Insurance versus saving

lostinrates

We have always had our pets insured until we went to live in Italy for a year and our insurers would not cover us for the entire stay.

So, having savings we decided to informally divert the equivalent amount of money into a 'pet fund' each month, gaining a little interest on it. (Apart from the horse who stayed in UK and remained insured: those bills would be too scary). We took a caculated risk that our animals are young and very healthy, I have a background in animal care (equine scientist) and that having got some cash we could afford a couple of serious vet bills if need be. I wish we had been more formal in our arangement because today there would be approx £1,250 + interest for the cats insurances alone. (its just on with the rest) . We have had vaccs and wormers etc but nothing we would claim on in this time, no illness.

Until this week. One of my cats became ill unknown cause this week. DH and I braced ourselves to spend whatever we needed to spend. I have worked with my vet and where possible I am able to bring pets that might otherwise stay in, but I think any attentive owner would have coped with this cat for the last three days. (We thought pancreatitis, now maybe we think it was a bacterial infection of some sort). For an emergency appointment, the meds,fluids, two followup visits and (and two boxes of strongholds and a worming pill while I was there) its just cost me less than 4 months insurance :eek: :eek:

OK, so it might have been a lot worse, and if we ever decide to reinsure we now ave something we need to declare, but while our animals are the young side of middle aged we have decided to make this a more formal agreement (but again, not for the horse). The reason we are not going to do the same with the horse is because she is older, and horse bills get scarily big VERY quickly. We want to know we can get our hands on what the insurance would give overnight before making that commitment.

My cat is doing a lot better to day, but I'm wondering if anyone else has made this kind of calculated risk strategy?

Bromley86

It's one of those things that will, on average, always work for you. When it goes tits up though . . .

In our case, five months into our first pup we've found out she has hip dysplasia.

Insurance premiums for the first year have been £150. I think this might go up a bit next year .

Claims for the first year £1,250. Expected claim for second year £6,000 (one surgery and medicine/hydro/specialist consults). Possible claim for third year another £6,000 if we get the second hip done. If not, we can expect arthritis meds from say age 6 (conservative), which I'm guessing cost about £1,000 p.a.

So in our case self insurance would have been heartbreaking. Of course you can always find the money if you have to and hip replacement surgery isn't usually necessary to survival, so we could have deferred it.

How many animals do you have? Self-insurance makes more sense if you have a lot.

lostinrates

ATM, domestic animals, two cats and a dog (also my mother's dogs who she insures). The 'non-doms' are diferent, horse insurance, as i say, still a must efor now, but the chickens are not insured, we take great care of them, they are checked by the vet once a year (more than most) and I have only needed a vet once or them. The cost was, comparitively, negligable.

JennyW_2

Having no insurance is a risk I'm not prepared to take. What if your cat was hit by a car and suffered internal injuries needing an op or broke a leg/hip? Plus the cat may develop something like diabetes and need lifelong medication?

The fees would be far greater than the amount saved. For the £15 a month I spend on my dog's insurance, I can sleep at night knowing that I'll never have to deny him the treatment he needs.

I personally would never consider not having insurance.

lady_stardust

Our moggie is only £3 a month to insure as she is still young. It would be rude not to at that price really, but we are putting £20 a month away in a savings account for her (cue lots of jokes that our cat has her own bank account - it's officially in my name but First Direct let us call it Leela's Account!) so when she gets to be about five years old and the premiums start going up there should be a tidy sum in there that will cover her bills instead.

One of the best tips I got from MSE.

lostinrates

JennyW wrote: »

Having no insurance is a risk I'm not prepared to take. What if your cat was hit by a car and suffered internal injuries needing an op or broke a leg/hip? Plus the cat may develop something like diabetes and need lifelong medication?

The fees would be far greater than the amount saved. For the £15 a month I spend on my dog's insurance, I can sleep at night knowing that I'll never have to deny him the treatment he needs.

I personally would never consider not having insurance.

The point is when we took this risk we could do this because we were 'liquid' and although it would have been a 'financial loss' to pay for veterinary care we had cash in the bank to cover, well, a lot more than the insurance for all would have yielded in a maximum claim. I am not suggesting it would suit everyone at all and indeed where risk was greater, ie with the horse, we have not done this.

In this scenario there was never any risk of not being able to provide the animals with what they need. This will/may change when we buy a house a gain and liquid funds of large sums are not as easily accessable, but then we will reinsure.

Are cats are house cats when we are city dwellers though now we are back in the countryside a lon way from roads they do go out and hunt etc but they come in at dusk for the night. we do this exactly for risk management.

As for longterm management, I do agree with your point. again, we feel we risk manage with the choices of diet and lifestyle we take for our animals to a certain degree. While this by no mean illiminates risk as I say we are able to cover the costs on our INCOME not savings of ongoing medication.

MrsTinks

Having a "young" animal does not mean it's less likely to have a claim... accidents are more likely to happen to young animals
Example number 1: Hugin - feline - thought he could play chicken with a car... He was wrong. Broken leg, crushed paw, dilocated hip... Total bill? £1500, insurance premium about £12 for 2 cats...
Example number 2: Kira - canine - Think so far we're getting close to about £1200 in the first 2 years of owning her... she caught a nasty bug and was on a drip for 2 days etc, then a cut on her paw, a cyst under her tongue that wouldn't stop bleeding... uhmmm sure there were more but I guess about £1200 at the moment... Premium £8 a month through AXA (RSPCA policy). I would take me over 10 years to save the same amount at that rate and that is provided NONE of my animals had any more incidents in the mean time... And I'm lucky... one of my best mates is a vet so I don't pay for silly little things like check ups etc when the pets have been sick - just the actual treatment...

Definitely insure!