Would you always claim on insurance for Vet Treatment

supermonkey

Hello All, 

My dog got an ear infection, took to vets expecting a consultation fee & a few £ for ear drops, but total bill over £160. Looking online, this doesn't seem unusual. 

They did suggest claiming on our pet insurance if excess was lower than the total charge. 

Policy is a lifetime plan, the paperwork suggests the yearly charge is fixed, but I could be wrong. 

Excess is £99, so I'd be £61 better off if I claim, but I'm wondering if this could increase the policy costs in the future? 

Thanks

marcia_

 If you are not going to use it you should really stop paying for it. 

Bue21

If the monthly cost is fixed for future years, I would claim. Otherwise I personally wouldn’t. Perhaps it was just my insurance but every time I claimed the renewal quote increased by substantially more than the claim. In the end I decided to self insure and put the premium in a separate account. We did this in the knowledge we could be well out of pocket if something serious happens though.

GrubbyGirl_2

That seems a lot for ear treatment.  Is your vet Medivet by any chance?  I took mine a few weeks ago, they cleaned the ear and put drops in (single dose you don't need to give drops every day) and it was £91.  My vets are independent, I moved from a Medivet practice as their charges were so high

elsien

it depends who your insurance is with. All insurance will go up every year anyway because costs are rising but companies like Petplan don’t hoik up the premiums when you’ve had claims whereas other cheaper ones are more likely to take claims into account. 

It’s not something you need to decide straight away - there’s been occasions where I’ve decided not to claim but then the dog has had a recurrence of the same issue which has made it more worthwhile. 

35har1old

supermonkey said:

Hello All, 

My dog got an ear infection, took to vets expecting a consultation fee & a few £ for ear drops, but total bill over £160. Looking online, this doesn't seem unusual. 

They did suggest claiming on our pet insurance if excess was lower than the total charge. 

Policy is a lifetime plan, the paperwork suggests the yearly charge is fixed, but I could be wrong. 

Excess is £99, so I'd be £61 better off if I claim, but I'm wondering if this could increase the policy costs in the future? 

Thanks

You would be very lucky if there is no yearly increase
Petplan claim they won't increase the premium in the event of a claim
I do doubt this claim as the premium has gone up 
3 old golden retriever 19 % increase = £178.80
Ear infection could reoccure within policy year

sheramber

Premiums go up due to increased running costs- increased wages for staff, increased NI recently, increase in utility costs:etc. etc

I knew someone with two spaniels same age mine had several claims and the other had none. 

The Petplan premiums were exactly the same. 

sheramber

supermonkey said:

Hello All, 

My dog got an ear infection, took to vets expecting a consultation fee & a few £ for ear drops, but total bill over £160. Looking online, this doesn't seem unusual. 

They did suggest claiming on our pet insurance if excess was lower than the total charge. 

Policy is a lifetime plan, the paperwork suggests the yearly charge is fixed, but I could be wrong. 

Excess is £99, so I'd be £61 better off if I claim, but I'm wondering if this could increase the policy costs in the future? 

Thanks

Read your policy document as you may find you are required to notify them of any change in the dog’s condition. 

You may need to notify them , even if you are claiming. 

Slinky

We had a £9.5K claim for cancer treatment for our cat from PetPlan. At renewal the premium went up by £6 per month, which was only marginally more than the previous year when there had been no claims.

You've reminded me I need to put a claim in for about £160 to PP for current cat. We pay £35 a month for him. I've had a £400 claim already this year, so they're not making much out of us.

Sapindus

elsien said:

It’s not something you need to decide straight away - there’s been occasions where I’ve decided not to claim but then the dog has had a recurrence of the same issue which has made it more worthwhile. 

I'm surprised you got away with that - my old insurance policy every time we claimed we had to provide a full history from the vet and that would have shown up the previous treatment and it would have been "pre-existing" and disallowed.  My cat was healthy for years but you don't get a no-claims, it just keeps going up as they get older.  In the end the cat was costing me more than the car to insure.  When he finally started getting ill the hassle of claiming was not worth what we got back.  We have a new cat, I'm not going to insure her.  It's a money tree between the vets and the insurance companies.

HampshireH

We've never claimed and have considered for the last few years dropping the insurance.  We have only kept it because a friend has had our dog when we have been on holiday. But we are basically paying a year of premiums for that one week.

We wouldn't claim for a low value cost but have it there for anything more. Our policy now charges the excess plus 20% on all claims so low cost claims just wouldn't be worth it anymore