Cat insurance

[Merlot]

I'm probably picking up a kitten later this week, which I would like to insure.

She is a crossbreed/moggie. Having see my parents pay some extraordinary vet bills on their uninsured cats, I'm going to take out insurance from day one!

I'd like a good policy which is as inclusive as possible, I can't find any comparison websites like you can with cars, so any recommendations on providers or tips on who to avoid?

I've checked M&S so far (Premier policy is £8.50/month) and Petplan (£13/month).

[Jasandjules]

We use Halifax - they have a set excess which does not increase to 20% when they are over 8 (most companies do!). AND they will pay for a special diet (minus the cost of normal moggy food) - many policies don't and one of cats needs special kidney food, which is a tad expensive.

[Merlot]

Jasandjules said:

We use Halifax - they have a set excess which does not increase to 20% when they are over 8 (most companies do!). AND they will pay for a special diet (minus the cost of normal moggy food) - many policies don't and one of cats needs special kidney food, which is a tad expensive.

Just got a quote from them, and they say this:

"If your pet is 7 years of age or older, after deduction of the standard policy excess for each illness or injury you must pay a further 15% of the remaining cost of the treatment."

[jagracer]

I've always gone on the theory of self insurance but if you read my thread elsewhere I've just paid a £400 bill (it could have been £3-£4K) with more to come over the next few months so if you can't afford a large bill then you're making the right choice. My wife insures her horses with Petplan and they are expensive but when she did once make a claim, she fell over and the horse knocked her in the mouth resulting in £1500 dental bill, there was no arguments and the paid very promptly, can't offer advice on other companies though.

[AMLK]

Merlot said:

I'm probably picking up a kitten later this week, which I would like to insure.
I'd like a good policy which is as inclusive as possible, I can't find any comparison websites like you can with cars, so any recommendations on providers or tips on who to avoid?

Go compare does quotes for pet insurance, admittedly I only got back 9 results, but that is still better than having to go to each company.

[hogfisch]

My best bit of advice is to read the small print. Many of the cheaper offerings only provide cover to any diagnosed chronic illness for a maximum of 12 months. So if your cat was diagnosed with a life-long condition requiring treatment, the policy would stop paying out for treatment after the first 12 months.

Petplan (who I used to be with) and Sainsbury's (who I am with now as they were a few quid a month cheaper) both offer cover for the lifetime of the diagnosed condition.

[Jasandjules]

Merlot said:

Just got a quote from them, and they say this:

"If your pet is 7 years of age or older, after deduction of the standard policy excess for each illness or injury you must pay a further 15% of the remaining cost of the treatment."

I will speak to my OH and get back to you.

[jagracer]

swerni said:

I wouldn't bother.

Work out what the monthly policy would cost and put that money in a savings account every month.
Pay any bills from that.

That's OK if you are that disciplined. In my case I'm still ahead despite our latest episode but if you don't have the funds available then insurance is probably the way to go for most people.

[jagracer]

swerni said:

jagracer said:

swerni said:

I wouldn't bother.

Work out what the monthly policy would cost and put that money in a savings account every month.
Pay any bills from that.

That's OK if you are that disciplined. In my case I'm still ahead despite our latest episode but if you don't have the funds available then insurance is probably the way to go for most people.

More importantly, you should put a picture of the D type on your car details.
I've got a pic on my one

Just for you, done. Did you race yours?

[Merlot]

jagracer said:

swerni said:

I wouldn't bother.

Work out what the monthly policy would cost and put that money in a savings account every month.
Pay any bills from that.

That's OK if you are that disciplined. In my case I'm still ahead despite our latest episode but if you don't have the funds available then insurance is probably the way to go for most people.

I am very disciplined and would happily put £10/month aside to cover this eventuality.

However, the problem occurs if an illness is detected early on in the cats life. If your cat gets to say, 15 before an illness might develop you'll have £1800 set aside (won't count interest as we'll offset this against inflation!) which should be enough to cover most eventualities. However, if an illness occurs when the cat is, say, 2 years old then you'll only have £240 in the kitty (ha - see what I did there?) which won't go very far and in essence you'll be 'paying off' this illness for some time, rather than building funds and hoping a second illness doesn't develop.

FWIW, my parents have no insurance on either of their cats. One is 17 and has now had about £2000 of work done (accident and one small illness) and the other is about 5 and has had about £400 of bills but is now having to make regular expensive trips due to a condition.

[AshG]

Merlot,

We've got 2 moggies and went with Argos Pet Insurance as they were the cheapest at the time (they're all cheaper for moggies; my wife has had experience of poorly bred pedigrees and that's a money pit, health-wise) and they also received many positive online reviews on swiftness of paying out when the need arose.

I wouldn't necessarily dimiss Swerni's idea of putting money aside for emergencies, vet bills etc rather than going for insurance. It depends on the situation. If you're far from a main road, have cats that don't stray far from home etc, it can make sense to do that. However, it can cost several hundred pounds plus to put a cat that's been hit by a car back together (plus some of them, one of our mogs included, have faintly suicidal tendencies when it comes to things they eat / swallow and that can mean quite an involved operation).

Insurance will pretty much never cover vaccinations, microchipping and neutering, but might require at least the first.

Actually, just read back through the thread and I'm probably not saying anything you don't already know!

Edited by AshG on Sunday 2nd May 11:09

[jagracer]

AshG said:

Merlot,

We've got 2 moggies and went with Argos Pet Insurance as they were the cheapest at the time (they're all cheaper for moggies; my wife has had experience of poorly bred pedigrees and that's a money pit, health-wise) and they also received many positive online reviews on swiftness of paying out when the need arose.

I wouldn't necessarily dimiss Swerni's idea of putting money aside for emergencies, vet bills etc rather than going for insurance. It depends on the situation. If you're far from a main road, have cats that don't stray far from home etc, it can make sense to do that. However, it can cost several hundred pounds plus to put a cat that's been hit by a car back together (plus some of them, one of our mogs included, have faintly suicidal tendencies when it comes to things they eat / swallow and that can mean quite an involved operation).

Insurance will pretty much never cover vaccinations, microchipping and neutering, but might require at least the first.

Actually, just read back through the thread and I'm probably not saying anything you don't already know!

Edited by AshG on Sunday 2nd May 11:09

The other deciding factor on our choice not to insure is the excess you pay and the average cost of vets bills. Ours normally come out at around £60-£80 so in say the last 20 years I wouldn't have claimed until this week. Work out the cost of insuring on average 5 pets over that time even now if we'd have gone for the most expensive option we'd still be miles ahead by not insuring.

[Jasandjules]

My OH tells me that we don't have that 15% bit on our cats for our Halifax Policy, so perhaps they have changed the policy for new accounts - it was why we changed from our last policy.

Sorry about that.