Pet Insurance guide discussion area

gettingready · 6 December 2015 at 8:38PM

Whatever he has seen vet fr in the past 10 years will be excluded from new policy - and anything just related to what the vet seen him for will be excluded too.

£300 er year? That is just £25.00 per month, hardly excessive ... for a peace of mind.

My cats are £25 per month each (I have 6 of them), my dog is just over £140 per months - that is just insurance.

Putting money away - ok if nothing goes wrong but if something does, will you be able to raise few thousands fast?

Who are you insure with currently?

Lots of companies will not insure animals over 8 years of age. You are better of stating with whoever you are using now.

QuackQuackOops · 7 December 2015 at 3:04PM

Put £20 in a bank account every month and let it build up.
If your cat becomes ill, you have something to fall back on. If he doesn't you have a nice nest egg.

KxMx · 7 December 2015 at 3:37PM

QuackQuackOops wrote: »

Put £20 in a bank account every month and let it build up.
If your cat becomes ill, you have something to fall back on. If he doesn't you have a nice nest egg.

That'd be a saving for the poster of just £5 per month, alongside a massive risk.

What'd happen if the cat needed 3k worth of treatment month 3 of self insuring?

£60 wouldn't go anywhere and I think the poster needs to consider how they could pay by other means (or not) should the worst happen if he went no insurance and the self insurance pot was insufficient.

sheramber · 7 December 2015 at 9:16PM

It is a gamble.

Can you pay a sudden large bill or have a credit card you could put it on? Then you may take the gamble and out money away.

If you aren't in that position consider what you would do if you had a large bill in three or four months time when you do not have enough money put away to cover it.

I stopped insuring one of my dogs when he reached 10 years old. I decided that there was a limit as to what treatment i would be willing to put him through due to his age and condition.

I reckoned I could cover any treatment that I was prepared to give him.

My current 10 year old is very different. He is still very fit and active and young for his age. So I am continuing to insure him despite the fact that I have not claimed anytihing for him as any bills he has incurred have been below the excess.

Rev · 22 December 2015 at 6:17PM

Just had my renewal through with more than. Gone up £5 to £22 per month per dog (two dogs).

Wouldn't mind but I've never claimed and because they're now over 6 I now have to pay 10% of all treatment.

Called up and told them to cancel and that I'd self insure. Gave me a new price of £15 per month per dog which is less than I was paying last year so happy enough with that.

The 10% thing isn't ideal but having done all the compare sites I can't afford 'full' insurance anymore. Even taking into account online and multi pet discounts.

gettingready · 23 December 2015 at 1:00AM

Well, Zara is insured for 7k per year with £65.00 excess per condition per year and I pay around £142.00 per month for that.

Expensive? Not really as her MRI was £1600.00, she had 3 spine injections at £600.00 each and cruciate ligament surgery over £4000.00 last year.

At reneval now we already had another cruciate ligament surgery, some complications after that and a bill of over £4500.00 right in the first month of the insurance year.

Her tablets (Apoquel from the vets, Onsior and Gabapentin from online pharmacy with vet presctription) alone come to around £150.00 per month so more than insurance premiums.

I a looking into stem cell therapy for her now and will have to pay most of the £5000.00 myself.

BUT she is my baby and will do whatever is needed/whatever I can for her.

Advising someone to "put money away" is very very risky.

dirtmother · 23 December 2015 at 9:59AM

Making a careful choice of pet is the first step - rescue or a breeder who does the appropriate health checks and not a high risk breed.

I do find it unfortunate that the available policies do not offer what would be appropriate for many people ie cover if their animal should develop an ongoing condition which requires very expensive treatment which will provide a high quality of life (animals don't care how long they live, only how well) Many of us could access reasonable finance for shorter term things such as accidents. And many of us may prefer to risk spending more than the annual insurance than to have to engage in a dispiriting argy bargy over every claim (which was my experience of pet insurance ie not really 'peace of mind' at all)
Plus for dogs, 3rd party insurance.
Good food, good stimulation, good exercise, good breeding - all are as important as insurance.

sheramber · 23 December 2015 at 6:10PM

I have hd no problems claiming on pet insurance.

Petplan paid out more than I paid them with out any quibble. They paid my vt direct so I didn't even need to find the money first.

Axa paid out for my rescue when she damaged two teeth a month after I insured her.

They also paid out nearly £3000 for investigations, referral to a specialist( including travel expenses and accommodation costs) and then a cruciate repair with no hesitation and before I needed to pay the credit card bill.

gettingready · 23 December 2015 at 6:30PM

dirtmother wrote: »

I do find it unfortunate that the available policies do not offer what would be appropriate for many people ie cover if their animal should develop an ongoing condition which requires very expensive treatment which will provide a high quality of life (animals don't care how long they live, only how well)

But they do. Zara's insurance pays out 7k every year and it is not "er condition". Hers is life time cover.

The per conditions covers are the ones people get hard done by..

dirtmother · 23 December 2015 at 8:19PM

I think you have misunderstood, perhaps because I wasn't clear. When I am looking for cover, I *only* want cover for the unaffordable, not for less expensive and more common situations, such as RTA or radioactive iodine which I have covered myself (and so I would be looking for more than £7,000... indeed the two of my six animals I current insure (but will not renew in the current form) are insured for £12,000 veterinary care. This should then be cheaper.

I find it unacceptable the way guilt is used to get people to pay for expensive cover. That's not the same as getting people to understand that there is no NHS for pets and how much veterinary care costs. My personal experience was that insurance didn't offer me 'peace of mind', it offered me more hassle at a difficult time.

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