Please talk to me about your pet insurance

[CanIBuffalo]

New pet owner here.
I've been on comparison websites but I'd really appreciate recommendations. Tesco, John Lewis and More Than look good. I'm swayed by the high amounts they'd pay out but realistically, what are people's experiences of vet bills for illness/accident? Are they really in the thousands?

I have petplan life cover. July 9, 15yo girl cat was diagnosed with cancer (my birthday is July 8, Dad had skin cancer diagnosis 12 months ago, I had brain surgery 17 months ago. Convinced she wanted her share of the limelight!). She'd had her toe amputated 2 weeks earlier. We decided to amputate her leg. Op was done on July 10. Insurance paid out within 3 weeks. My share was higher than expected (excess plus small % of claim but I haven't read their T&C for 14 years!) Will always use them.

I could manage 200 odd from savings but it's the bills in their thousands I'd really struggle with

As your pet gets older, you'll need to cover some from savings regardless of who you're insured by. I have a 12 year old Lhasa Apso. Pet plan monthly premium for my teeny tiny pup was £8.77 with £70 excess in 2006. Now it's £67.72, with £200 excess and a 20% co-pay. He had a mass on his gum last year, vet was pretty sure it was cancer. Thanks to Petplan, he was x-rayed (to check for bone loss in his jaw), operated on, mass biopsied, and teeth cleaned. It cost £578 - I got £295 back from Petplan (my vet won't take payment from them, I had to pay and then claim. I keep a credit card with £9000 limit open, purely so I can pay for vet treatment).

I've heard good things about "Bought by many" pet insurance, which might be worth a look.

I have claimed with MoreThan and they were very good - it wasn't a huge claim, about £700 for one of my cats who had a stomach issue.

Currently with Petplan, have been with John Lewis but not claimed with any of these - I basically shop around! They are all quite similar tbh.

PetPlan is the way to go OP !

I meant to add - I've paid far more in insurance than I've claimed so far. The peace of mind is worth every penny.

To put another slant on it - I've had pet insurance for 12 years and made 3 claims. In that time I've also had travel, buildings contents and car insurance - and haven't claimed on any of them. (Touch wood, don't want to jinx myself now!)

Pic of Puppy liveliness as requested.
Thanks everyone

I'm actually with Bought by Many Lioness. I was skeptical but they were significantly cheaper than Petplan, but googling didn't give any negative information, so I thought I'd take a risk.

We've always had between 4 and 6 cats and I've thought long and hard about giving up pet insurance and self insuring. It's served us very well in the past but at one point, it was costing nearly £1k per year and we have savings and open credit cards with big limits, and the main reason we've needed it in the past no longer applies as we moved away from the house where several of our cats got run over but survived requiring expensive veterinary treatment.

The two brothers who had overactive thyroids have now both died of old age and we now have three 1-2 year olds and a middle aged lady of 10. We haven't claimed for years and it does feel a bit like money down the drain, but I'm currently paying BBM about £35 pm for all of them and the younger ones are on policies where the cost won't increase as they get older - I'm skeptical about this - I'm sure they'll up the excess or co pay, but it's there if they get illnesses or injuries, so I'll stick with it for now.

The other main reason we've needed the vets in the past has been attacks by tom cats, which can lead to a bill of a few hundred for draining and cleaning of absesses plus antibiotics but I've had at least three feral toms neutered over the years and that problem seems to have gone away too. I also now foster for a local rescue charity, so have access to free neutering if any more nasty tom cats bite my babies - do that and I will quite literally have your balls ripped off, under anasthetic at the vets of course.

I’m with Animal Friends - I looked on compare the market and it gave the best cover. My vets print off the paperwork and fill it all in to claim the money back, but I have to pay them first. It worked well when I needed to claim. I have a credit card with a £15K limit to cover vet bills - I’m glad it is only a temporary payment though, I’d hate to have to pay it all off.

We have one moggy and no insurance.

Now that is one cute puppy 😍😍😍

Pet Plan want to charge £22 odd for a Cocker spaniel cross, exactly the same for a poodle cross but £25 odd for a Cockapoo and they couldn't really tell me exactly why. If my vet have her down as a Cockapoo, my insurance will be void.
Sounds quite 'off' to me.

@CanIBuffalo see my comment ^^ re: pricing structure. just register her as a cocker cross with the vet

Yes. I'll have to get the vet to change it.

I'm with Pet Plan. I pay a lot of money each month but get £12000 a year cover. I don't smoke, go out very much or drink very much so I don't begrudge paying it. They have always paid out quickly with no arguing and our vets do it all for free for me.

We don't bother with pet insurance as it's never been worthwhile when we have had it. Many years & several cats later, we now save the money in an account instead. Most of our cats have cost us very little in vets fees, that even when 2 of them were epileptic & one had a thyroid condition when older. We've just swallowed the vet bills when we needed to. Last one was was when our old cat had to be pts when she became critical with what turned out to be kidney stones. With scans, tests & a week in the animal hospital p, that was under £1000. That was the first time she had needed vet treatment in 9 years, she was epileptic too, but that was minimal cost for diagnosis as they went by the age it started to determine what it was & what was needed.

My old Maine Coon lived to be almost 22, she once needed stitches after a dog attack, needed very occasional trips to the vet but no treatment for epilepsy, diagnosis& treatment for hyperthyroidism when she was 20. I'd guess we spent under £3000 in vets fees in her 22 years.

Similar story with all of my other cats & pets too

I do think it depends on your circumstances & whether or not you have a dog though, much more to go wrong that needs insurance for dogs & more expensive too.

I insure all my pets - dogs, tortoises and guinea pigs!

I would also 100% recommend PetPlan. We had to put a £9,000 claim for a hip replacement thought PetPlan for our 6 y/o golden who has hip dysplasia and needed emergency surgery after her hip dislocated and they were fab.

The consultant was so relieved when we told him we were with PetPlan as apparently they have been having problems with some insurers arguing congenital conditions like hip dysplasia are "pre-existing" because they've had it from birth so it predates any policy.

They didn't question anything and haven't increased the premiums despite the very real risk that the other hip might need doing at some point (and thank god we have an insured for life policy).

I tried pet plan just now.
there is a question about aggression and you had to call them if you wanted a quote. Well i wouldnt say my terrier is aggressive, but she is a terrier
to pay monthly for life the quote was 6 times the cost of what I pay with Animal Friends.

Pet plan was out if my price range too when I looked for my 2 kittens. I went with top range tesco cover instead

@Slartybartfast theres a reason for that - your premiums will rise dramatically once you start claiming and/or she reaches an uninsurable age (usually 8 for dogs)

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5296226

We insured our greyhound with More Than for years, and they always paid up promptly (to us, after we paid on credit card). It was always minor injuries (sighthound unable to see fence, bramble etc) and cost few hundreds at most over six years. Then she reached magic age of 7 and premiums nearly doubled. Not affordable, so we went to Bought by Many.

Presumably More Than had a Crystal ball because within six months she had numerous investigations, tumour and spleen removed and cost over £5000. I paid most things upfront and claimed, prompt payment received. The major bill was unexpected, she went for a scan and I had a phone call to say we found this can we operate, it will cost £!!!. I asked if they accepted direct payments from Bought by Many and whoever I spoke with said yes. Turned out the answer was no, but I had no other means of paying and they let me know they had been paid a couple of weeks later. I made several other payments after that directly and claimed without hassle. In addition, later, when dog died, they covered cremation costs and sent a condolence card that my kids have kept. So personally I have good experience with them.

PetPlan premiums are higher to start with but they don't increase much, if at all, whereas other companies hook you in with low initial premiums and then hike them up each year. Often by that point you're stuck as if you change providers there will be exclusions for pre-existing conditions so they've got you over a barrel. One client told me the other day that their insurance with Healthy Pets started off under £20 per month for their Labrador puppy and now 6 years later it's nearly £90 per month and as of 7 years old they also have to pay a higher excess and 20% of the final bill. When AXA wanted out of the market a few years ago they put premiums up to hundreds of pounds a month, it was scandalous. PetPlan are the only company I would use.

I would avoid E&L and Tesco entirely, we invariably have horrendous difficulties getting them to pay out, they'll try to get out of everything and clients are frequently left out of pocket.

That link is an interesting read @AnotherOriginalUsername.
I've just renewed with AF but next year I will seriously consider PP. The hypothyroidism is affordable to monitor and treat so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I went with PP and the thyroid was excluded.

I've just had a long conversation with Petplan and anyone whose Cockapoo is down as a Poodle cross or a Cocker Spaniel cross does not have valid insurance if they are in fact a Cockapoo even if their vet has them registered as a Poodle cross or Cocker Spaniel cross. I have pointed out how easy it would be to fall foul of this when completing there quote form on the website and how unfair it is giving the argument that a previous poster made about Labradors costing the Earth to ensure and Rare Breeds being virtually free if high levels of claims were the only factor in calculating premiums.

I have asked that my recorded phone call is passed up to higher management and passed on my concern that there will be people with Cockapoos who are genuinely not insured because they picked the first applicable drop down box on the company's website which is Cocker Spaniel cross.

I also asked for feedback on the complaint which the man on the phone assured me he'd give.
Then I had to insist he took my contact details to give me the said feedback