To think pet insurance is pointless!

[SputnikBear]

My renewal quote for a 5yo dog is £600. So if he gets sick I’ll have paid £600, plus £100 excess, plus 20% of any vet bills. Which basically means for any claim under £1k I’m no better off for having insurance!

And there’s a limit of how much you can claim for each condition before it’s classed as a pre-existing condition and you can’t claim any more. Think it’s £2k. So you pay insurance for years and if your dog gets sick they only cover a certain amount! Plus the premium will go up and up if your dog actually has a long term condition.

AIBU to not insure my dog and just put the £600 in a savings account in case he needs it?

[BiscuitDrama]

Have you tried getting quote from another insurer? That does seem a lot.

[charlestonchaplin]

Self-insure?

[UpstartCrow]

Yanbu, I used to put the monthly insurance premium into a savings account, and had a credit card for back up.

[GhoulMythicalMoooaning]

That does sound high

[redsummershoes]

and what if your dog runs into the road and causes a pile up?
can you pay for the car repairs and expenses of the driver and passenger(s)?

[UpstartCrow]

Third party insurance is not the same as pet health insurance.

[tiredgirly]

you would only be expected to pay that if you were held to be negligent in some way.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

I was going to cancel my cat's insurance as we'd paid in for years but hadn't claimed. Luckily I didn't as he fractured his jaw and has had various other issues since then and the insurance has paid out more than we've paid in.

Thankfully it's a lifetime cover policy so it will cover ongoing illnesses and injuries.

[Aprilislonggone]

Someone once told me to just save 50ps in a jar.
Not wanting to tempt fate but ddog is 9 and seen a vet once apart from jabs..
She isn't insured.

[Solenti]

As someone who has vets bills top £8000 (horse) and £3500 (dog) then I wouldn't be without it. The horse for me is particularly important insurance wise as if there is a road accident or she knocks over a member of the public the claim amounts could be horrific. Not sure a couple of credit cards would cut it!

[frenchfancy]

YANBU. We Don't have pet insurance as it isn't really a thing here. My 12 yr old dog has cost us about 400€ in 12 years of vets bills (not counting vacinations which I'm guessing aren't covered) Most of that has been on a treatment for old age incontinence - which probably also wouldn't be covered.

[TheViceOfReason]

And there’s a limit of how much you can claim for each condition before it’s classed as a pre-existing condition and you can’t claim any more. Think it’s £2k.

This doesn't sound right - are you sure you've interpreted it correctly? Whilst policies have a limit, reaching £x doesn't make it a pre-existing condition. It is usual that if you have claimed for a condition in one insurance year, you cannot claim in another - it becomes an exclusion - but this is different to the limit per claim. If your claim limit per condition is £2k then this is a pretty crap policy!

What if your dog is diagnosed with chronic condition / cancer / requires specialist surgery / rehab? Do you have £5k to spare / can you afford to put it on a credit card/loan?

[Brazenhussy0]

Yanbu. I don’t bother with pet insurance and keep a stack of savings aside should anything ever go wrong. DP has a credit card as a back up for the savings.

[BiteyShark]

Not all insurance covers are the same hence it's important to check all the T&cs carefully.

I have 4K per year on a life cover and wish I had picked a larger amount. However, in the first two years I have claimed back around £4500 in costs and have paid less than £800 in premiums so definitely worthwhile for me and will be a few more years (assuming no more claims) before I am in deficit.

[Brazenhussy0]

Though I will say, we have indoor cats... If we had a horse I might feel a bit differently about insurance!

[BiteyShark]

I also know someone who had a bill of way over £10k one year which I think a lot of people would struggle with, even putting it on a credit card.

[MatildaTheCat]

I gave up last year with dog aged 9. Even with exclusions for any very small things we’d claimed for (about three in total) it was £1200 pa.

I looked into other policies but they were hopelessly restrictive. So we are uninsured with fingers crossed.

Cat is 18 and never insured and hasn’t seen a vet in about 15 years.

[UpstartCrow]

Lets compare like with like; third part and health insurance for a horse is obviously going to cost more than for a dog or cat, because keeping horses is an extremely expensive venture all round

[crispysausagerolls]

We went for kennel club insurance with our dog, approx 40£ a month. Wisest decision we ever made as he’s only 2 but was desperately unwell a few times and ended up with upwards of 6k worth of tests and scans and treatment!

Depends on whether or not you have a sickly pet!

[Solenti]

What insurance company do you use? Sounds a terrible deal! My horse only costs £37 a month and thats a LOT of cover...the dogs are both fully insured for £15 each...

[user450788]

I thought that, and then my 6 month old puppy got pneumonia (cost, £1500), when he was 2 and 3 he had cancer ops costing £2k and then £3k plus incidental appointments around and as a very senior dog he’s had another op costing just shy of £4K.

Pet insurance can be a rip off, it needs careful research but you’ll be lucky if you get through pet ownership without one or two very expensive bills.

[Dremelza]

Re. Third Party Liability, check with your home insurance provider as many of them cover pets 3rd party! If not, if you join the Dogs Trust as a member that provides you with 3rd party liability cover for all your dogs. We don't bother with pet insurance either for the reasons you have stated. We have a separate savings account and credit card and many of our dog owning friends do the same.

[SerendipityFelix]

Your current policy sounds uneconomical - but that doesn’t mean that all pet insurance is pointless. Shop around for a better policy.

[Cassimin]

That sounds high, have you shopped around?
I have always had insurance for dogs and cats.
Have had cats vets bills costing £1000s so have definitely benefited.
Dogs so far not so much.
Just worth mentioning though, if your dog is on long term prescribed medication and your insurance has a limit how much you can claim you can buy a prescription from your vet and buy medication cheaper on line.
We had a dog and insurance only covered £1000 of medication per condition. This would have only lasted a couple of months buying the vets tablets so we got them on line a lot cheaper.

[Honeyroar]

Red summer shoes I don't insure my dogs but I'm a Dogs Trust member, which gives all my dogs third party insurance.

Op I agree, insurance is a bit of a rip off and loaded in their favour. I stopped insuring my animals several years ago. I've had a few big things occur (including a horse operation, bone chip on another horse and a cruciate ligament go on a dog) and I'm JUST winning - despite all that I would've spent more on premiums. I have two sensible and inexpensive vets (rare!). I like that I can talk to the vet and make decisions myself without having to ask insurers.

One word of warning- you never know what's around the corner. My horse's operation made a big dent to our emergency fund this year, and whereas I'd normally have built up the emergency pot afterwards, this year my husband has been seriously ill and off work and hasn't worked all summer, so our finances are lower and it does worry me a bit if anything big happens in the near future (horses too old to insure anyway now).