Shall I cancel my pet insurance?

[MummyDoIt]

I have a very elderly cat, 20 years old. I currently pay almost £40 a month in pet insurance for her - it creeps up a bit every year. She's generally in good health apart from a kidney condition. She has to have tablets and a special diet but they're not covered by the insurance because it's a chronic condition.

Should she fall ill, the vet would not recommend anything other than basic blood and urine tests. She had throat problems earlier this year which thankfully cleared with antibiotics but the vet warned me that, because of her age and kidney problems, they wouldn't recommend putting her under anaesthetic for any procedures or investigations.

She doesn't go out so won't get run over or attacked by a dog and, if she falls ill enough to need an operation, the vet wouldn't recommend it anyway. Basically, if she gets ill, the kindest thing would be to put her down. Is it then worth continuing with the pet insurance? I'm very tempted to cancel it but am hesitating in case there's some scenario I haven't considered. WWYD?

[ColdSancerre]

I had exactly this situation with my old cat, he was 17, suffering from kidney disease and the premiums were put up from £30 to £50 a month with 15% excess. Just like you I figured that anything that would actually make paying the premium worthwhile would be too much treatment wise for him to handle. I cancelled it. I can't really think of a scenario that would have changed that tbh.

[MummyDoIt]

That's exactly what I'm thinking, CS. There's no way I could put her through an operation or any serious treatment. Anything beyond a simple course of antibiotics would be too much for her to cope with. She costs me a fortune with the pills and special diet (not that I begrudge it!) but if I can save a bit on the insurance, that will help.

[paddypoopants]

Our vet suggested we put the amount we would pay in insurance aside in another account every month to cover any eventuality and that way you still have the money if you don't use it but also have that sort of security blanket in case she gets something randomly expensive wrong with her.
He also suggested with 3 cats it was probably made financially more sense to do that than insure all of them.

[MummyDoIt]

That's a good idea, paddy.