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If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

Insurance for a dog - advice please

22 replies

Mermaidmad · 12/02/2011 18:50

We are considering adopting a greyhound into our family and before we go ahead we are sensibly ensuring we are anticipating the costs involved.

Insurance is a bit of a confusing subject! What exactly should we be looking for in a good policy? Have been told to make sure we get a policy that covers an illness or injury for life as opposed to a one off. Have looked into petplan and the middle cover came back at £35 per month. That was way more than I expected or am I out of touch?! Done a tesco quote and that was about £10 a month. What is an average sort of amount we should be expecting to pay for a 2/3 year old female greyhound?

Which companies would you recommend/avoid? To be honest any advice or tips would be most welcome, thank you Smile

OP posts:
dickcheeseandthecrackers · 12/02/2011 18:54

AVOID E&L like the plague. They are charlatans who NEVER pay out!
We used to be with Pet Plan who were very good, but quite expensive.

DooinMeCleanin · 12/02/2011 18:56

I use PetPlan for The Devil Dog, they are expensive but they are only the company my vet will accept direct payments for and he has a skin condition that could prove to be expensive. I simply do not have £1000 for allergy tests, even if I can claim it back.

All other pets are insured with Healthy Pets, who I have never had any problems with. They are much cheaper, but with at my vet I have to pay upfront and claim the money back. ALthough Healthy Pets will pay the vet direct, it is at the vet's dicresion whether they will treat the pet and wait for the insurance.

My sister uses More Than for her Lurcher puppy and my parents just used to keep an empty credit card with a 5k limit, instead of paying out on insurance they might never use.

pawsnclaws · 12/02/2011 19:23

Our 5 year old male greyhound is insured with direct line for £30 pm but that's the top level of cover - the cheaper is £19.

He's lovely though and worth every penny! There are cheaper out there but I'd prefer to be with a trustworthy company that won't mess us about if we need to claim.

pawsnclaws · 12/02/2011 19:26

Ps we did a search on go compare to compare costs and cover before we went with direct line.

Did we mention that we lurve our greyhound??!!

fragglerocks · 12/02/2011 19:26

I use Animal Friends insurance who were the cheapest I found for quotes and got really good reviews. When we needed to claim for an operation for our pup they paid out within 2 weeks and were excellent. They also donate money to animal charities so bonus!

victoriah3 · 12/02/2011 19:30

One thing to bear in mind is that when your pet reacehs ten thay whack up the premiuk, ours nearly doubled despite never making a claim.

sb6699 · 12/02/2011 20:12

We have cover for life with an M&S Platinum policy.

The cover limits are similar to those offered by Petplan but £10 per month cheaper.

We have claimed and they paid the vet direct with no quibbles within days.

Original poster
Mermaidmad · 12/02/2011 21:20

Oooh pawsnclaws tell me more :-) Could talk greyhounds all day! Never owned a dog before but my heart has been lost to these dogs bigtime!
Thank you everyone for your help, thats really helpful :)

OP posts:
Original poster
Mermaidmad · 13/02/2011 09:40

Animal friends looks really good - thank you Smile

OP posts:
pawsnclaws · 13/02/2011 14:26

He's lovely, very calm and fantastic with our three dcs. Completely lazy though - spends most of the day relaxing but will allow himself to be dragged out for two short walks a day. Currently crushing dh on the sofa - he's a big dog but never seems to take up much room as he's so graceful.

I would say he's easily the easiest dog we've ever had - no barking, no doggy smell, no hair shedding, and was completely housetrained despite having lived in kennels his whole racing life.

Have you been on a greyhound walk? Lovely way to see them in action! See greyhoundwalks.org I think is the website.

Vallhala · 13/02/2011 16:35

PetPlan knowingly give insurance to puppy farmers, which is why I won't touch them.

My own insurance is with Tesco - no cause to claim on it yet thank god but it may interest you to know that they have a 50% off for a year offer at the mo.

Your best bet is to pm ScuttleButter on here - she's our resident Greyhound expert - and/or register on LurcherLink's forum and ask them, they're a helpful bunch.

Otherwise ask too on DogPages.

Good luck with your rescue bid, I was won olver by Geys when I fostered one a couple of years ago, they're lovely, lazy souls. :)

Vallhala · 13/02/2011 16:35

Tsk, not Geys, Greys!

Lizcat · 13/02/2011 19:22

Firstly with a greyhound I would make sure that dental cover is included, due the way they are fed when racing a large number of them have quite severe dental problems and regularly need extensive treatment.
Regarding Animal friends recently they have developed some quite sharp tactics which they seemed to pick up when they were under written by Evil and Lying they have now changed underwritters, but retained the sharp tactics to not paying out.

Original poster
Mermaidmad · 13/02/2011 19:39

Ok thank you. Sorry but who is E&L Blush

OP posts:
Original poster
Mermaidmad · 13/02/2011 19:40

Oh ok just googled and found who you mean. Rightio - will avoid at all costs!

OP posts:
SallyPants · 08/03/2011 18:40

We insure our cats and dogs with Animal Friends and we have found their service to be really good.

They insure pets of all ages, pay the vets directly without any fuss, don't increase renewal prices (Which Tescos do) and they donate to charity so its all win win IMO!

We've never had a problem with them and best of all their premiums are really competitive. :)

www.animalfriends.org.uk

thefirstMrsDeVere · 08/03/2011 18:51

I am with Morethan. The premiums went up about a fiver a month this year but I think thats the way with most because of rising vet costs. The annoying thing is, they gave me a free magazine sub to keep me sweet which must cost more than the increase Confused

I havent had to claim yet (thank goodness). They came out the cheapest when I did a compare. Post office were really expensive Shock and RSPCA Hmm

I am going to check out animal friends though for next year.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 08/03/2011 18:55

They look really good!

mollymoocow · 08/03/2011 20:06

We use Sainsbury's for doglet and cover seems to be equivalent to the likes of PetPlan but around half the price.

midori1999 · 08/03/2011 22:47

We also use Sainsburys and although we've only made a couple of smallish claims they have been good to pay otu and our (two different) vets have just asked us to pay the excess and claimed the rest direct from Sainsburys.

It's similar (not exactly the same) cover as Petplan but much cheaper.

ZiyunaySechel · 08/03/2011 22:53

We just renewed ours with Animal Friends. It was the cheapest. Tesco's, who we had last year, almost doubled in price! We have to be sneaky though. Our dog's a Boxer cross and we had to search for insurance where you could just put down cross-breed. As soon as you specify Boxer cross, the price just shoots up!

sunnydelight · 09/03/2011 04:06

We use Pet Plan in Australia and find them excellent. Don't be tempted to do without - we ended up with a dead puppy and a $2,500 vet bill a couple of years back which was pretty traumatic all round.

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