Pet Insurance

We are with Animal Friends and pay about £23 a month for our 8 year old Cavalier. This year we had a vets bill of just over £2000 for an operation and follow up.

Its probably one of only a couple of times we have had to claim but working on the basis of the monthly payment we would have just squeaked in if we had put the money to one side instead of in insurance. Of course his insurance covers more than his vet bills so you should also factor that in too- like 2rd party accident liability etc.

If you join The Dogs Trust you get free indemnity insurance - and a nice magazine. I like them because they have a special home for dogs that are too old to be rehomed, not a kennel.

We are with animal friends and they cost us £40 a month for our ten year old dog. We have claimed £7000 since December so well worth it.
We also had insurance with Petplan for our cat and when she died I informed them so I the policy could be cancelled. Firstly they informed me that we didn’t have a policy then when I asked why they were taking a direct debit each month they decided that yes I did have a policy.

Smurf52

Thanks all for your comments.

GrandTante - Lulu had an op six months ago for correcting her luxating patella. That cost £1200 with me paying the excess of £100. So that speaks for itself.

Daisymae - I’ve got no savings and rent my property so I don’t know what they could sue me for!

A friend told me that as I’m on the state pension with pension credit, if I go to the PDSA they will treat my pet for free.

two things....luxating patellas sometimes need re-treating and also sometimes the other one slips. PDSA will give free treatments but I belive that these are limited and they might refuse a treatment that you could get privately...its understandable really, they are a charity.
www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/treat

We paid £22 per month for years for our two cats and they were never unwell. So, we cancelled it. Yes, within weeks Milo was in a fight and the bills for antibiotics, painkillers etc., were a fair bit.

Thanks all for your comments.

GrandTante - Lulu had an op six months ago for correcting her luxating patella. That cost £1200 with me paying the excess of £100. So that speaks for itself.

Daisymae - I’ve got no savings and rent my property so I don’t know what they could sue me for!

A friend told me that as I’m on the state pension with pension credit, if I go to the PDSA they will treat my pet for free.

The other important part of insurance is the indemnity should you end up being sued because of something that your dog has done, cause an accident for instance. People will sue now for lots of things so it's worth it for peace of mind.

There have been a lot of complaints recently in UK about pet insurance, increased premiums, more exclusions etc. Of course there are a lot more treatments available for our pets now. It's really the luck of the draw, we had one dog who we spent thousands on at the vet and another who lived his life with very little treatment needed. We have two rescue dogs and a cat now and no insurance although I think it's a bit cheaper in France as are vet fees.

How much have your vet's bills amounted to in the time you have had this dog?

Adding them up might give you an idea of whether your insurance is dear or not.

If any treatment is regularly repeated, factor it in too.

Last time we were considering two kittens, I looked at what their predecessors had cost us in vet's bills. Insurance would have been dearer, but of course this only applies if you are lucky and have healthy pets.

I have never had insurance for my cats, just paid vaccinations and the like out of the housekeeping.

Obviously, having a cat neutered and chipped costs, but you can put money aside for that sort of once in the lifetime of the pet expense, and to be on the safe side, as the pet ages, make sure you have a buffer for that last visit to the vet.

25Avalon

I pay £30 a month for my lab puppy with the Co-op. I do this because lab puppies are notorious for eating things they shouldn’t. I did that with my previous lab until she was 6 and then I paid the money into a personal account instead to accumulate. I found this worked quite well. The thing is most pet insurance you have to pay the first £100 so vets tend to charge about £110per treatment which is not worth claiming. S

actually it is worth claiming because if you have a total annual excess then what you claim gets taken off it

I insure my dogs until they are 10 and usually with Pet Plan. Currently have 3dogs and the young ones are insured but my now 13yr old isn’t. She has arthritis and the monthly costs for that are less than the insurance I was paying. It is a gamble.

I pay £30 a month for my lab puppy with the Co-op. I do this because lab puppies are notorious for eating things they shouldn’t. I did that with my previous lab until she was 6 and then I paid the money into a personal account instead to accumulate. I found this worked quite well. The thing is most pet insurance you have to pay the first £100 so vets tend to charge about £110per treatment which is not worth claiming. S

I always meant to start a 'vets' savings account as recommended by MSE, and never did, so took out insurance with Petplan about two years ago. My dog is now 12 and I pay £40 per month.

I recently claimed £583 for his treatment, and received £390 as I had to pay 20% excess. I've just paid another £177 for blood tests and an ultrasound, I'm waiting for results to see if further treatment is needed, and will probably claim again.

4 yo cavapoo? I'd keep the insurance going. For one thing she is young and so if something goes wroing you'd likely want to do a lot to treat it...with older dogs, stuff like complex operations and treatments is less likely to be possibl/kind to the dog. Petplan aren't the cheapest but they are good. ay gthe end of a whole year of saving, you'd have well under 500 quid which doesn't go a long way to cover something serious. If you really can't afford it then you can't but if it was me I would look elsewhere for savings first.

You can guarantee that, if you cancel insurance, something will go wrong. I nearly cancelled my car breakdown cover because I was hardly driving anywhere these days but ended up having to call them out because of (you guessed it) a flat battery. Also I’m sure veterinary fees have gone up dramatically since people started taking out insurance.

Shop around. See this chart, you can compare costs too.
PetPlans top limit was £4000 for a monthly premium of about £50.
I have moved to Bought By Many for £43 a month but with a maximum pay out of £15k. It could have been cheaper with a lower maximum payout.
I had a total bill of about £10,000 over 2 years for my lovely Hattie so I ended up paying a sizeable chunk.
Only dispense with insurance if you have a spare £10k ready for emergencies.

I have carried on paying insurance, I don't know what the answer is

It’s a lot of money, isn’t it? And may end up being paid out for no reason - which is the nature of insurance, of course. But then again, pets can easily end up needing expensive care, and I personally think it’s worth having them covered by a good policy for peace of mind. One of our cats was attacked by a fox, and had to have urgent micro surgery, scans and follow up treatment that ran to around £1500. We were glad to have the Pet Plan policy then. He was only a young cat, so the payments and excess were very low.

It's a difficult decision. We saved the money in a savings account for a dog we had several years ago and it paid off, he never needed a vet and we had several hundred pounds saved up when he died at 13 years old. However, my sons young dog recently had a terrible accident and the vets bill came to over £7000. They were insured but the insurance only covered the first £2000. We have a new dog now and I have made sure I have got really good insurance for him. So, on balance I would say continue with the insurance. Its worth it for piece of mind.

Our insurance is with animal friends. Made quite a saving from John Lewis. Now that she is past 8 we have to pay for 20 percent but still less than you are currently paying. So my advice would be to shop around, but be careful.