Pet insurance - is there value I can’t see...?
Discussion
Our dog (2 yr old Cocker, fit and healthy) is insured with M&S. The renewal is due, and I have been examining the cover.
As far as I can see, I am paying about £500/yr for “Premier” cover that I have just spotted is limited to £7k. I have £7k (this is PH right!?) easily available. Is there any point in me having this insurance, or might I be better off “self-insuring”.
My circumstances can’t be that unusual, so I wonder if there are dog owners here who’ve gone through the same thought process. I am wondering whether pet insurance is - in truth - a valuable product for people for whom a £7k bill would be a big problem, but not so valuable for those who could cover it.
I think what I really need is a policy that offers unlimited cover with a high excess, ie I would pay the first £7k and the policy would cover anything thereafter. That is what we have for our private medical insurance, catastrophe cover if you like. Is such a product available?
Thoughts, ideas, observations all welcomed!
As far as I can see, I am paying about £500/yr for “Premier” cover that I have just spotted is limited to £7k. I have £7k (this is PH right!?) easily available. Is there any point in me having this insurance, or might I be better off “self-insuring”.
My circumstances can’t be that unusual, so I wonder if there are dog owners here who’ve gone through the same thought process. I am wondering whether pet insurance is - in truth - a valuable product for people for whom a £7k bill would be a big problem, but not so valuable for those who could cover it.
I think what I really need is a policy that offers unlimited cover with a high excess, ie I would pay the first £7k and the policy would cover anything thereafter. That is what we have for our private medical insurance, catastrophe cover if you like. Is such a product available?
Thoughts, ideas, observations all welcomed!
Insurance companies don't run to help people they run to make money. Dog medical insurance is there to pay in the event your dog needs the help of a vet and some procedures now are very expensive. So much can be done with modern medicine to extend life that companies are limiting payouts. One of my customers paid £7K to fix the broken leg on her greyhound! You can imagine what more serious treatments like cancer can cost just in drugs. Are you feeling lucky? How do you feel about treatment vs quality of life? For the vast majority of people pet insurance makes poor economic sense as you pay out far more in premiums than you get back in treatment. For the unlucky few they get their dog treated at a known fixed cost that they could not afford if they had not paid and planned for it. Certainly shop around there are big differences in cover and cost on pet insurance.
Difficult decision. I reckon we've paid about £2-3k in insurance premiums over the years for our lab, only claiming once for a minor op (about £250). We've cancelled it now (just pay about £20/year for 3rd party) as he's nearly 10, and as hard as it might be, should the worst happen then we'd have to weigh up the cost of any treatment vs the gain/quality of life he'd have.
Looking back I don't really have any regrets about paying for the insurance. At the time we could not have afforded an unexpected £xxx vets bill so we had peace of mind. Being a bit older and (slightly) more financially stable these days I'd probably not bother if we were to get another dog, and instead put aside a bit extra each month "just in case".
Looking back I don't really have any regrets about paying for the insurance. At the time we could not have afforded an unexpected £xxx vets bill so we had peace of mind. Being a bit older and (slightly) more financially stable these days I'd probably not bother if we were to get another dog, and instead put aside a bit extra each month "just in case".
I've had dogs my whole life and never had any of them insured. Always had mutts that seemed to be hardy little souls. Then we got Phoebe who is a lab who had a very bad start in life and she got insured after the first operation she had, where she wasn't, cost a grand. The second time was 4 grand and we only paid 2 of that. Since then, she has cost over £14000 in various operations, she has always been a sickly girl. We are now with Animal friends for her and I wonder frankly why I continue. SHe is now an 'elderly dog' (11) and the exclusions etc seem to mean that the only thing she is actually covered for is if she breaks her reading glasses or her hearing aid gets lost!
When she broke her leg 4 years ago, it cost me £4000 and the insurer coughed up £500 of that as a 'goodwill gesture'. I carry on with it more for the sake of sentiment/fear as I feel that if I stop it then something bad will happen to her!
She was insured with Sainsburys who were excellent but come renewal, they put the price up by a factor of ten! So then a variety of insurers have been tried, some good, some not so much. If I was to get another dog insured, I would make sure it was a policy that covered them for life instead of year by year.
When she broke her leg 4 years ago, it cost me £4000 and the insurer coughed up £500 of that as a 'goodwill gesture'. I carry on with it more for the sake of sentiment/fear as I feel that if I stop it then something bad will happen to her!
She was insured with Sainsburys who were excellent but come renewal, they put the price up by a factor of ten! So then a variety of insurers have been tried, some good, some not so much. If I was to get another dog insured, I would make sure it was a policy that covered them for life instead of year by year.
Saleen836 said:
Your dog breaks a leg, you spend the £7k you have saved to the vet to pay the bill, 3 months later your dog swallows a few stones and requires an opertion to have them removed, vet hands you a bill for say...£4k, how expensive is the insurance looking now?
Well I’d be paying the £4K anyway in that situation as the cover is limited to £7k pa...Thank you all for your input. I’ve decided to cancel the cover. My conclusion is that pet insurance is a great product if you don’t have the financial resources to meet bills at the level of the max cover under the policy. In this situation, your pet can be treated - which might not be possible otherwise. If however your situation is such that you won’t be RELYING on the cover to meet such bills, then a policy like this is less useful.
Jordan210 said:
Talking about insurance im looking at getting it for our pup.
Is it best to get
Accident Only Policies
Time Limited Policies
Maximum Benefit Policies
Lifetime Policies
Im thinking about Lifetime with a minimum of 4k per condition is that about right ?
They are as describedIs it best to get
Accident Only Policies
Time Limited Policies
Maximum Benefit Policies
Lifetime Policies
Im thinking about Lifetime with a minimum of 4k per condition is that about right ?
If you have a broken leg say but on an accident only or max benefit but then change insurers you will find the broken leg or any other issues with the leg in the future will not be covered...as they all state pre-existing issues/conditons are not covered.
Lifetime policy covers everything ...
Nimby said:
Don't forget you also get third-party cover; dogs can cause road accidents or give rise to other claims that could be a lot more than a vet's bill..
Which is quite possibly covered by your home insurance believe it or not...As to pet insurance, we have accident and emergency cover. But then at one point our premiums were up at 420pcm......
Nimby said:
Don't forget you also get third-party cover; dogs can cause road accidents or give rise to other claims that could be a lot more than a vet's bill..
If you take out Dogs Trust Membership (£25 per year) you get third party insurance for all dogs you own:https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involved/membersh...
One of our dogs is £26 a month lifetime cover, the other is £120 a month lifetime cover.
Neither have ever had a claim. One is 2, one is 4.
My sister runs a vet practice and is absolutely adamant that it’s needed and I really can’t argue against it.
Vets bills are obscene but it’s the price we pay for having our animals.
From personal experience - one of my mums dogs had a £14k bill from a specialist, a good friend has had huge ongoing spinal issues with his German shepherd- he’s up to about £10k so far this year.
My sisters dog collapsed last year and we ended up taking him to the RVC in Hatfield. It’s was late so she called ahead. They told her that the cost to see him before anything was done would be approx £1200 and asked her how she would be paying.
The facilities they have there would make many A&E departments in the NHS look shabby.
We were met by a team of 6. All manor of tests were performed but he didn’t make it.
She still received a hefty bill but if anyone had any chance of saving him, they did.
Earlier this week she sent me a picture of an operation she was doing on a black Labrador - it had chased a fox and tried to run through a barbed wire fence. The image is horrific so I won’t post it but it shows you why the owners ended up with a bill for a couple of grand.
I hate paying for insurance but it is a necessary evil.
Neither have ever had a claim. One is 2, one is 4.
My sister runs a vet practice and is absolutely adamant that it’s needed and I really can’t argue against it.
Vets bills are obscene but it’s the price we pay for having our animals.
From personal experience - one of my mums dogs had a £14k bill from a specialist, a good friend has had huge ongoing spinal issues with his German shepherd- he’s up to about £10k so far this year.
My sisters dog collapsed last year and we ended up taking him to the RVC in Hatfield. It’s was late so she called ahead. They told her that the cost to see him before anything was done would be approx £1200 and asked her how she would be paying.
The facilities they have there would make many A&E departments in the NHS look shabby.
We were met by a team of 6. All manor of tests were performed but he didn’t make it.
She still received a hefty bill but if anyone had any chance of saving him, they did.
Earlier this week she sent me a picture of an operation she was doing on a black Labrador - it had chased a fox and tried to run through a barbed wire fence. The image is horrific so I won’t post it but it shows you why the owners ended up with a bill for a couple of grand.
I hate paying for insurance but it is a necessary evil.
Noting most of the replies above are about dogs.............we had, in one sense a bad run with cats, i.e. the buggers kept living and the premiums went up and the cover went down. I think the worst one we were paying £300p.a. and getting up to £1000 cover pa with a £500 excess due to his age (18 years old! I spent more on insurance in ten years on that Cat that my other Cat (Ford Cougar) I owned for much of the same period. And probably more in servicing on the cat (pills for cat etc).
Since those years, it has been very much, with the cats at least, keep the money in the bank, if they look sad and old and want to die / vet says they have cancer let them go. Had a cat that had cancer, was diabetic, shat everywhere and was going blind, if it had been a person you'd have put them down but it was my wifes last "living" memory to her father on the farm the cat came from. Eventually, when it got to the point we were spending £120 a week on daily insulin injections for him wife asked the vet if there was "anything cheaper", reply was "give him the weeks injection in one go, he'll be happy and gone in an hour".
Nowadays for the Cats at least it is leave the money in the bank and all their annual servicing etc bought from EBay / off the back of the farm vets trucks and administered ourselves. Strangely, using "agricultural" brand stuff never had fleas etc with any cats, whereas with the mega expensive vet stuff used to get a flea ridden moggy every couple of years.
Since those years, it has been very much, with the cats at least, keep the money in the bank, if they look sad and old and want to die / vet says they have cancer let them go. Had a cat that had cancer, was diabetic, shat everywhere and was going blind, if it had been a person you'd have put them down but it was my wifes last "living" memory to her father on the farm the cat came from. Eventually, when it got to the point we were spending £120 a week on daily insulin injections for him wife asked the vet if there was "anything cheaper", reply was "give him the weeks injection in one go, he'll be happy and gone in an hour".
Nowadays for the Cats at least it is leave the money in the bank and all their annual servicing etc bought from EBay / off the back of the farm vets trucks and administered ourselves. Strangely, using "agricultural" brand stuff never had fleas etc with any cats, whereas with the mega expensive vet stuff used to get a flea ridden moggy every couple of years.
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