Pet Insurance & Dog's Trust
We have just had the renewal notice for Harry's insurance. We've been with Pet Protect since we took him on aged 6 months. This year the premium's gone up by 30% which, together with the excess and 20% of vet fees we'd need to pay meant that we'd be paying the best part of £900 for a £1000 claim! The reason, it seems is that now he's over 10 we can't get a quote from other companies.
So we've ditched the insurance and I've joined Dogs Trust which for £12.50 a year gives us third party cover; hopefully he won't need any major veterinary care but we're prepared to pay for that if he does.
If anyone's having a similar experience it's well worth looking at the Dogs Trust deal and, of course, you'd be doing a bit to support the charity too. 
Comments
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Good move, M. Pet insurance sometimes seems to be no insurance at all.
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Never had pet insurance, i got a couple of quotes and the opened a serarate bank account and put that months premium in , if something happened to her then we have a bit of money to help pay if not we still have the money
and i support the dogs trust and then the bounus of third party insuance
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We are insured by Pet Plan for our 2 year old Labradoodle. In Julne she was diagnosed with Lymphoma and we nearly lost her. She is now having chemotherapy. Bristol Vet school submits their invoice to Pet Plan who have paid straight away. They have been
excellent and taken away the stress on the financial side. They may not be the cheapest but in my opinion it is worth every penny and cannot speak highly enough of them. It appears that the older the dog the more expensive the fees are.0 -
It's not only premiums that increase as the pet ages, KW, but as Moulesy found it's changes to excess levels and the percentage of a claim paid. We binned our insurance for exactly the same reasons as, M. However, I think it's useful to have as long as the
cost is reasonable and it's good that it's working for you. I hope your dog does well.0 -
We've never used pet insurance, I feel if we can't afford vet fees we probably can't afford the expense of keeping pets. I tend to discuss with the vet whether any specialist treatment is truly viable although I know advances have probably been made due
to funding via insurance. I support the PDSA in their work especially for anyone who benefits from the company of a pet.0 -
Before moving to Cornwall i worked at a pet insurance company for many years and enjoyed a good discount on my premiums at the time.When i left the company i had to keep the policies running as Max suffers from arthritis and this would be excluded with a
new company.Both my dogs are over 10 and i currently have an excess of £150 plus10% of the remaining amount. I usually need to make a claim every two months for Max , however a couple of weeks ago Max took ill and ended up in doggy hospital for 6 days with Pancreatitis
and i ended up with a bill just short of £2,000 . I would have found the money if needed but i was happy i was insured especially when there was some talk of a CT scan. Its all down to personal choice and circumstances and getting the right insurance company
and policy.What i did find personally distressing at work was talking to customers who could not afford their pets treatement as they did not have adequate cover or missed payments and in some cases having to have their pets put to sleep due to this.
So to me insurance is a necessity.
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When Lizzie was ill in May our vets bill came to just over £1200. We then had to pay the first £100 and 20% of the remainder. It took them from May to the end of July to settle the claim. As a result, I shall be looking around for another insurance at
renewal time. In many respects I wished I had gone for Pet Plan, but it is expensive. I guess you get what you pay for!David
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To put our case into perspective, the chemo will be between £4,000 to £6,000 plus all of the intensive care treatment, ct scan, biopsies, medication ultra sound etc. The total cost will exceed our £7000 but we think she is worth every penny. It must be heart
breaking for those who do not have the insurance or money for the treatment and have to put their dog to sleep.0 -
The premiums for our 3 collies were just silly, so we stopped ages ago and just put the money into a savings account instead.
Quite a bit in there now (thousands) - in fact the dogs even paid for our heating oil last winter on an interest free loan which we have repaid!!
Cheers
Bugs
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I am with LV and the premium for my mental Goldie has gone up 25pounds in 4years just had to claim and apart from the known excess £60 got a full return of the £340 vet bill with no increase in premium possibly due to no claims protection and the vet not
charging until all work carried out!0 -
Have any of you that are complaining about the premiums for dog insurance had reason for a large vet bill recently? I know i have and it is a fact that without the insurance monthly payments i would not have been able to have my dog with me now!! yes its
expensive but nowhere near as expensive as a lets say treatment for cancer!! all things in proportion, how much does your dog mean to you??0 -
Jeff, the amount my dog meant to me had no bearing on the decision I took in cancelling our insurance as I was quite prepared to take the chance of having to foot hefty vets bills.
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Same here, jeff. We're fortunate enough to know that we could cover the cost of any vets bills and would do so in an instant.
We have always had insurance for ur dogs; we still have for Lady. The point of my OP was really the practice of bumping up premiums (even though we've never made a claim in 10 years of having Harry insured) once he's got to the age where we're unlikely to
be able to get a quote from other companies. That, to me is the real disgrace.0 -
Jeff, that's an offensive statement, you are stating if we have no insurance then our dog means nothing to us.
I have always insured ours and Cassie is insured with 'Petplan' at the moment, but there may come a time later in her life and if we have not had the need to make a claim that I will consider cancelling.
I'm also in a fortunate position that I can and I will pay whatever is needed if it ever comes to that, the premiums as your dog get older can be astronomical even with no claims, but do not think we do not care.
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Insurance goes up with age for pets and humans alike. I liked Moulesy's idea of the Dogs Trust donation, looks like we all have different ways of funding the costs of keeping pets. Good to hear about responsible ownership. I expect quite a few of us are
caring for pets who didn't originally have responsible owners!0 -
When the premiums for our last dog went from £11 per month to £19 per month on renewal we said we would put the premium into an account that although not much gave abit of interest,since we lost her last year we have still kept the account going,to give
a buffer for when our next rescue finds us for its forever home0 -
Good move, M. Pet insurance sometimes seems to be no insurance at all.
Write your comments here...I agree, a very good indicator of how life for us would be without the NHS. Expensive, and for any persistant illness, no cover at all.
Since our Labradors insurance went through the roof, i have decided to cover her vets bills from our savings, which are earning no interest anyway.
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I am now paying more per month for our two year old Cockapoo's insurance than I am for a £25k caravan insured with Saga - which doesn't seem right to me. However, I know that I will continue to pay the premiums whatever they are.
What does annoy me is the extortionate mark-up Vets apply to medication so now - for anything which is going to become a regular requirement - I insist on getting a prescription from the Vet and buying it on-line at half the price.
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We decided to buy our spot on flea treatment online which was about fifty percent cheaper than through our vet, that is when they decided to charge. £12.50 for the prescription, that was 9 years ago so quite expensive. I was then given a 'talk' by the practice
manager( not a qualified member of vet profession) about the folly of ordering meds online, I do know you have to be careful, I made sure we were dealing with a reputable company. He told me these meds come from third world countries, I replied that Australia
would probably be amazed they were considered a third world country and that if we didn't have to pay a salary for a practice manager who doesn't even live in our area perhaps the price of meds could be reduced so owners didn't risk buying meds online. I changed
my vet after that and have been totally happy with the treatment and the costs so do get them at the vet.0 -
Holly the Jack Russell is insisting on sitting on my lap while I'm trying to type. At 13 years old we decided we could no longer justify the high insurance premiums. However much loved, she is only a dog. If the vets bill was likely to be too expensive then
I'm afraid that would have to be the end for her.Sorry Holly.0 -
We have 5 dogs and various other animals, so having insurance is not viable. We put money aside in a "dog" account every month and, like others, have 3rd Party Liability Cover through the Dogs Trust. In the eventuality that this isn't enough, then there's
always the credit card. It's entirely up to the individual what they think is best for them and their pets, and not for others to judge.0
