Pet Insurance

[1598]

A part of me thinks this is a good idea but when I've read about the number of things that are not covered and limits on payments, suddenly it seems like I'm paying out money each month with no hope of ever it being any use when needed.

So far the only reason I can see it being any good is if one of my three cats is run over and survives with injuries. Likelihood of a cat surviving being run over is not good, as per my previously losses.

I cannot helping thinking I would be better off putting the monthly installments aside instead, although in practise I know this rarely works.

Can I have a PH perspect on those of you who have got insurance/claimed on it?



I'm very much sitting on the fence with the cats.

[Simpo Two]

Depends on your risk profile. From a neutral viewpoint, insurance companies pay for staff and offices and heating and make profits from money they take in premiums and don't pay out. They have clever people called actuaries who make sure of this. Therefore the probability is that you will lose (just as you will lose on the Lottery). However there is a smaller chance you will win, if you make a claim that exceeds the premiums paid.

I'm on my third cat and have never had pet insurance. But it's up to you.

[R1gtr]

Totally your choice but personally we have two Boxers and they are insured.
Ava has collitis-on medication for the rest of her life. She had mast-cell tumours requiring two operations,
As of now her treatment is over £2000

Daisy has had 3 eye operations for intropia and ulcer scraping, the op's alone cost over £1400 in total not to mention consultations.
Sadly she has recently been diagnosed with Spondalitis, it is not at a stage where it needs operated on yet but when it does it will require a MRI scan (cost £1700), operation (£2500), possibly another MRI and even a second op, not too mention all the consultations, in our case we were reffered to the Glasgow Uni vet school and the consultation/chat with specialist cost £163 alone.

Insurance may seem expensive at times but without it I would have had some difficult choices to make.
In future any pet I own will be insured from day one, without a shadow of a doubt.

[Sinatra21]

I can not recommend highly enough how important it is to get insurance. I sadly had to have my dog put to sleep a couple of weeks ago. He was only 5 1/2, we had owned him since 6 months. In that time we claimed close to 5k on various problems. Small ops to remove a lump off his leg, hip displacier(sp?) when he was 2 and associated medication for 18 months. Then in Jan this year he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. It was a sigh of relief to know he could go to the vet specialist and have an expensive MRI scan at a cost of 2.2k. He was then on steriod and painkillers for another 10 months at £35 a week.

Just make sure you pick carefully. The cheapest may not always be the best. We used more than and they coved each problem up to 7k and this past on from year to year. It started about £10 a month and was costing £25 at the end. They paid out pretty quick too.

My dog wasn't a pedigree either just a mongrel from the dogs home........and i still miss him badly:-(.

[CobolMan]

We took out cat insurance when we got our 2 (much missed) monsters. For years we never claimed on it but when they got to about 12 they started to suffer with old age.
At one stage Poppy was at the vets pretty much every day for 3 months with problems with his (yes his) waterworks - that came to a total of just under £2,500 with all the tests, medication and the operation which finally cured it. No problems claiming it back (LloydsTSB by the way).
Both of them ended up with thyroid and kidney problems requiring special diets and regular medication, probably about £1,500 each per year and the insurers paid for the majority of it (even the food). Well worth it imo.

[Stedman]

We had a Labrador who was 'the' fittest dog around. Very active, great quality food etc etc. Not pampered but looked after. Suddenly had a very very rare form of cancer which turned out to be extremely vicious. Onset to, ermmm.. was less than 7 weeks. Bill was past £6k and he never reached 6 years old. Insurance covered 100% with no quibles. (We have always found M&S very good btw)

I know it's a horror story, but it can happen to the fittest dog around. I'd personally say it's worth it on a 'bigger' dog.


Just my biased 2p worth

[Simpo Two]

Well unless the 'no-claimers' are lying low it seems that the insurance industry is making massive loss on pets. I'd better get a dog and sign up!

[R1gtr]

You are talking about £10 a month, so £120 a year and £1200 over ten years, trust me if anything serious happens to cat such as an illness or accident you will be over that quicker than you can imagine.
Insurance is worth it for the peace of mind alone, I know if anything happens to one of my two it's straight to the vet and I dont have to be scared of crazy bills.
Some people will not insure their animals and never have any problems, but the thought of their pet getting ill/run over fills them with dread.
It's a no-brainer, get insurance. Hopefully you will never use it but at least it is there.

[jagracer]

Sinatra21 said:

I can not recommend highly enough how important it is to get insurance. I sadly had to have my dog put to sleep a couple of weeks ago. He was only 5 1/2, we had owned him since 6 months. In that time we claimed close to 5k on various problems. Small ops to remove a lump off his leg, hip displacier(sp?) when he was 2 and associated medication for 18 months. Then in Jan this year he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. It was a sigh of relief to know he could go to the vet specialist and have an expensive MRI scan at a cost of 2.2k. He was then on steriod and painkillers for another 10 months at £35 a week.

Just make sure you pick carefully. The cheapest may not always be the best. We used more than and they coved each problem up to 7k and this past on from year to year. It started about £10 a month and was costing £25 at the end. They paid out pretty quick too.

My dog wasn't a pedigree either just a mongrel from the dogs home........and i still miss him badly:-(.

For my dogs I've not been able to find any policy that'll pay more than £3K per illness or injury and some are not even that and most only pay for 12 months treatment. Added to this the £60-£100 per claim excess that these policies have I still feel it's not worth it and self insure.

[R1gtr]

Try Tesco, thats who we are with £4000 per condition per life, they have been superb for us, supportive and good to deal with, excess is one off, dont have to pay it again at start of a new 12 months

[missdiane]

We've just changed from Petplan to PDSA
It halved our premiums, the annoying thing was a few days into the PDSA cover Poppy ate a piece of lilyflower and needed treatments to get it out of her system, not covered So the only time we needed it, we weren't covered
Vets kept getting the cats names mixed up whilst we were in and out of the vets with cats named Poppy & Lily, poppy ate a piece of lily flower, boy did it confuse them

[Stevenj214]

jagracer said:

or my dogs I've not been able to find any policy that'll pay more than £3K per illness or injury and some are not even that and most only pay for 12 months treatment. Added to this the £60-£100 per claim excess that these policies have I still feel it's not worth it and self insure.

I went with Liverpool Victoria. They have a couple of levels of cover. Mines is £5k per illness, no time limit, £60 excess. £15 per month.

[Stevenj214]

Simpo Two said:

Well unless the 'no-claimers' are lying low it seems that the insurance industry is making massive loss on pets. I'd better get a dog and sign up!

I've been paying £15 per month for around 30 months now = £450. Had 1 claim which they paid out £100odd on. Still, I like the peace of mind that if anything serious/major does go wrong, my dog is covered.

[IrrElephant]

R1gtr said:

Try Tesco, thats who we are with £4000 per condition per life, they have been superb for us, supportive and good to deal with, excess is one off, dont have to pay it again at start of a new 12 months

I have both of the cats and the dog insured with Tesco, very good policy and made sure it covered all of the important individual diseases that affect certain breeds (such as Scottie cramp for the dog).

Don't rush into it, but it is worth doing for the relatively low cost.

[R1gtr]

IrrElephant said:

R1gtr said:

Try Tesco, thats who we are with £4000 per condition per life, they have been superb for us, supportive and good to deal with, excess is one off, dont have to pay it again at start of a new 12 months

I have both of the cats and the dog insured with Tesco, very good policy and made sure it covered all of the important individual diseases that affect certain breeds (such as Scottie cramp for the dog).

Don't rush into it, but it is worth doing for the relatively low cost.

Yeah they are one of the cheaper providers but their service has been brilliant, they had just paid out approx £1500 for Daisy's eye operations then she had to go to specialist about her back, we called them and mentioned she may need a MRI scan and operation, they said "no problem" and sent us some more claim forms.

[R TOY]

I looked into ins' for my G.Shepherd, 4yrs old a while ago and i was staggered by the ins rip off.
Maybe this breed tends to be on the higher scale but for 120/year i would get (iirc) 4k worth of cover.
Sounds reasonable until you realise that only pay max £500/condition/year. So a broken leg = £500. The excess was i think £100 + the £120 premium = £280 to play with.
Then if he does something else i would get another £500 but how unlucky can a dog be?
To get a full pay on a single condition and then carry on to be paid in subsequent years for the same condition (if ongoing illness) my premium would've been £400/year,and increasing sharply as he gets older.

Also being a little sceptical i suspect that vets will do work privately for a lot less than they 'tell you' they are charging the ins company.

I know a local vet hospital whose charges for pets are astronomical compared to our vet who we use mainly for large animals.
Have people 'shopped around' for vetinary prices or just rush thier beloved pet to the nearest vets?
Sincerely hope i dont have to put my theory to the test though..

[Simpo Two]

R TOY said:

Also being a little sceptical i suspect that vets will do work privately for a lot less than they 'tell you' they are charging the ins company.

I too was wondering if it goes the same way as car repair places, ie if it's being paid for by insurance the temptation to crank it up a bit must be irresistable.

[theshrew]

After my parents dog had cancer and seeing the vets bills I went and got my dog insured straight away. He was insured but they had to pay then claim the money back. He had loads off stuff done leg taken off alsorts in the end the vets bills were getting on for ten thousand smackers.

[gd49]

R TOY said:

I looked into ins' for my G.Shepherd, 4yrs old a while ago and i was staggered by the ins rip off.
Maybe this breed tends to be on the higher scale but for 120/year i would get (iirc) 4k worth of cover.
Sounds reasonable until you realise that only pay max £500/condition/year. So a broken leg = £500. The excess was i think £100 + the £120 premium = £280 to play with.
Then if he does something else i would get another £500 but how unlucky can a dog be?
To get a full pay on a single condition and then carry on to be paid in subsequent years for the same condition (if ongoing illness) my premium would've been £400/year,and increasing sharply as he gets older.

German Shepherds are one of the most expensive dogs to insure - due to their breed there's a variety of conditions they are prone to, and due to the size of the dog any illness will incur substantial costs for medication.

The first policy you mention is pretty much a waste of time - the majority of animals do not develop multiple illnesses, so you'd be very unlikely to ever use the £4k available, and other than very straightforward illnesses you'd be very likely to exceed the £500 limit.

If better quality policies will cose £300+ a year I'd definately consider the approach of putting that amount per year into a savings account, as most animals develop illnesses when they're older. But it depends how lucky your feeling...

R TOY said:

Also being a little sceptical i suspect that vets will do work privately for a lot less than they 'tell you' they are charging the ins company.

That would be fraud, any vet caught doing that would be struck off, so I'd be amazed if any vet took that risk just to make a little bit more money. Most insurance companies check all the details of a claim before paying out, and some are starting to set maximum amounts they'll pay for some areas, like hospitalisation, regardless of what the vet charges.

Bills for insured animals do tend to be higher than for non-insured animals, simply because if an animal is insured it allows gold standard treatment without cutting any corners, which is often required for non-insured animals.

R TOY said:

I know a local vet hospital whose charges for pets are astronomical compared to our vet who we use mainly for large animals.
Have people 'shopped around' for vetinary prices or just rush thier beloved pet to the nearest vets?
Sincerely hope i dont have to put my theory to the test though..

There's a wide range in veterinary fees, but that will usually be reflected in the facilities available, the standard of care and the quality of staff employed. Its a free market, so its up to you to decide how much you want to pay versus the level of service you want your pet to have.

[Simpo Two]

gd49 said:

R TOY said:

Also being a little sceptical i suspect that vets will do work privately for a lot less than they 'tell you' they are charging the ins company.

That would be fraud, any vet caught doing that would be struck off,

I think what he meant was that a vet might normally charge £100 if the work was covered by an insurance policy, but perhaps £90 to help out if he knew the customer wasn't insured or poor. That's not fraud; a vet can charge what he likes - my local vet does work for animal rescue places at a lower rate.