Is pet insurance for cats really worth it?

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

We have 2 cats (approx. 4 yrs old) and are wondering whether or not to cancel our pet insurance as it cost approx. £800 last year and they're about to put their prices up .

Taking everything in to account - is it worth it to insure them or better to deal with any massive costs using a credit card or savings if and when they occur?

We live in London but they aren't allowed out of the front of the house and out on to the road, just out of the back in to gardens.

have youi thoguht about changing insurance companies as that seems steep. i would insure cats (though mine arent!!!) as if they did get out the damage caused by being hit by a car is more than what you have paid in a year for both cats. older cats are prone to kidney disease, diabetes and thyroid problems which is long tern and requires medication for the rest of their lives. so it is best to keep them insured imo.

just re read my post! what i mean is if your cats got out and got hit by a car it could cost up to and over a grand to repair shatterd pelvis for example.

Yes it is.

One of my cats got ran over 2yrs ago. He was 8 at the time. It cost us £870 to put him back together. We were not insured. Thankfully we had just moved house (we had been in the house for less than 2 weeks) and so we had the money available from the equity in our old house.

My cats are 10 months old and 10.5 years old respectively, both are now insured by Direct Line. It costs me £14 per month to insure the pair of them. I live outisde of London but I am in a city centre area on a very busy main road.

£800 for the insurance alone seems shockingly high, even factoring in adjustments for London premiums ! Are they a rare or expensive breed ?

Yes it is.

One of my cats got ran over 2yrs ago. He was 8 at the time. It cost us £870 to put him back together. We were not insured. Thankfully we had just moved house (we had been in the house for less than 2 weeks) and so we had the money available from the equity in our old house.

My cats are 10 months old and 10.5 years old respectively, both are now insured by Direct Line. It costs me £14 per month to insure the pair of them. I live outisde of London but I am in a city centre area on a very busy main road.

£800 for the insurance alone seems shockingly high, even factoring in adjustments for London premiums ! Are they a rare or expensive breed ?

Our vet reckoned insurance for the first two years (that's when most cats have accidents, while they're still mischievousand) and/or if you live on a main road was a good idea . After that, he said you'd do just as well putting away the equivalent monthly premium into a savings account, to fall back on, should the worst happen.

We've had cats for over 30yrs (not the same ones!!) and tbh, have never had an incident or illness where insurance would have paid up.

how much? madnesss. Our cat is insured fo around £8 a month. she's 6. I'm glad we have insurance as a year ago she got run over(we think) and it was a saturday evening, i took her to the out of hours vet, £80 just for turning up, she ended up with well over £1,000 in treatment which we could never have afforded or justified(I had just had ds at the time) so she would not be here but because of the insurance she is still here

I would look around for insurance if I were you as that seems a lot. It would depend on the breed though?

Definitely. I insured my cats after one of them developed a suspicious lump just before Christmas - it turned out to be nothing more than a bad abscess, but the investigations needed to find this out, together with the stitches, antibiotics and pain relief that went with, ended up costing me about £500. Fuck knows what we'd have done if it had been cancer or similar

£800?!!!! I pay about £60 a year and it was defintiely worth it as she has racked up about £1500 in vets' bills through various things.

My reason for insuring is that I would never want to be in a situation where I had to choose between paying a huge bill that we couldn't afford and having them put down

Yes worth it - very sad to have lost my lovely cat a few weeks ago - in vets for less than 24 hours - large 4 figure bill and sadly not able to save him - he was a rescue cat and we never insured him would definitely do so for any animal in the future. But do shop around

My cat is only 3 and yet already we have claimed nearly £700 from our insurance company for just two incidents. The first one was when our cat developed a limp and the second time when our cat seemed very ill, didn't want anyone to touch her (would hiss if we came too close), off her food and sleepy. Both visits necessitated x-rays, anti-biotics and a two night stay for the second incident. We pay £7 per month (she is a bog-standard moggy) and I think it is worth every penny, especially if she develops anything when she is older.

Yes - if i explain more I risk outing myself - but yes. Ours is only around £12 a month though

yes!! I took out pet insurance one dec, the following june one of my cat was shot and it shattered his leg, in total it would have cost me £1800 if I had no insurance. Last year he delopved a limp in the same leg and the vet had to do xrays etc and that would have been another £300

Hi yes that does seem really steep for cat insurance. have a look and compare companys, Halifax cover from £3.75 a month!! [http://www.pet-insurance4you.co.uk]

sorry that link was www.pet-insurance4you.co.uk

Thank you everyone and thanks for the link - I have no idea why ours is so much - we're with petplan and it's £30 something per month for each cat.

That is madness!

I'm with PetPlan and live in London and we pay £20.57 per month (£240) for two cats. Do they think you have a pride of lions living at your house maybe? Or a rate white Siberian tiger?

I would say yes. My cat is 13 and I paid insurance for 11 years before I could claim anything. The first thing was a £1500 scan and she is now on medication for life with blood tests every six months, and we can claim that back.

Message withdrawn

Our cats are 5, we've only paid out for jabs (which aren't covered), one poo sample (not pleasant) and last week one got into a fight with the stoopid cat from next door and that cost us 50 quid. So no in my opinion not worth it.

But then I'm mean and if one required a grands worth of treatment it would be curtains.

Can you afford to be in the position with a seriously sick or injured pet to be offered treatment with a good sucess chance to it but that is very expensive? If you could deal with it and make the choices you would make if it is insured then you can afford not to have cover. If however you would be faced with the situation that you would have to put the pet to sleep because finances are not going to allow you to go ahead then you can not affort to be without some sort of insurance.
Beware if your pets have had any illness or injury in the past if you plan to chance insurer for a cheaper policy though as anything like that is going to be excluded in the future with another insurer so your cover may not then be as wide as you imagine. If you stay where you are then that is unlikely to be an issue. Take a look at the level of cover you have. Petplan do several levels and you may be better to reduce the cover level a bit to reduce the premiums.

I have pet insurance with Morethan. It's about £8 per month, with £50 excess. It has an exclusion - it won't pay out if the animal dies from a disease which it could have been vaccinated.
I also have Pet Health Plan with AXA. It costs £11 per month, and covers checkups, vaccinations, flea treatments, and discounts for other visits to the vet that pet insurance doesn't cover, (under £50.)
Last year, I had no insurance, my cat nearly died and I had to borrow £300 to pay the vets bill. Now I know I'm fully covered.