Pet Insurance? Is it money for old rope?

[Lady Bracknell]

I certainly wouldn't describe pet insurance as a con - like all these things it's a question of choosing the product carefully and reading the small print. I'm afraid I don't put a price on my dog's life and if it cost £1000 to restore him to good health and a normal life expectancy then I would not be opting to kill him rather than pay the vet bills. But then I took out pet insurance on Nipper when he was a pup and didn't have all sorts of pre-existing conditions that might make him uninsurable.

My previous dog, Bob, who I adopted when he was 6, had never been insured and since he suffered from a series of minor but expensive ailments was then uninsurable. Over the following four years I must have spent well over a thousand quid on things like ear drops, tooth decay treatment and the removal of boils on his bottom!

Personally, I recommend Sainsburys and don't recommend Pet Plan!

 

[Yorkie]

As I pointed out previously, I had two dogs neither of which needed expensive treatment (in the case of the collie 12 was the average life expectancy)
Two moggies, one of whom reached the age of 21 without anything wrong, and the second who has got to 15 without major incidents.
If I had spent money on a pedigree animal then maybe insurance would be the way to go but maybe also moggies and mongrels are healthier animals?

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I don't think it makes any great odds whether animals are pedigree or not. You either pay the insurance or pay the vet bills. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

 

[Easy 10]

For instance My wife does three day eventing and her horse broke it's pedal bone and snapped a tendon and the vets bills including rehabilitation, remedial shoeing etc came to nearly 10k! now I certainly don't have that kind of money so without insurance it would have meant the bullet!

I can understand your concern at the expense, but shooting your wife is a little excessive, surely.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

I can understand your concern at the expense, but shooting your wife is a little excessive, surely.

From my experience 10k for the wife's remedial shoeing is a snip.

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

I seem to remember my parents swapping dogs when one of them needed an operation and it was only the other one who was insured. This is going back a few years, so they much the animals chipped or something now, surely?

 

[BigGully]

M&S Pet Insurance was easily the most comprehensive and cheapest around for my dog.

Something like £10 per month and has already had over a £1000 of treatment all paid promptly.

 

[Since1982]

I work in the insurance industry which probably puts me on a par with estate agents and double glazing salesmen I know, but among other things I ran a large pet insurance business for a big insurance brand for a number of years. Pet insurance is def not a con and frankly most insurers struggle to make a profit on the business. Pet medical treatment is advancing as fast as that for humans and so the costs of treatment are going throught the roof which in turn makes it hard to run the business to a decent profit and puts pressure on premiums. Cheap products will exclude older animals, some forms of treatment and will limit treatment to 12 months - pay more and you will get better cover, particularly important with the lifetime of the condition of cover as opposed to 12 months. All the big brands offer similar deals and much of the underwriting and claims handling is done by the same companies anyway. Having said that - if it were mine I would put it down.

 

[Yorkie]

I don't think it makes any great odds whether animals are pedigree or not. You either pay the insurance or pay the vet bills. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

Or the third alternative of having an animal for 21 years that didn't need treatment.

That was why my point of pedigree or mongrel was put forward. Some pedigree breeders (and I know most breeders are reputable) interbreed their animals that it leaves them with inheritedt weaknesses.
Moggies and mongrels could well be stronger because of the 'survival of the fittest'

 

[Brovion]

I personally think pet insurance is a complete rip-off. When we got our first dog 5 years ago we insured him for £24 a month. In that 1st year, apart from his injections etc we took him to the vet once for 'extra' treatment (he'd got a twig stuck in his throat). We STILL had to pay (£44) because the insurance only kicked in after the first £50, i.e. there was an excess. A year later we got a second dog and the insurance doubled. I cancelled it and instead I put £50 a month into a savings account linked to our mortgage. We thought we'd take the money out as and when we needed it. In fact we've never touched it as the times when they have gone to the vets we've just paid it out of our normal monthly budget. The account now stands at £2600 and the interest is offsetting our morgage. If it's still in credit after the last one's died we'll use it for a holiday.

For domestic pets insurance is the biggest con going. I still resent the money I paid for that first year.

 

[Perry Milkins]

Hi

We just got two kittens and got a fairly good deal with Argos Pet Insurance at apparox £5.oo per cat.

I guess it is the cost you are willing to pay to manage the risk of hefty vets bills to tend to kitty should he/she fall ill or get injured.

 

[See-Goals]

Hi

We just got two kittens and got a fairly good deal with Argos Pet Insurance at apparox £5.oo per cat.

I guess it is the cost you are willing to pay to manage the risk of hefty vets bills to tend to kitty should he/she fall ill or get injured.

Seconded - Argos had the best policy and best price when queried through Money Supermarket. I pay £5 a month but that's with a cat thats been chipped and Neuted(sp) - probably more without.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Argos is cheap but i'm not convinced it offers the best overall cover, especially if you have to pay for long term on-going treatment. Again it depends on your attitude to risk, what you are prepared to pay, and what you can afford. There isn't a right or wrong answer, although Brovion's idea is OK so long as you have built up the fund a bit before you have to pay out.

 

[tedebear]

I'm naturally sceptical about these things...

Why? My friend from school is a vet, she always wanted to be one, and studied her arse off to get there...she's clever (if not a bit weird) but whilst she was at school she did work experience at Taronga Zoo and the second week with the local vetinary practice... (this is why she's a large animal vet now)

Luckily the practice got shut down a few years after she was there - but expensive treatment was handed out left right and centre, and often with the blanket statement that the owner wouldn't know what sort of illness the pet was suffering from, and that since people didn't want their pets to die, that the vet could tell them that they HAD to have a certain (expensive) treatment or their pet WOULD die...and people would gladly pay..


So in effect making sure his bread was buttered and so on...

Luckily someone went for a second opinion somewhere else on something and the whole sorry tale started to unravel!

If we had a pet I wouldn't insure it, yes I'd run the risk of some hefty bills if anything went wrong as I haven't the heart to not treat an ill member of my family, but I'd be fairly diligent about what I personally could do to rehabilitate my pet, and not pay for someone else to do it...

I think there are lots of things in life which people fork out for because they feel badly if they don't, tis like companies who tell parents that they aren't good parents if they don't buy this that and the other for their kids...

Anyhow - pet insurance isn't for me.... (besides I don't have a pet at the moment)

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I haven't the heart to not treat an ill member of my family, but I'd be fairly diligent about what I personally could do to rehabilitate my pet, and not pay for someone else to do it...

Anyhow - pet insurance isn't for me.... (besides I don't have a pet at the moment)

What about that poor little teddy bear with its head jammed in the cooker/washing machine/dishwasher. Sadist

 

[tedebear]

What about that poor little teddy bear with its head jammed in the cooker/washing machine/dishwasher. Sadist

Thats me you noodle head, checking the inards of my pc!