Pet insurance up by £11

[Noeuf]

Hi we have a cat who is now 16. No conditions no injuries no claims. Insurance has gone from 18.35 to 29.69 this renewal - any recommendations? We have life time cover but not many frilly bits.

Have you phoned the company and asked them to have a look at the quote? They may reduce it slightly or suggest raising the excess which will reduce the monthly amount.
We’ve got two dogs ones 9 the other 13, ours is £75 a month for them both but the older one has had two knee operations which the insurance paid for and they weren’t cheap.

That doesn't sound too bad - it's slightly less than I pay for my young-ish dog each month!

I noticed recently that my cat insurance, for a 6 Yr old healthy cat, never claimed, has risen to £25 per month. It was £11 when I first took it out (when she was a kitten) It's with Petplan, coveted for life. I really don't know what to do as they were fantastic with my ither cat and paid out thousands , no quibbles, when I'd only taken the policy out 4 months prior to him getting ill

One of our dogs is a cross of two breeds, one healthy breed and one breed that has lots of health problems.

Thankfully due to being crossed with the healthy breed he has always had perfect health in all of his six + years.

We are with Pet Plan and they would only recognise him as being the unhealthy breed not as a cross breed and wanted £45 a month for him.

Our two other dogs have even higher insurance but it’s necessary as they are at risk from running injuries.

We cancelled the cross breeds insurance and just put money aside each month. He’s built like a tank and we ‘wasted’ four years of £45 a month!

Reasons why it might have gone up:

Age - the older the pet the more likely they'll need to claim (15-16 might be one of the bigger price increases)
Cost of medicines etc increasing
New treatment options now available

I think at 16 you'd struggle to move insurers as many won't take on an elderly animal, but if you call your current provider then there might be something they can do. Add a bigger excess etc.

Thank you everyone. I did call and it’s cost of vets increasing mainly. Never made a claim. Best they can do is £26. Is it worth looking round? Just feels like a massive hike.
Really surprised at the differences in prices people have given.

Ours is now £89 a month for DDogs 1&2 and ChampagneCat, though in fairness the dogs are now 7 and 8.

We've previously stopped paying once they reach 8 or 9 and put the money aside for emergencies. Until early this year this has always served us well, until the old dog got sick, was hospitalised over the weekend and was subsequently PTS a few days later. The money racked up frighteningly fast and we have only just paid the credit card bill for his treatment off. DH and I have now resolved to carry on paying while we are in any way financially able, though we will jiggle about with higher excesses and lower levels of cover as they get older.

Worth looking @Noeuf but I don't think many insurers would take on a 16 year old cat

My cat insurance increased this year for no reason. 1 year old, no claims, nothing. They didn't budge one iota when I called either. Annoying.

I always resented paying out pet insurance for my cat who I never claimed for, especially as premiums rose. However I was very glad I had kept up with it when he suddenly became very ill with liver failure at 15 years old. Sadly the vets couldn’t save him, but I at least had the peace of mind of knowing I could say yes to everything they tried without worrying about the cost.

A sorry to hear some of your stories of poorly pets. Annoying that I’m looking at having to accept it. We definitely can’t afford to risk £££ on fees , might have a look but if feels really unfair! Other prices seem similar though from your feedback.

We have insurance for our cat and dog. Family members have commented in the past about it being a waste of money etc. Suddenly age 6 the dog developed a symptom that required a lot of investigation before even getting a diagnosis, then acute treatment and now a maintenance drug. We've currently spent £6500.
The cat has now been diagnosed with cancer and we're looking at at least £500 with tests and steroids and that's without active treatment.

It's well worth it if you need it, expensive if you don't. But then that's the nature of insurance

Hello Nouef

I have just adopted a cat the same age as yours. Not every insurer will cover at that age. I have managed to get mine covered with a Life policy via a deal the insurer Agria has with the rescue charity. Just to give you an idea of cost at that age, for the basic, no added extras, it's £50 a month.

I've been with Petplan previously with my other cats and they increase based on age not on how many times you claim. Agria tell me that they do the same. I don't know the ins and outs of your policy but I think you'd struggle to get any kind of decent cover for less than what you've been offered at 16.

Have you looked at Bought by Many? It gets great reviews and is reasonable.

I was really glad mine only went up by £12 this year. To £137 a month for two cats. They told me it would double!

ok maybe this is on the low side then! Wow, I’m shocked I thought it would be like car insurance (no claims!)

Mine is £38 but I've had 2 claims, one of £3000
Tesco - they've been fantastic, pay out no questions asked direct to my vet

You should be shopping around every year for every insurance, that's the absolute golden rule.

It's not a question that needs to be asked, do it as a matter of routine.

Your circumstances are unique, don't base it on what anyone else pays, seacrh for the best deal for you and your requirements.

We've currently spent £6500

My dog is now 7. Never had insurance for him. If we'd paid, say, £35 per month for him for the time we've had him, that'd have cost us around £4K by now. We've spent less than £200 on him on vet's bills (apart from vaccs).
Just going to keep doing a PAYG for now 😬

@LowbrowVictoriana and that's the gamble of insurance!

For us PAYG would not have paid off! We will use the full £8000 benefit for this condition by the time she's 8.

I totally get why people don't want to pay for it but for me I just couldn't risk having to have her PTS because I couldn't afford the treatment!

@AFuturisticalSound

That isn’t great advice for pet insurance. If your pets has had any problems and you move insurance company they will not cover anything that it has been seen for before because it will be classed as a pew existing condition.

There are a couple of companies that cover pre existing conditions but with many caveats that mean it usually isn’t worth it.

Pet insurance is not like car or house insurance

Pet insurance rises with the age of pet rather than claims. Mine is over £35 with petplan lifetime £7,500 cover and she’s 9 years old.

I think it sounds very reasonable. I was paying £26 a month for my 6 year old cat.
A long weekend at the royal veterinary college trying to find out what was wrong cost 4 grand. Keep paying is my advice.

@Angel2702

That is true for petplan but not for all insurance companies. Many absolutely do put up premiums with claims

Ok so i was expecting £15 for a bog standard no illness/previous conditions cat so already £18 was a surprise last year. Clearly out of touch!