Insurance costs

[cheesycrisps]

For various reasons my dog has ended up uninsured and I want to get things back on track so we are both covered.

Petplan are quoting between £52 and £77 for a 6 year old neutered male springer and I was wondering how that compared to how much you're paying? I'm def looking for life time care but is the extra vet fee coverage worth it?

[Girlintheframe]

Have a look at bought by many. There level of coverage is comparable to pet plan but they are cheaper. We've never had to claim but reviews are excellent.

[midnightstar66]

I'm using bought by many and my policy is £15 pm for lifetime cover with no excess

[WhySeaEmm]

Bought by many is £37 a month for complete lifetime cover, 15k, for me. No brainer compared to PetPlan who were nearly double for 7k!

[jinxpixie]

How long have you guys been with Bought by Many?

My experience was they hiked up the price after one year with no claims at all.

[Girlintheframe]

I've been with them a couple of years now. Due out 3rd renewal price any time time. So far haven't found an increase in price.

[Moondust001]

I'm with Tesco. After they hiked the price up I after the first near I went in price comparison sites, found a better price but also found them offering a better price, so I phoned and told them to cancel as they were taking the proverbial. So they dropped the price! It seems that it's worth haggling.

I have always found Pet Plan to be wildly expensive.

[midnightstar66]

Only my first year so can't say yet if they'll put it up. I'm sure they have a fixed price policy that never goes up too which might be worth it for certain dogs. It's a bit more expensive

[cheesycrisps]

It's all so bloody confusing, looks like the options are either pet plan or bought by many

BBM give higher coverage which is good, but I can't find out if they will increase your premium if you make a claim?
Also does anyone know which is better for older dogs? Ddog is 7 this year and I know things can get more expensive as the get older

[threemilesupthreemilesdown]

It is common to add a percentage excess copayment when dogs go over a certain age - 7 for most dogs and 5 for 'select breeds' - so check if this applies to any of the policies you're looking at. 7 is also often a cut-off for taking out new lifetime policies.

[Xiaoxiong]

Agree with threemiles - check the policy carefully because "lifetime" doesn't always mean what you think it means!

Our old girl over 10 now and we had to claim for something (one-off) 2 years ago. The extra surcharges from her age, size and single claim brought the amount to more than the coverage limits, even with lifetime cover at a low level per month. We did shop around but no luck in finding anything better, so now we just earmark the insurance amount in savings each month. Frustrating after paying to insure her for years with a supposed lifetime policy.

[cheesycrisps]

I realise I'm running out of time to get the best policy for him. who are you both with?

[Scattyhattie]

Petplan are more expensive to start but they don't penalise for claims and on renewal my usual increase is just couple pound per month. For oldies have to pay 20% of bill on top of excess but this is when majority of insurers make it unaffordable to get rid and when you often need to claim so I'd rather contribute & know covered in future (my dogs 13 & been with PP since 7). May not put old dog through some surgery but diagnostics, hospitalisation and medication can cost a lot. My dogs medication alone is more than the premiums.
Vets are usually happy to claim direct with petplan as pay up quickly.

I would bear in mind that anything have seen vet about already will likely be classed as preexisting with a new insurer & excluded. On first claim have to submit full history so it would get picked up then if didn't declare.

[Lordofmyflies]

DDog has pet plan. £30 a month for a 3 year old Boston with life time cover. I've been with them for all our dogs as vets deal direct with them and I've never had an issue with claiming. They're not the cheapest but I have found them to be very thorough and fast to pay.

[threemilesupthreemilesdown]

For what it's worth, I work in an administrative role in a veterinary practice and process several hundred insurance claims a month. All of my dogs are insured with Petplan.

[Poniesandgin]

I work in a vet and mine are all petplan.
Kennel club increase the premiums massively after the first year as do most of the other high street companies.
Once you’ve claimed you can’t switch insurers so pick whoever you want to stick with.

My oldest dog is 11 and his premium has gone up from £25 to £30 in 10 years so not too bad!

[dontdisturbmenow]

Doesn't petplan have deals with practices though so it would make sense if working at a Vet to go with them. No forcibly for for other pet owners.

Otherwise, would be gelpful to list the actual reasons for picking them over those who seem to offer the same service but at a better price or more for the same price.

[threemilesupthreemilesdown]

I don't work for a Petplan practice, it has its own branded insurance product which, yes, has staff discount on policies. I still choose Petplan. I'll bite - things I have seen people come unstuck with:

Policies with unrealistic vet fee limits (£500/£1000 per condition)
No cover for complementary therapies
No cover for behavioural disorders
No cover for dental conditions, fair enough for routine cleaning, but some also include accidental injury
Quibbling over the necessity of out of hours or visit fees
Quibbling and deductions over drug and treatment prices if they appear 'greater than conventional fees' by whatever measure they care to use for this
Deductions on hospitalisation fees because you would have had to pay for bedding and food if the pet was at home
Bilateral conditions considered as one e.g a second cruciate, hip, eye, ear condition subject to one benefit limit
Overweight/obesity clauses excluding treatment if it can be related to your pet's weight
Enormous co-payments (35%)
Flea/worm clauses excluding treatment for things like lungworm
No cover or a time limit cap on costs for prescribed food e.g for dissolution of urinary crystals

Petplan are also one of a handful of companies who use an electronic claims system which means that the majority are paid within a week; some of the less scrupulous companies can string payment out for months by quibbling and requiring supporting letters on everything and denying receipt of paperwork.

I am not saying that everyone other than Petplan does these things, far from it, just that Petplan is an easy gold standard to recommend to someone unfamiliar with the ins-and-outs of pet insurance.

[Ghost24]

I would say make sure you read all the small print with pet insurance and fully check what you are getting! My dogs insurance is just over £1000 a year and that's with a discount as I have other insurance with them however the amount he is covered for and what it actually provides is great! Lots of insurers wont cover certain problems or will cover up to a certain amount (usually small) so make sure you know exactly what you are getting. My boy is 14 so its higher than lots of others prices. I use more than.

[Ghost24]

Go on a comparison site and tick everything you do and dont want.

[WeAllHaveWings]

We are with petplan £54/month for 7 year old labrador.

[Puddlesplasher]

OP - I think that what you really need to be asking is for people's experience of pet insurance when they've made a claim. Any company can take your money each month but the things that really matter are how comprehensive the policy is, how likely they are to pay out and how quickly they do that.

I was planning on shopping around for my dog's insurance this year as felt that PetPlan was very expensive (approx £60 a month) and had had much cheaper quotes from other providers. Just before my renewal date my dog became very unwell and within a fortnight we had a vet bill of £4000. PetPlan paid out every penny apart from the excess. I had multiple bills sent direct to them by our vet, the emergency vets and the vet hospital and they settled the claims in less than two weeks. Needless to say I renewed with them as to not have the worry of whether or not the bills were going to be paid was priceless.

[Louise24902]

If you're still looking just to throw another one in the mix I would highly recommend Churchill pet insurance. They are fairly priced for decent cover and we have a claim in currently with them and they are dealing direct with our vet and have made it very easy to do so!