Boring Pet insurance advice

[PoppyIsApain]

Hi, as a gift from PIL's for christmas they have told me to choose a pet insurance company, set it up and they will pay for the first year, it is for a dog. Has anyone got any good recommendations for any company?

Would recommend M&S Platinum. It has really good limits and is "cover for life" so if your dog develops an illness it will not automatically be excluded from cover the following year the way normal policies do.

I claimed for my pup's hip dysplasia and the claim was paid direct to the vet in a matter of days. Just filled in a form and sent it off - no faffing around.

Pretty pricey for the Platinum cover but if I had paid for basic cover (for accidents/illness) he wouldnt have been covered for this condition at all. In the long run it will cost over £6000 to fix him so well worth it for us.

Depends on whether you want to take a moral stance as I would, but Petplan are proven to knowingly insure and advertise the services of puppy farmers. Theres a thread on it here and I subsequently made some enquiries with animal rights contacts who have been monitoring the situation - theres no doubt that they do this, I'm sad to say.

On a brighter note, M&S are very good and hey, what a thoughtful, helpful gift. I think I should drop hints for the same next Christmas!

Plus if you go through quidco you get £30 cashback....(im looking for my cat)

I've been with M&S for years, they seem to be very good. They paid for my dog's ear condition and they also back dated the claim because for years we were paying around £10 a visit for ear drops etc, the vet sent the bills off and they paid out.

When I first joined them I paid £1 extra per month for no excess, but they don't do that anymore.

Which ever one you go for just make sure it's whole of life cover. There's no point in paying for a really cheap policy that may not give you the cover you need.

I'm with More Than. My boxer has a heart murmer and they've paid out about £5000 so far and its always been really easy to claim.

Afaik m&s, petplan and morethan are the 3 best ones.

Always check you get cover for life, what the excess is and what % (if any) of the vets fees are payable by you

Excellent thank you all very much, ill have a good look at all of them

Have just come across this thread and want to add something. If you are getting insurance for a puppy ask what the premiums are now and what they would be when the dog is 10/15 or however long you think it may live. We had our dog insured with Tesco, and had a very good service from them ( though I know they are not generally well thought of ) He was about £8 pm when he was a puppy and £50 per month at age 15, which is very reasonable. I know other insurance companies charge so much for older dogs that they become unaffordable just at the time you need them most. Dog now 16 1/12 vet has advised we end insurance as there will be nothing more he can do for him that will cost more than the excess if he is ill again.

We have had a dreadful year which included our 2 dogs massively overdosing on Metacam (doggy Calpol for the uninitiated). Dog 1 was v expensive and came ready insured with PetPan. Dog 2 was a mutt and we insured her with Tesco. Both have paid up fine, but Tesco have been lovely to deal with, quicker in every respect and have agreed to pay for Dog 2's hydrotherapy . Have now switched Dog 1 to Tesco too and am saving £11 a month

Tesco are great for pet insurance. We insured both of our dogs and cat with them on the 'Extra' cover policy which is very reasonably priced. Over the last few months we have claimed over £2000 for one of our dogs who was receiving treatment for heart failure. They are always friendly and helpful particularly so when she passed on, which was great as the last thing we needed was hassle when making claims. They even paid out for a weekend away that we had to cancel when our dog first became unwell, without any fuss at all.

I would definitely recommend Tesco insurance.

Our cat is insured with Tesco and while it isn't the cheapest we stayed with them once she was over 8 as the premiums can go up quite rapidly from that age.

I have been looking at tesco tbh, good reviews

I would also like to add that all pet owners should have pet insurance. The monthly cost is nothing in comparison to what vets bills can be. Our dog was just over a year old when she was diagnosed with heart problems and died a few months later. I had never thought something like that would happen at her age. It was a huge relief not to have to worry about the cost when considering the treatment available.
It would be awful to have to make a decision about your pets future because of the cost of medical treatment for them.

chalky you have made me nearly cry, sorry about your dog,i agree with you, my neighbour thinks iam mad wanting pet insurance but it is essential.

I was with m&s last year and the premium went up by a load for this year so moved over to Tesco.

Tesco have always served us well, the vet bills over the years would have run into thousands, and with our dog becoming ill and eventually needing to be put to sleep, it was one less thing to worry about. We were able to give her the treatment she needed without worrying about cost.

Direct Line have done us well. Agree about the cover. Make sure you get an unlimited cover with no time limit. We've just fallen foul of this - eek. Insured for 4k per condition and it's gone over this already.....