Pet insurance for new puppy

[Popsicle30]

We will be collecting our new Yorkshire Terrier puppy at the weekend and I want to get pet insurance in place.

I've heard good things about Pet Plan and would be interested to know if this is the case for others or if you can recommend other insurers.

I'm erring towards lifetime cover instead of short term illness cover and was thinking of setting it at £7,000 for vet fees. I wondered what people's thoughts are on this? That is coming in at around £26.50 per month.

First time having a dog so new to pet insurance for dogs!

I am also hopefully getting a new pup soon. My brothers girlfriend is a vet and she recommended Pet Plan, Agria and another one that escapes me.. possibly Many Pets?

thank you @AmpleLilacQuail . Agria is another one I've looked at and is comparable on price. Good to hear you've got the ear of a vet on this. What breed of pup are you getting/looking at?

I had pet plan for thirteen years for my dog who has now passed and I can say hands down they were brilliant.
i had lifetime cover and she had a lifetime problem with terrible allergies and they never refused a payment for her monthly injections and tablets.
they paid out many things over the years too
I’d highly recommended you choose them as even my vet said they were the best and did direct payments from them

Thank you @lovemycbf. This sounds positive for Pet Plan

It definitely is
if I ever get another pet I wouldn’t hesitate to go with pet plan

To be honest I have never found PetPlan all that good - but I did find them very expensive. I am with Agria.

That said, £7k is not very much. Both Oncology and Orthopaedics can top out at £7k a year; soft tissue surgery above that. My 9 year old needed substantial surgery this year - fortunately nothing terminal but major surgery - and that totalled at around £6k all found. And that was with a very reasonably priced vets - out of interest, even though I had no intention of going anywhere else, I got two quotes elsewhere and they were much higher. I have £15k of cover pa, and that is based on my thinking that if it is costing more than that a year then I have to consider quality of life issues for him. But two biggish issues in a single year could wipe out £7k of costs and more.

@Popsicle30 do also bare in mind once you have got your insurance don’t change as anything at all you’ve ever seen vet for will be classed as a pre existing condition and won’t be covered by any other insurance company as it will be on the notes

thank you @SirHumphreyRocks and @lovemycbf both useful bits of information and things to consider/be aware of.

If you can afford higher lifetime cover, I would go with that. My Goldie had cancer and then spinal issues and the tests alone were c. £3500, chemo was £500 a month (and that was several years ago), so £7000 doesn't seem that high to me. I was with Tesco for 10 years and they had been very fair, given the load we put on them, but this year my premium went from £230+ a month to £450 a month and they wouldn't budge. I think they have been bought by VCs so that has put a stop to their empathetic staff! (Yes, I do know that she'd get stupidly expensive to insure as she got older before I get jumped on)

So, I've moved to ManyPets knowing that many existing issues won't be covered, but I have some cover if she does something daft.

Pet plan are always recommended on here - and my fab vet rates them too, so if we get another dog, I'd probably go with them.

We have a vet in the family, she said her practice only recommends Pet Plan, so we're with them for our pup.

I've been with PetPlan for five years with three dogs. I have claimed multiple times and they have paid out quickly every time. I have gone over the £7k limit once with one of my dogs when they needed knee surgery.

I also like that my vets will deal direct with PetPlan. So I don't have to pay and claim it back.

Many thanks everyone for your replies. Really helpful and good to know about positive experiences.

I’m going to look at upping the annual vets fees.

PetPlan were great for us too. No extended issues but Ddog became ill with cancer and had several months of treatment including a few hospital stays, regular blood work, meds, scans etc. It was all very straight forward and not having to deal with the admin of reclaiming because the vets dealt with them directly was a huge help at a really distressing time. We once had to call up to clarify something and the staff were very helpful and respectful.

I’d also agree with higher cover if you can, because £7k can be swallowed up rapidly if there’s an issue involving anything like surgery. Unless you’re in a position to be able to cover the extra if you go over, which some people prefer to do on a “if and when” basis rather than definitely paying the higher premiums, but it can be a very expensive risk to take!