To ask you about your dog’s insurance?

[MiniHolde]

I have a pure bred re-homed dog.

insurance is due for renewal. My current insurer wanted to double the monthly costs so looking for new one.

Last year I couldn’t get any money back through insurance.
My dog had 2 minor situations (simple skin infection - cleared up super quick and a little cut paw) I paid about £120 for this in total but my excess was £85/condition so couldn’t get any money back.

Previously I paid £38/month and was covered up to £8k

I have had a Quick Look and seems like I could get a cheaper insurance starting from like £16 or so…

I was thinking that perhaps if I went with a cheaper insurance and put aside £25.00 in a savings account it might make more sense?

Any advice?

What happens to the money at the vet when you no longer have your pet? I've not heard of this

We have two Labradors, aged 3 and 4/5 (rescue so unsure her exact dob). Our insurance has just gone up to £125 a month for the two, although so far we have not claimed thank goodness. We are with Many Pets and have 15k lifetime cover for both. I had thought about switching to petplan as they have a better reputation but totally forgot before the renewal...personally I wouldn't be without insurance. So many horror stories about huge bills for urgent treatment. Even if we put the money away each month we still wouldn't be able to afford thousands on treatment for a long time while the savings built up. I am such a worrier when it comes to my dogs and the peace of mind for me is worth every penny.

We don't ever plan to be without dogs. However, every now and then - usually when the balance goes over £1k - we'll tell them to take half of it and pay the bill of somebody who's struggling (most vet practices have a hardship fund, although it's not well-publicised for obvious reasons).

So...if the time ever comes for us to decide we can't have any more dogs, we'd likely just tell them to take the whole remaining balance and do that.

It should be noted that we don't do that entirely out of altruism or just flexing our balance - once, a long time ago, we were deep underwater with vet bills (because we'd stupidly cancelled our insurance), and we had three dogs requiring significant treatment, all for different and unconnected reasons. Somebody we'd never met decided to help us just because it was a good thing to do, and so we feel we have a responsibility to do the same now that we're in a position to do so.

That's really good

@ntmdino 😇 That’s a lovely thing to do.

I’m going to go ahead with the insurance again but with a higher excess. Previously it was £95 now I think I will go up to £190. But I’m also putting some money aside every month which will cover little things - like when she cut her paw it only cost me £50-60 so I can cover that without any issues ☺️

...aaand in an example of perfect timing, it looks like our Akita's going to need surgery for a non-cancerous lump in her mouth. Roughly £4k.

Yay for insurance, eh?

Excess is £240 which is fine. I could afford that no problem. No idea what you mean by copayment.

I don't have pet insurance. I did for our first dog who happily lived a full span for her breed in good health and was then refused any care after she needed dental treatment. PTS at 13 when she aged rapidly and became doubly incontinent. Dog second was never insured at all and cost a total £800 after acute onset leukaemia. Also PTS. Dog 3 is now 10 and her nickname is vet bill. Congenital elbow problems before she was 9 months old, £4k, obviously spayed soon after. Rehab costs. Ever since she has needed preventive veterinary attention and daily medication/supplements and diet to cushion the onset of arthritis, plus she's just needed a lump on an eyelid removing -- twice in three months! If anything serious compromised her enjoyment of life, I would PTS but as long as she's not chronically ill, I won't. I just save the insurance premiums up mentally. It does help that our vet is a sole practitioner married to a farmer and is quite forthright about what can be done and what is money down the drain. For which I am exceedingly grateful.

Never had dogs insured before, then my springer ended up munching through £18k in his lifetime. Now we have our two insured to the hilt. They are working dogs and I wouldn't risk it. It's £40 a month for the 2 year old span and £70 for the 9 year old lab, both on many pets best policy.

Copayment on my policy is 20% after age 8. Basically you pay 20% of claim. So when we claimed £2000, £99 was excess and £400 was our 20% cp and insurance paid £1501.

@ntmdino if it’s not cancerous , can’t it be left alone?

Copayment is how much you pay in the case of a claim. For an older pet it's usual to have a higher excess and then a % of the bill

No, because it's painful and if it gets bigger (which it will) it'll start to prevent her from eating and drinking.

It's a US invention, I think - it's like the excess, but it scales with the value of the claim. So the excess will be a fixed amount, and the copay will be a percentage of the total claim (including the excess).

We've had this discussion before. I think unless you take out super duper, mega expensive insurance you'll struggle to claim all but the most expensive treatments. My dog is over 6 and I've found out that they reduce the payout on the vet bills by 20% because of this. Excess is more so half the time it's not even worth claiming.

Our ddog had lymphoma and died recently at 6 years old, the entire vet bill was about £1600 in total, I managed to claim back about £800. But if I'd saved all the premiums I'd have been better off.

The only thing you I'd get via insurance which is lien to keep is third party insurance but I'm sure you could get that for peanuts.

Dogs Trust membership includes third party insurance. As I'm over 65, I pay the seniors rate which IIRC is £15 per annum.

Thanks. Mine doesn’t mention copayments anywhere and I’ve scoured it so I’m assuming there isn’t any

That does not actually cover your dog for vet care though... just damage to other people's dogs/property.
Well worth having anyway.

I've swapped to Napo, £32 for £16k £99 excess
3 yo pedigree.

Fortunately no PE conditions.

My friend’s dog was involved in a freak accident
£12,000

They were under insured.

They have generous contacts who helped.

If you don’t have that-( I don’t) You’d probably lose the dog.

Insurance is horrendously expensive even for a young healthy dog.

I would ensure it’s min of 8k per year, as vet bills are huge. My dog has had a lot of problem and now has glaucoma and I’ve claimed a lot of money so it’s gone up a lot but I’ve got no choice but to pay it. Be careful changing but it should be ok if not a long term condition. I changed mine a few years in as the conditions he was treated for as a puppy were very vague so we were ok changing.

That’s amazing!!!!
never heard of Napo
Im with many pets and it’s twice that (£16k ) no pe conditions and just 3 yrs old

Cheap insurance policies tend to mean the premium will rocket up on renewal, the cheap offer is to draw you in.

Or they nit pit and quibble everything and have endless smallprint that equates to 'we're not paying for 90% of this hahaha'.

I use Petplan, not cheap by any means but they pay up promptly, most vets take direct payments, and as far as insurance companies go, they're pretty fair.

Lifetime policy, so unless we stop paying, ongoing conditions are covered (up to the annual amount each year) for life.

If you do NOT have ongoing conditions/pre-existing conditions (and it sounds as if you do not) and/or are not on a life time policy, then it might well be worth changing.

But i would run a mile from the super cheap policies.

I was with Many Pets, tried to cancel last year (decent quote with Napo then too) and they changed this and that reduced premium but it's a co-payment thing.

Haven't heard great things about MP (there's a thread on here about them poss going under and they've been on watchdog too) so decided to switch after hearing good things.
I hope I never have to find out if they're good or not 😂