Pet insurance

[Betti]

Have had our puppy a week now and finally getting to the end of the mountain of paperwork that came with her!

Re insurance. I know it is probably a good idea to get her insured but I've also heard someone say that they didn't bother and just kept an empty credit card in case something did go wrong. Can someone give me pros and cons of both. I find the whole insurance malarky very confusing and really don't know what to do for the best.

thanks

My parents kept an empty credit card with a limit of 10K for all emergencies inc. pet related ones.

The month their credit got slashed due to my Dad becoming too ill too work is the month their little Lab collapsed and needed urgent vet treatment. They needed to pull out £150 from thin air.

If it wasn't for the fact that I counted that dog as my own and I could never sit back and watch an animal suffer and thus risked the wrath of DH by raiding our savings to pay for her to go to the vets they would have had to sit back and watch her die slowly and painfully.

It's not something I would reccommend doing for those reasons.

I have Devil Dog insured with PetPlan (on the premium plan) as he has an ongoing skin complaint that could cost ££££, which I don't have. PetPlan pay my vet direct without me ever having to pay anything more than the excess. The cat and the other dog are with Healthy Pets who are very cheap.

Thanks for that DooinMeCleanin. I wonder whether putting the equivalent of the monthly insurance premium into another account would work? It just seems a lot of money to be paying an insurance company especially if you never use it but then I suppose you never know whether you are going to need it or not. When I think about the amount of money I pay to insurance companies each year (car, house, contents, life etc) and never having made a claim, I do feel that, in hindsight, it's a waste of money and that insurance companies play on our insecurities. Be interesting to see what others think.

Do not use E&L whatever you decide. They NEVER pay out on any claims.

I would sort insurance asap as we got a 4 week free trial with pet plan, ended up taking our lab to the vet with a limp a couple of weeks after getting him. Then as we had a existing condition we had to stay with pet plan or it would become an exclusion with any other company. We continued the policy and we are now looking at making claims worth literally thousands as he may have hip dysplasia.

Wouldnt have necessarily chosen petplan as the premiums are expensive however it's still going to work out a massive saving over having to pay for the treatment ourselves.

Most important is to make sure you get a policy that covers the dog for treatment for life not just one year and has a high enough level of cover.

If we had put our premiums into an account, we still wouldnt have been able to afford his treatment when he was 10!

Sorry to hear about your poor lab. Were you not able to go back to the breeder? Thanks for your advice. That's exactly what I wanted to know.

No, he's a rescue. He is absolutely fine though other than a dodgy leg!

Glad I helped a bit. Must admit I felt the same about insurance as well, it was just a good job we got the 4 free weeks (poor petplan they will be sorry now!!)

I would get it just in case. Our dog is insured with Tesco and its about £9 a month, nothing in the grand scheme of things. We've already had our moneys worth as in his first year he had a problem with his legs and had to go to an emergency vets overnight. Cost £350ish and the insurance paid up within 3 weeks.

Some will say you have too, others will advise against it.

I guess it just depends on how much available money you have really.

I dont insure my dog or come to that my diamond jewellery either !

The premiums are too much imo.

But there again I could afford to replace my ring tomorrow if I lost it today. And I could pay a thousand pound vet bill if I needed too (just in case anyone thinks I am an irresponsible pet owner)

Beholden to nobody ... especially not insurance companies

I can't recommend good insurance highly enough - not just for vets bills, but also for the third party liability policies provide if your dog causes a road accident or something.

Pet Plan or Marks and Spencer are pretty gold plated - I have dogs insured with both. They always pay out really quickly and have a fabulous level of cover.

Also, I'd advise you take out your policy 2 weeks before the end of the free puppy insurance because there's a 2 week 'no claim period' at the beginning of every new policy. You can bet your bottom dollar that'll be the time a problem rears it's ugly head. Puppies are very, very accident prone!