Pet insurance

KxMx

elsien said:

Yes. It reflects your dogs age, the increasing cost of vets treatment and with some insurers taking previous claims and health into account. Not much different to car insurance if you get points or have an accident and your premiums increase, And they are allowed to do that as well. 

My 13 year old dog  costs £1400 a year plus is £120 excess per condition +20% of the final bill - I wouldn’t have carried on the cover because I’m not going put him through anything big but I overlooked the renewal date. 

As it happens, he’s now on monthly injections that cost 90 quid a time so I’ll get a large part of that back anyway.
There will always be a cost/benefit exercise as they get older and eight or 10 is when the cover starts shooting up.

I didn't put my cat through "anything big", but the cost to diagnose an illness (which turned out to be terminal) was £3,000.
Thankfully due to insurance all it cost me was £750 which I had in savings (2x excess as policy renewed mid diagnosis, & 20% due to her age). 

DullGreyGuy

toffee57 said:

My dog is 10 years old with a heart murmur, my current monthly direct debit was £27.00, we have made a few claims amounting to under a £1000, they have now put my monthly premium up to £64 a month a staggering £445 more a year. I can't move insurers as he as a pre existing condition, are they allowed to raise the cost so much?

You can move insurer but the heart conditions will be excluded. 

Generally insurance is an annual contract and prices are free to move as neither party is legally committed to anything but this years cover. The Customer Duty rules change matters slightly as overall the product has to represent value for money but Pet is a fairly typical product when you compare prices to claims paid and nothing like GAP insurance where claims represent less than 5% of premiums

Argento123

Insuring a mongrel, 3 years old and a rescue dog for the first time.
Searching for the dog insurance that suits your needs is a minefield. There are dozens of insurance companies who in the main offer different packages. Some hide their 20% excess charges, although you have agreed the excess charge you will pay should you claim. These are extra! Where to being?

I began with the Which Report and went through their top 10 insurance companies.
The findings where patchy. I found 2 that offered almost the same for different prices. 

I then went to Martin and looked at the providers on his list. There was an added bonus of a voucher to spend when you made a purchase. In our case a £50 Amazon Voucher will arrive in November. 
Again I read all the insurance policies and for our needs I chose Waggle. Insured our small dog for his lifetime for £6000 PA.  Cost £16 and a few pence per month.
Waggle has a clear Contract. Nothing is hidden. I have agreed an excess of £100. There will be no surprises in the first year at least. 

Should I need to claim I will report my findings on the Forum.