'd put that on a credit card, I'd have been paying interest by then. 

Also, the pet fund is there because I'm a natural pessimist and always think that the insurer will find a reason not to pay out - so it's my safety net. It also pays for things that insurance doesn't cover - like boosters, dentals (I know some insurers cover this, but most don't) and the occasional thing that needs treatment but is around the excess value so not worth claiming for. 

Obviously this is a different situation to those with one or two pets, as I have several, but my monthly insurance premiums cost around £70 currently across all five pets, and I also try and put at least £100 a month aside on top of that for the emergency pet fund. 

KxMx

Another thing to remember is big bills don't just come from surgery or treatment.

My cat was 13 when she became ill, the total cost was £3k and that was just for diagnosis.

I didn't choose to go ahead with the treatment as diagnosis was terminal and the treatment would have been too much for her. She wouldn't have been able to start right away because she was being treated for an infection.

She ended up being pts less than a week after diagnosis anyway, the disease was too far advanced even if I had opted for treatment and been able to start straight away.

We (including the super specialist vet) had every reason to think a less sinister issue was the cause and not the terminal disease. So it was absolutely the right call to put her through those diagnostics. And it still cost as much as a major surgery or intensive treatment.

PetPlan paid up the claims with no quibble.

sheramber

We pay car insurance and are happy we don' t have to claim on it but are even happier if it there whan we need it.

We pay house insurance , in case something happens, but are happy when it doesn't.

All I have ver claimed from car insurance oover the same period is £7500. My premiums over the years far exceed that but I am happy to continue to pay for comprehensive insurance 'in case'.

I have never claimed on my house insurance in over 50 years of house ownership but am happy to continue to pay it 'in case'.

 A friend was very glad he had insurance cover when his house was hit by lightning and had to be demolished and rebuilt.