Dog insurance advice please

[GoofyIsACow]

I have done a comparison thingy and there are various prices obviously, but i dont want to just choose the cheapest if it wont cover what we need if and when the time comes to need it obviously! There are various categories named 'accident only' 'max benefit' 'time limited' 'lifetime'

Now obviously the first one doesnt cover anything like for instance a tumour or illness that isnt as a result of an accident so presumably not ideal.

The cheapest cover offers £10000 vet fees but is accident only.

Virtually every other policy on the list is about £1000/£2000 vets fees, is this adequate do you think?

Any advice welcome. Thanks in advance :)

I would be looking for about £5-7,000 vets fees cover from an insurance policy. I would also take lifetime cover as most claims are for long term health conditions.

Brilliant thankyou, i will look out for that then

Both ours are insured by PDSA and they have been very good. Pay out direct to vets without complications and reasonably cheap. Would defiantly recommend.

You want at least £4000 vet fees, and second to lifetime cover. It can be expensive, but a friends lab has just been diagnosed with arthritis at 2 years old, now that's a lot of expensive medication for the next 10/12 years paid for!

Look at John Lewis pet insurance - they have been recommended in the past by other MNers. I've just done it for my foster dog, 1 year old cross breed, about £21 per month. Vets fees up to £7,500 per year, emergency dental £7,500 per year etc - their "Plus" policy

Is your dog already insured? Because if you're renewing it's usually best to stay with the same company as previous conditions may not be covered. You may not be aware of previously noted conditions, so check with your vet first.

I spent ages researching dog insurance recently. In the end I went with PetPlan Classic Cover for Life with £7,000 cover.

I looked at literally hundreds of policies, but found lots of hidden catches. Some didn't cover dental treatment, which is important with the breed I have, others either didn't cover or only offered minimum cover for cruciate repair (again more likely in my breed) and there were various other things with different policies that were either excluded or capped and these things were only apparent on reading through the fine print.

I also found lots of insurers loading policies for Lurchers, claiming them as a purebreed, whereas PetPlan agreed that my boy, having both parents who were Lurchers (so both parents were a mix of either two sighthounds or a sighthound and a working breed) could be insured as a crossbreed, as he effectively has 4 breeds in his mix. This brought down his premiums considerably.

I wasn't happy to go with companies that were so obviously trying to wriggle out of cover even before the dog was ill and had used PetPlan in the past with no problems at all, so decided to use them again.

Pet insurance is a bit of a minefield and currently under investigation by the ombudsman for being less than transparent and refusing to pay out.

I've gone with petplan lifetime with 4k vets fees. For my spaniel its £21.55 a month. Have to say though, Petplan havent covered themselves with glory. They messed the opening up (opened 2 policies and took 2 payments), then took the dd on the wrong day. It seems to be all sorted now though.