[Help] Completely O/T: Dog Insurance

[Brighthelmstone]

Our dogs insurance (she's 9) went up from £550 last year to £1200 this year as she had a claim for arthritis. Sadly if we swap insurers they wont insure any joint conditions as it'll be classed as a preexisting condition so we have to stay where we are!

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Just had our renewal through, we have a pedigree Tibetan Terrier who is now 10 years old.
Last year the yearly premium jumped to £975-00 because they increase the premiums at 9 yr old.
Todays renewal cost £2160-00..........F**k off.
Just cancelled the policy and set up a direct debit for £80/month, what this years DD was into a savings account as suggested above.

What a rip off, emotional blackmail.

 

[dazzer6666]

Is it just me or since the take up of pet insurance have Vets premises become far more lavish and the couple of vets I know are earning a fortune. It seems that they have become incredibly expensive and are happy to undertake all sorts of treatments that a few years ago would have meant putting animals down ?

I really find it hard to morally justify spending the thousands on a pet which seems to be the norm these days.

And before anyone starts, I'm as guilty as the next as I pay more a year for my daughter's cat insurance than I do to insure a sports car !

Nail on head I suspect. In years gone by pets would have been put down......now vets make thousands keeping them alive.

 

[cuthbert]

Unfortunately if your dog causes an accident you can be liable for a bill which you simply can't pay, you don't only pay for vets bills you get third party cover too.

 

[Grizz]

Deffo worth it with puppies, young dogs, as they get up to all sorts, but our Staffie rescue is 12 now and we made one claim last year for about £300. Got about £200 of that back and premium went up by a £150 a year. Its all bollocks. We just put the money aside each month now in case we ever need it.

 

[Creaky]

Unfortunately if your dog causes an accident you can be liable for a bill which you simply can't pay, you don't only pay for vets bills you get third party cover too.

You can buy third party insurance for all your pets.

For example this costs us less than £25 a month for £3m of cover for 4 horses and a dog.

Unlike pet health insurance, (in my opinion), this is worthwhile. The likelihood of receiving a third party claim are low but if one is received then the claim is likely to be high. The premiums though are minimal. It really is not feasible to save an amount to cover any possible claim making insurance cover worthwhile.

It is almost certain that a veterinary claim of some sort will be made during the lifetime of a pet. Consequently the premiums will be high. Putting the savings made by not insuring into a savings account has, in our case, been well worthwhile. Over 40 years of keeping pets of one sort or another we are well in credit by saving the premiums we would have had to pay out.

 

[Balders]

Nail on head I suspect. In years gone by pets would have been put down......now vets make thousands keeping them alive.

If you own a horse and it goes lame, you get the vet out. First question they ask - "is it insured?" If they can't find anything obvious, they recommend turning it out in a field for a few weeks and wait and see if you don't have insurance, if you do, they test for everything!

I also think Vets are now programmed to treat pets from an Insurance perspective. Prime example - couple of weeks ago MIL's cat presents with a bent front paw that can't bear any weight. He must be knocking on 15 so down the Vets and the Vet "suggests" that something is broken (admittedly that's the obvious) but she checks him over and is very concerned about his kidneys. She quotes blood tests, x-ray for the front leg with general anesthetic and a night in the surgery - if it's a simple break, she estimates about £600, if a bad break with surgery up to £1k. I'm thinking 15 year old cat, vet thinks its kidneys are buggered, possible broken bone and min £600 to find out.........you can guess where my mind was going (and I love my animals to death but am pragmatic) but MIL goes ahead with Vets advice. Anyway we left him there, 2hrs later we get the call - x-rays show no break and kidneys are fine. Vet suggests it could be something in the shoulder pinching a nerve affecting the front leg so starts him on antis. 36hrs later, he can put all his weight on the paw and he's fine. Vet says it was an abscess. Final bill = £650 which actually involved just some antis to make him better if she'd found the abscess in the initial consultation..........

 

[blue'n'white]

When I had a dog (labrador) we went with PetProtect - unfortunately the premiums were quite high as he was diagnosed with epilepsy quite early on in life. We ended up paying about £80 per month which is a huge chunk of money but he had a few operations over the course of his life and the insurance company paid up very quickly each time. Still keep thinking about getting another one - the house isn't the same without a dog.

 

[cuthbert]

You can buy third party insurance for all your pets.

For example this costs us less than £25 a month for £3m of cover for 4 horses and a dog.

Unlike pet health insurance, (in my opinion), this is worthwhile. The likelihood of receiving a third party claim are low but if one is received then the claim is likely to be high. The premiums though are minimal. It really is not feasible to save an amount to cover any possible claim making insurance cover worthwhile.

It is almost certain that a veterinary claim of some sort will be made during the lifetime of a pet. Consequently the premiums will be high. Putting the savings made by not insuring into a savings account has, in our case, been well worthwhile. Over 40 years of keeping pets of one sort or another we are well in credit by saving the premiums we would have had to pay out.

I think you are very sensible, after all insurance companies do make money, which means they take in more than they pay out. I do think that for a dog third party insurance is essential, if you have the self-discipline, which I lack, putting money away regularly for vets bills will pay off more often than not.

 

[portlock seagull]

I agree, if a dog develops cancer drugs will be horrendously expensive so a lifetime insurance is best where claim limits renew each year.

My six year old working cocker is currently insured with Petplan who are arguably the best if most expensive - £57.00 monthly as of January 2019.

I also pay £14.00 monthly to Alliance Pet Care through my vet which covers all the flea and worming treatments, kennel cough jab and annual health check which is a decent saving compared with simply meeting each expense as it arises. Worth considering !

I’d recommend PetPlan too, been with for generations of Cockers and never had any trouble with. Our current one has cost, conservatively, more than £20k in operations and health problems and most of this we’ve had back. But it’s all luck. Our last one we hardly ever needed to make a claim and she lived until 12 before dying very suddenly. This one is 12 and a bit and we claimed 10k within 2 premiums (ie about 20weeks old) and they paid out without a quibble. Excess now is £250 plus first 20% and around £90 a month, but to be expected given her history. Worth every penny mind, she’s still very lively and greedy as cockers can only be!

 

[drew]

Unfortunately if your dog causes an accident you can be liable for a bill which you simply can't pay, you don't only pay for vets bills you get third party cover too.

Check your household cover as well as there is usually some liability cover under that. eg. the direct line wording is below but always check with your insurer.

You’re not covered for
✘ Any liability relating to:
• death or illness of, or bodily injury to, you or
your domestic staff
• damage to property belonging to or being
looked after by you or your domestic staff
• death, illness, injury, loss or damage caused by:
− you owning or occupying any land or
building except your home or temporary
holiday accommodation
− any business
− an agreement, unless that liability would
have existed anyway
• you owning, keeping or using any:
− vehicles, except caravans and trailers
while they are not being towed
− drones or model aircraft
− animals except domestic pets
− horses, ponies, donkeys or mules
− dangerous dogs as described under
the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 or the
Dangerous Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order
1983 and any updates to that legislation
• any disease that can be passed from one
person to another.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Just like all insurance it pays you to shop around at renewal time, certainly as the dog gets older. Here's a cautionary tale (tail?) though...
Be careful when switching the policy - do not make the switch effective at a future date, i.e at the expiry date of the existing policy. Here's why:
The existing policy will not cover you for treatment past the end date of the policy. The new policy will not cover you for treatment as a result of an accident that occurred before the policy starts. This means that if your dog gets run over on the last day of your old policy, the initial vets visit will be covered, but any ongoing treatment needed as a result, will not be.

Believe it or not, my dog was run over at about 11:50pm on the last day of the policy. Luckily, the vet was on the ball and 'observed' that I must have got the time wrong and it 'actually' happened at 12:15am, i.e. just into the first day of the new policy. The dog broke her leg and needed treatment totaling about £2,800. All this was about six years ago and happily, she made a full recovery after excellent treatment.

The moral of this is to never future date a new policy.