Quick, quick, straw poll! To (continue to) insure or not?

[topbannana]

Today I got BlackDogs renewal through from PetPlan. As she is a rottie and 12 years old I have seen galloping premiums for her over the past few years but nothing like today. Fortunately I was sitting down when I found out they are increasing her premiums by £12 a month to £68 Apart from a mysterious episode a few months back she is in rudely good health, has only just started on Metacam last week (so is still very active and mobile) and shows little inclination to get sick and die. Over her life I have probably only claimed £800-£900 back, thats how healthy she is.
On mentioning this in passing to the vet nurse today, she asked whether we would consider putting BlackDog through major surgery or invasive procedures given her age. She said she has just cancelled the insurance on her elderly pony as she cannot ever envisage putting him through it so the money seemed pointless. Similarly DH and I have spoken frankly about how much we would be prepared to put the vets her through and had almost decided that we owe her a peaceful and dignified end without poking and prodding in her final weeks.
I was formerly of the opinion that it would be ludicrous to cancel any pet insurance but my brain is now wondering whether she is speaking sense. TBH we have to be very financially aware anyway and if I could put the £68 a month away, in a few months I should have enough to cover the basics when the time comes.
So what would you do? I cannot move her to a cheaper policy because of her age so its this or nothing

We didn't insure our last dog, mainly as we took her and three cats on 15 years ago and we couldn't afford to insure them all, so put money into a savings account each month instead.

We did pay approx £500 for one cat's tail to be amputated (in stages over several ops) but even so think it was financially the best choice then. When our dog got ill there were so many things wrong that even if we'd treated the cancer, she'd still have been deaf, with poor eyesight and touch of arthritis. We chose not to do anything invasive although she did have some medication for odd bits and pieces.

Am I right in thinking larger dogs have shorter life expectancies and that at 12 a rottie is already a relatively elderly dog?

sorry, didn't answer the question - I'd probably stop paying it, providing you've got the savings / credit card to cover anything A&E would so for humans (!)

My mum continued to insure her elderly dog in case he ran out into the road and caused an accident, or injured someone. Do you have this possibility covered?

If you can cover the costs of any treatment she's likely to have then there's not much point continuing to insure except for one consideration - the pet insurance includes a liability element. I don't think household policies include this for pets. What happens if your ageing pet has a character change (dementia) and bites someone? What if it causes an accident by stepping off the pavement? This is actually one of the main reasons we have pet insurance - DH had a childhood dog who savaged a woman's fur coat server her right, he remembers his dad handing over lots of notes until she stopped muttering about reporting to the police - but what if the dog had injured the woman?

Anyway, I'd check up on that unless you're 100% certain your dog won't ever hurt anyone, even by accident.

I think it's very valid to consider what you would actually want to go ahead with in terms of treatment at her age and possibly decide the insurance is no longer needed. But I would want some third party liability cover for the circumstances other posters have described. If you can get liability only cover, I would consider that and putting some money aside each month.

See I would never have considered cancelling as she is my baby until today(DH has just pointed out that the increase is actually a few pence off of £13 a month )
My fear is that, as a previous poster mentioned, that she is involved in an accident. We do not have credit cards or savings to cover it which is why I have always insured (along with a couple of bad experiences where pets were insured and the companies have stumped up thousands of pounds that we could never have afforded)
So I am still none the wiser, will await further opinions

Have you checked if theres any way to reduce premiums by having a bigger excess (up to whatever you could afford)? DH arranged ours so I'm not sure if this sort of thing is possible.

grimma our excess is already £125 plus 20% of the final bill (the 20% bit came in when she reached, I think, 10 years old) The best bit is the policy documents proudly proclaims we have "Covered for Life- BUDGET" cover
I have always figured that it is very easy to spend £125 in the initial visit anyway and the 20% is £20 in every £100 (it does not sound so bad when you say it like that!) I just don't truly know whether I can justify a £13 a month hike

Personally I'd ring them and ask why it's gone up so much considering that over the years you've barely claimed,you may find that you can come to an amicable agreement with them. Most companies are open to a bit of haggling ,infact I think they expect it which is why they make the prices so high cos then they look good when they knock some off! When you ring if you don't get any joy ask to speak to a supervisor/ manager.

I think you can get third party liability cover pretty cheaply, I think there was something on Money Saving Expert if you google it.... It might have been through the kennel club?

It is the dogstrust!

Dogs Trust - link is near the bottom of the page.

I have one dog who is nearly 12. I cancelled his insurance for the same reason that you have. The premium was sky high, although I had used it quite a bit between the ages of 9 and 11, but decided that I would just pay for anything (touchwood not happend yet) but that anything major would not be happening given his age.