to not insure my pets?

[Chevrotains]

Does anyone here just put away savings each month for their pets? I'm aware there is definitely a risk to this as well, but just tired of the amount going up each renewal.

My pet insurance went up from £600-800per year at this renewal.
no claims just age now he’s over 5. I expect it will be close to 1k a year next year. I am planning to put away the premium into savings instead and make sure I have access to a good rated credit card while I save up.

I stopped insuring my older dog at age 8 when the company we were with wanted £250 per month for £7000 cover. He had had a couple of issues, including a small tumour removed in the previous year , and that massively pushed it up. 5 years on and he’s only just costing money now, with drugs for arthritis . I have still saved money overall, on him. ( we do have 3rd party liability)
That said, I do insure my younger dog with Petplan, which is a more sensible £35 per month, as I would not want to risk having to shell out for both at the same time.
Both labs who are accident prone, eat anything , walking nightmares for vets bills.

There are lots of treatments covered by insurance that are not that extreme but still very costly. When our lab was only 3 (6 years ago) he had £5k of treatment/surgery which permanently resolved his issue. Vet bills have rocketed so it would be much more now.

Unless you have the finances available to pay, no insurance could also mean PTS an otherwise healthy and much loved dog.

All in we paid about £8k for insurance during our dogs 10 years of life. We claimed in excess of £12k.

I never had until my company started offering it at a discount as a benefit.

That’s interesting about the liability aspect, in the US it’s usually covered under your homeowners insurance. Though when we got our dog I opted for an additional umbrella policy for her and I thought we were underinsured on on our auto policies (we had the maximum liability but $1M + settlements are becoming more common for auto deaths). That’s why some homeowners insurance companies restrict breeds. So you do have to be a little careful choosing an insurer. Mine doesn’t, just asks if your dog has been trained for security. I could honestly answer at 8 weeks she wasn’t quite trained in her name yet.

Honestly I’m really not all that fussed about pet insurance and even with the discount chose catastrophic coverage.

I'd be inclined to have savings aside for the cats and keep the dog insurance as you are more likely to need the third party element for them. But I have been contemplating going savings route for my older dog as her insurance is high now.

Just accept they will have to be pst if they require expensive treatment.

4 dogs and 8 horses and never had insurance and very glad of it. Yes we have had some hefty vets bills over the years but nothing compared to what the premiums would have totalled. I have a friend who is an actuary and his advice is that animal insurance does not make financial sense in the majority of cases.

Obviously we have third party cover.

Mine are all insured because I know, from experience, that even very minor issues can quickly escalate into a massive bill.

I don't have thousands of pounds set aside and while I could use a credit card, I'd then have to spend months/years paying it off. I'd rather pay the insurance which is a) cheaper and b) doesn't result in any debt.

I dont, all my animals (luckily) have lived long healthy lives cats /dogs to 14/17 years and died of "old age" suddenly.

I grew up on a farm,if there ever was something seriously wrong with the animal which would need lifetime treatment the animal got put down. If I was going to pay for insurance it would be paying extra on life and health insurances for family members.

In the last 5 years, we have had 3 dogs, all under 4 who have been very poorly. Vet bills combined were almost £25k. They were all insured for £7.5k, we had to pay £5k extra for one of our dogs.

Personally I would pay the insurance.

Thank god I didn’t. 6k at 11wk, illness and now he’s got glaucoma, that costs a lot every month with drops, future surgery. I really wouldn’t do it for the sake of £20 a month premium

I'd insure cats and dogs, unless they were old and I was prepared to just pts if things started seriously going wrong (I personally don't believe in trying to keep elderly animals going with lots of medical intervention but that's a minority view these days).

I don't insure my tortoises because little goes wrong with them and there are relatively few treatments available even if they do, but we do have plenty of savings in case one became egg bound or caught a respiratory infection so we could meet a vet's bill.

We have insured out dog but not our cats. Our cats are now elderly and we have a nice lump sum saved, but tbh I don't think I'd use it at this stage in their lives anyway. We've always had savings though, so even before we'd saved enough in the notional "cat savings account", we'd have been able to afford a few £k of treatment, before dipping into our general emergency fund. If I didn't have the cash to hand to pay reasonable vets bills, I'd probably insure them. We have our dog insured as we'd need public livable insured anyway, and a dog is much more likely to need expensive treatment.

We've never had insurance on our cats. Initially we couldn't afford it (inherited cats, we didn't buy them). Then when we could we realised we hadn't needed vet treatment for our cats in the last decade, we didn't know anyone who had unless they were pedigree, so we haven't bothered.

So far so good. We'd need to take both to the vets at least annually to make it worthwhile, and we wouldn't torture cats with prolonged medical procedures anyway.

Personally I wouldn't want to take the gamble. I pay £35 for my dog, but claim £150 every month due to allergies so it's been absolutely worth it for me. He's only five and also claimed for a few minor injuries.

After having a cat with diabetes and immunodeficiency I’ll never be without insurance. We wouldn’t have been able to afford her treatment had we not had it. It came to thousands. And with my dog I worry he’d need a hip replacement or something.

My mil was paying £89 a month for her dog to get to 5 and them to tell her she wasn't covered for the heart treatment that this type of dog is prone to get from age 5! I dont think she read the small print but think it was disgusting they could treat someone like this. She would have been better saving the month each month.

YANBU as long as you have the savings already available or an alternative plan (eg credit card with good limit) for bills from day one. If affording vet care would require you to save up first YABU to consider cancelling.

I don't but I do have a very healthy savings account and daughter is a vet nurse so we get a good discount at her practice! We have ponies and have third party insurance through the BHS but that is it. Pet insurance is a rip off - there is so much they will not insure for and most of them won't insure for ongoing issues past the first year. We budget for annual bills such as physio, dental and vaccinations and any emergencies we pay for ourselves. Luckily, our entire menagerie has been very healthy and only once have we faced a large bill of £3000. We have saved thousands by not paying out on insurance premiums every month. Shit goes wrong, we have the money to pay. Shit doesn't go wrong, I get to keep the money in my account.

All of our pets are unsure except for one dog and one cat both because they are not recognised as being crossbreeds and the greedy insurers will only insure them as the more 'expensive' of the breed they are crossed with.

We put away money each month for both of them.

We have never insured but have enough money to pay if necc .

We had our previous cats for 15 and 18 years and were much better off in their lifetime not insuring so have carried that on.

I would prob insure a dog for 3 rd party issues if I had one though

I don't insure my cats but do have enough in savings for them that if they needed any care I could pay it. I've saved thousands over the years by not insuring and just putting money into a separate cat account and now finally it is also getting more Interest paid.

I have two German Shepherds their lifetime policies are £17 each pcm.

and I have a 13 year old moggie who is £11 a month.

i had to claim £1400 last year as one of the dogs needed an emergency hysterectomy.

I also made a claim with a previous cat who needed treatment which was around £1500.

I've insured all of my animals and I've absolutely had my moneys worth with all claims paid out. My horse had colic and my insurance company paid £6000 for surgery. My cats also had illnesses that the insurance paid for, again in the thousands. I wouldn't be without pet/equine insurance.

I looked years ago for an indoors cat policy as my cats at the time were all indoor cats, thinking if you take out the risk (and costs) of them being run over or injury from fighting with another cat, a policy may well be more reasonable - of course
no policy exists

I now have a rescue cat and have insured her as I have no health history for her, £22 a month.