Really struggling with £90 a month pet insurance premiums

[BuckyBarnesArm]

I insure 2 cats with Petplan and a dog with Asda insurance. I'm struggling with £90 a month but also aware of how huge vet bills can be. They all have lifetime cover but I'm considering changing that to make it cheaper or even just stopping the insurance altogether. Any advice please?

Have you done a price comparison to see if you can get it cheaper? I went with Bought by Many for my cats as it was cheaper than petplan

Blimey, my 11 year old cats are £4.92 per cat with animal friends and our 4 year old dog is £24 with Petplan. Ours are moggies and a crossbreed though.

Definitely don’t give up your lifetime cover - the annual policies mean that you’re completely screwed after the first year for ongoing conditions. Do your pets have any pre-existing conditions? If not, you could shop around elsewhere.

If neither have any ongoing conditions, shop around and cancel. Also depends on the age of the animals. My current two cats are 4 and I pay under £10 a month for both of them. I don’t do lifetime cover, just the year’s cover from onset up to £6000 per condition. I figure that nearly everything will be sorted within and year and if not, premiums would go up to cover it anyway. One of my cats does now have a life time condition, the insurance covered all the investigations etc and now she’s on medication for the rest of her life that I pay for (but this is still a lot less than the cost of lifetime insurance premiums that you’re paying for instance and this would be the case for most medication). With older animals, I have sometimes made the choice not to insure them at all as the premiums become so expensive that it is better it is better to self insure and put your £90 in a savings account each month and pay when the time comes. There are also choices to be made with older animals that you may make differently for younger ones, invasive and difficult treatment for them may well not be worth it for their quality of life and length of life left, which may be different for a younger animal.

Mine were hitting £50 for two cats and so I self insured from 2 years ago.

The oldest had had a very possible heart murmur pickup up at his injections in 2018. At the time he was terrified of vets and was shaking abs dribbling with fear so I wasn't convinced. In none of the 3 annual vaccinations since has it been mentioned but I know if I had switched insures it would be declined as pre existing.

Younger has now developed thyroid issues - cost about £400 so far for 3 sets of blood tests over last year but hopefully that will reduce now medication in place. I get meds online so much cheaper than vet. Insurance would not have paid out that much and I would have paid for it in premiums. Blood test for thyroid have now discovered very early signs of kidney issues. No need to do anything than change to a renal diet but again would probably now be excluded for anything on insurance or premiums hiked.

Shop around but unless you really have to don’t cancel
Our previously healthy 4 year old dog suffered a sudden very serious illness out of the blue a few months ago. We are insured and the claim so far has been £3000 with more to come.

I pay about £27 for 2 cats (age 4 now) for lifetime cover with a limit of £15k each with Bought By Many

As its lifetime cover i would keep it if you can, however....
I have accident and 3rd party on my dogs. Its really cheap, isnt affected by age, and if they got hit by a car or caused damage/injury i would be covered.
Most normal conditions im happy to pay for regular medications if i had too (thinking epilepsy, diabetes etc). Im not at all sentimental so anything like cancer etc would be managed by keeping them comfortable and then PTS quietly, gently, snuggled up with me. I dont agree that agressive treatments frequent ops etc ate in the best interest of an animal who does not understand why they feel so ill (chemo etc) its completely different to a human who understands the anticipated benefits of such treatment.

Thank you for all the feedback. It's moggies and a crossbreed I have (all rescued) not pedigrees, o think it's just the cost of cover! Cats are 7, dog is nearly 4. I tend to agree about aggressive, invasive treatments, that I wouldn't go down that route, especially since all 3 of them are absolutely PETRIFIED at the vets. I used to work in a vets and saw a lot of animals being put through treatments which made their quality of life very poor. I will shop around and try some comparison sites. A lot to think of about whether to go for lifetime cover or not. I do think we could probably afford ongoing meds if they were necessary but not major surgeries, for example due to an accident.

Given your pets are not that old and don't have existing conditions, shop around.

I wouldn't want to give up lifetime cover personally (had a cat with thyroid) but once they are old and have acquired conditions you are basically tied in to your insurer.

Yours are much younger so you are free to pick and choose. Plus you should be getting a multi-pet discount.

Petplan is probably the most expensive as it's well known. I've been v happy with Direct Line, Tesco is generally v popular on here.

OK I went with all three on Bought By Many, lifetime cover, saving almost £50 per month! Blimey! I should have done this sooner!

@BuckyBarnesArm Personally, I would save that £90 a month in a savings account and use it if needed - chances are you won’t need much of it!

My cats are 9,8 & 6 and lifetime premiums with John Lewis went up by 50% this year - from £20 ish to £30 ish, even with £100 excess.
Have decided to cancel policy and save £30 a month against any future treatment.
(In the last year one needed multiple teeth extractions, which weren’t covered and cost several hundred, and one had a nasty head abscess which cost about £150, so wasn’t worth claiming for £50 and probable increased premiums)
If they get any major injuries or develop a chronic condition I will put to sleep, because they hate going to the vet and I’m hopeless at dosing 😕

My old pedigree premiums (after not that much treatment ) went up to £1500 a year. Yup you read that right
I cancelled and save the money every month and even with thyroid problems and a few trips to vets she hasn't come close to that figure.
She's fifteen so unlikely to have evasive treatment at her age

[quote CosmicUnicorn]@BuckyBarnesArm Personally, I would save that £90 a month in a savings account and use it if needed - chances are you won’t need much of it![/quote]
I agree.

I came to this conclusion years ago with our pets and it has proved to be the best option.

Our cat is about £180 per year on a lifetime policy and I admit I do wince and mutter a bit every time we pay it. It’s a lot of money.

However, couple of years ago he had lots of stomach problems that required £1200 of scans and tests. We got about £1100 back from the insurance. That day I was VERY pleased we had cover.

I work for a huge insurance company and monthly premiums, pet, life, house, car…etc are always one of the first things people either stop or massively downgrade when money gets tight. I understand, because until you need to claim on it insurance feels like you’re paying for nothing.
But it’s when you are struggling that insurance is the most important really. One big house claim, car accident or massive vet bill and suddenly you can’t pay your bills that month. It’s a slippery slope.

Definitely shop around. My dog is a young crossbreed but had a benign lump removed a few weeks ago that came to £650.00 all in (including lab test). My 7 year old cat had bad bladder stones a few years back (when he was 7, much older now) and the whole treatment: scans, surgery, mes etc topped &2500. Insurance paid both times. It also pays for his special diet he is now on. Lifetime cover is worth it. As your pets get older it will get more expensive to try and insure them again (if you stop and try and start again later). We have bought by many and rate them highly. Use money supermarket etc.

Meds not mess! Although the poor guys was a mess. Is very healthy and happy now.

I always used petplan until I had to make a claim. Be aware that if your pet is over a certain age, they only pay out 50% of the claim. I'd been paying over £30 a month for years and a 24hr stay at the vets (resulting in my cat not making it) cost about £3k. They paid hardly any of it out. There were lots of things they wouldn't pay for such as the warning blankets to keep her temp up etc.

I now use animal friends which is £5.98 a month - it went up by about 50p in the second year. I had to make a claim in my first year due to my cat catching something nasty at the vets while having her boosters. They paid out with no issue. They were a little slow as it was during lockdown but all the staff I spoke with were very helpful (unlike petplan's dreadful staff).

I do hate that all insurers cut off cheaper insurance at around 7yrs despite a cat lifetime being so much longer than that. I have indoor cats only now and the argument for risk of car caused injuries doesn't stand.

[quote CosmicUnicorn]@BuckyBarnesArm Personally, I would save that £90 a month in a savings account and use it if needed - chances are you won’t need much of it![/quote]
I also have never insured my cats or dog and very very rare indeed any vet input. Always a fall back amount in hand

The other thing that I’ve noted is that costs seem to be so much more from vets when you are insured. One of the first questions is always ‘are you insured?’ With my 16 year old cat who had a tumour, they were quoting £1000s for investigations and when I told them I’d stopped the insurance because the premiums were so high (they still had on their record that I was insured), the costs became a fraction of that. The cynic in me would suggest that vets charge a higher amount if they know the insurance company is paying but are able to be far more reasonable otherwise.

I managed to save some money and put it away, rather than paying out for insurance.
I’d never had to claim, she’d only ever been spayed so I took a chance and knew that when the money ran out, that was it.

I wouldn't feel comfortable just saving the money. It would be too tempting to raid the supply when I need money for something else. That's just me though and I understand the saving option works for some people. I'm happy with the switch I made.

Ours is £90 a month just for our one, 11 year old dog. We keep debating what to do with it.

Another recommendation for Bought by Many