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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cancelling pet insurance for cat

22 replies

EmmalinaC · 22/12/2011 00:12

Just had a letter from insurers (Sainsbury's) telling us it has gone up by 50% to £36 per month because of her age - she's 12.

I know we can't change providers with a pet of this age but this seems extortionate - we have never claimed a penny for her and have been paying premium all her life.

DH thinks we should cancel it on the grounds that we would never submit her to prolonged medical treatment (he's not a cat person!) and that if she was ill/injured if would be fairer to PTS...

I'm in two minds.

We pay £48 for our 7 year old dog (and have had our money's worth over the years!) and wouldn't dream of cancelling it...

It just seems like a huge amount of money to be spending each month (more than we pay for life, car insurance etc) and with the costs of everything else rising so fast we would have to make sacrifices to continue to pay it.

I have deliberately NOT put this in the pet section but am really wondering, AIBU to cancel and to accept that if she needed expensive veterinary tratement we would not be able to afford if and would have her PTS?

OP posts:

olgaga · 22/12/2011 00:17

For goodness sake, why would you want to subject a poor old cat to medical interventions to keep it alive at the end of its life anyway? Be kind. And stop being a mug, paying through the nose for something that just isn't necessary.

bemybebe · 22/12/2011 00:20

If the choice is insurance cover or pts I would always choose the insurance. Some chronic conditions that require expensive treatments are not painful for the animal and I would be devastated to have to pts because of lack of funding.

That said we decided no longer to have cat insurance for two of our cats but this is with a clear understanding that we will be paying the bills ourselves should they need a treatment. (The reason is the same as yours - our insurance company is frankly taking a piss)

JollyJinglyJoo · 22/12/2011 00:25

It depends. The reason insurers put premiums up is because they know that your cat is more likely to run into health problems (not necessarily unfixable/ unmanageable without invasive procedures). I agree, it is crap when they have been taking your money happily for years, but there it is.

I'd look at your policy- what are you getting for your money, what does it cover? Many policies will only cover an illness for 12 months, so if your cat DID develop a long-term problem, fixable with ongoing meds, then you would only get the benefit of the 1st year's treatment.

Second thing is, what position would you be in if there were things that could/ should be done for your cat (again, not necessarily invasive) and you had no insurance? Would you be able to pay? Stick it on a credit card and pay it off? 12 isn't actually all that old for a healthy cat, and many many conditions are treatable (but potentialy expensive) without causing any great inconvenience to your cat.

I do see a lot of clients who cancel their pet insurance and then live to regret it, but as long as you feel you can afford to do what is right for your feline friend, or continue to put money away "just in case", then cancel.

FrozenChocolate · 22/12/2011 00:26

£36 and £48 per month?

SmethwickBelle · 22/12/2011 00:27

I am increasingly thinking these things are a scam - I'd get sufficient cover to pay for unexpected one offs but possibly not chronic conditions or endless treatments where the cats quality of life or ultimate prognosis is poor.

Original poster

EmmalinaC · 22/12/2011 00:27

Thank you both.

olgaga I wouldn't subject her to anything. And bemy if it was affordable, or course we would pay.

I just hate the way insurers know they can rob you blind by playing on your emotional attachment!

OP posts:

Original poster

EmmalinaC · 22/12/2011 00:29

Yep frozen £84 per month on pet insurance!!! Apparently it's because we live in London!

OP posts:

SmethwickBelle · 22/12/2011 00:31

...and definitely shop around as 36 quid a month does sound nutty unless they're going to replace your puss with a gold statue in her form, after her eventual demise.

Our 12 year old moggy with a few health issues was only costing a tenner a month with pretty ritzy cover through Direct Line. Many of the normal cost comparison websites have a pet insurance section.

bemybebe · 22/12/2011 00:32

Our cat insurance is affordable but we decided not to pay because I think it is unreasonable. It went 2.5 times in 7 years and we never claimed. So we have cancelled it from August despite having no problem paying the premium. Will be paying the vet bills if the worst happens.

ThatVikRinA22 · 22/12/2011 00:33

i would just put the money away for the vets bills, as and when they come in.

i have neve had pet insurance as i think on the whole, its a waste of money

my pets are well looked after, and get any attention/treatment they need, but you could probably put that money away each month and still not spend it all.

Millicano · 22/12/2011 19:50

Agree with vicar - put say 30 quid per month away and you will have the money if you need it and also have the money if you don't.

OmniaParatus · 22/12/2011 20:04

Yanbu. We cancelled ours for our two 11 year old cats last year. We have always paid for their treatment anyway as the excess was so high.
It is worth saying that my pils dog developed a heart condition treatable with medication, but their insurance only paid for a year. After that, they could choose to stop it, or pay for it themselves at 80 quid a month. They paid, and their dog lived for another five years with her condition before the vet advised she be pts as her health was deteriorating. Pil are well off, but if that happened to us I don't know if we would be able to afford it.

MissCalamity · 22/12/2011 20:09

I also agree with vicar, put the money away each month for your cat.

I had insurance for my two moggies, it was £20 a month. One cat was 7 the other 3. The 7 year old got ill, and we had a few tests on him and the vet asked if we had insurance, which we did. My poor baby boy had to be put to sleep in the end as he'd contracted FIP (nasty thing) and guess what, our insurance didn't cover it as I'd bought "emergency" insurance and not the "standard" insurance. Stupid me not reading the small print, so we'd spent the best part of £500 on my boy, which if he was still alive would be ok but he's not.

I quickly cancelled the insurance for our other cat to be repeated told that if anything happened they wouldn't pay out, erm that's why I'm cancelling it because you didn't pay out anyway....

Hopefully you won't have to go down the above route, we're now putting away £10 a month for the other moggie, just in case.

floweryblue · 22/12/2011 20:29

I've always had a 'cat savings' account and put £20 per month into it. Having built up the funds in their early years, I maintain it at about £500 and just withdraw the extra money that builds up if I need it for something else. Two of my cats have had illnesses resulting in them having to be PTS, one 5 years ago, the other this September. Neither was PTS because of lack of funds for tests and treatments they needed.

chickydoo · 22/12/2011 20:40

My cat (age 10 ) broke her leg this year, otherwise in fantastic health. She was in pain, took her to the vet who said he could fix it, and she would be 100% back to normal afterwards. Xray and sedation for xray and 1st consultation £193.00 opperation to pin leg, and then a cat cast £403
My cat managed to chew her cast off, new cast £80. Xray consultation and sedation after 3 weeks (wish I could have been sedated at this point) £193
Then final consultation £50.
Also antibiotic jab (as bone became infected) did look a bit pink £48
and pain killer in a syringe thing £25
Total bill £992!!! Thank God I had pet insurance! My cat is now 100% fine,although another of her 9 lives gone.

troisgarcons · 22/12/2011 20:46

I took out a slightly larger policy on the grounds it covered my cat for life (rather than the renewable year-on-year ones) - primarily because if you have the latter, pre-existing conditions wont be covered; so on the therory she may get someting treatable but potentially life threatening such as diabetes, it gave me peace of mind. Or indeed if she broke a limb and it needed an operation plus additional aftercare. Thats £17 per month.

Come to think of it - I only pay £12 per child funeral plans. I shall ponder my priorities now!

pointydog · 22/12/2011 20:46

I'd risk it and save myself £36 every month.

GirlWithALlamaTattoo · 22/12/2011 20:52

One of my work colleagues reached the end of her tether when she was paying out £100 per month to insure her collection of cats and dogs. She started paying the same amount into a savings account, kept all the animals going to a ripe old age, and she and her husband had two foreign holidays including a cruise on the money left.

dementedma · 22/12/2011 21:17

we paid out every month for our cat who was never bloody ill once, so we cancelled it because we couldn't afford it during the recession. That's when the bloody cat got sick and eventually died.£700 bills for treatment!
Mind you we spent £20 a month for 14 years for nothing so the jury is out.
for the first time in years we don't have a pet and won't be getting one because of the cost.

marriedandwreathedinholly · 22/12/2011 22:15

Cat one - three years old - had 1/2 his tail amputated due to injury (975.00)
followed by treatment for potential poisoning when we nearly lost him (2,200). Insurance £26.00 pcm.

Cat two - three years old. Nothing. £26.00 pcm.

Cat three - inherited from neighbours insurance transferred £26.00 pcm. nothing - he's 4.

The jury's out I think. On the basis of the above if you were really good and cancelled the insurance and invested £78pcm a month then probably it would be OK but high risk.

The DC - £85.00 for both - so far one smashed leg - £5,750 in total for dd and about £2,000 on two sets of grommets and £2,750 on ear surgery for DS.

Both treatments for the DC would have been provided on the NHS (the grommets and diagnosis woudl have taken longer and been more tedious though and dd wouldn't have had her full cast cut down after 4-1/2 weeks for comfort and would have had to wait for physio. I wouldn't have had lovely comfy bed in a private room with fresh coffee and sarnies on tap.

FabbyChic · 22/12/2011 22:18

Try Tesco.

I pay 5.36 for my dog insurance a month.

Bearcat · 22/12/2011 23:05

When my old cat got to about 13 I gave up on the insurance as it seemed ridiculously high. He lived on to 17 with the sort of vets bills that were just under what the excess would have been anyway.
Cat 2 is 8.5 now and has always been insured and has a bit of inflammatory bowel disease now, but again each visit is less than £50 so we never claim and never have claimed previously on his insurance.
There will come a day I'm sure when again I will stop paying it.
A former colleague whose dog died a few years ago once said she wished she had just saved the premiums into a savings account for her dog, and I'm sure that would probably be true in most peoples cases re pet insurance.

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