Pet insurance for a new puppy

[Florin]

We are due to pick up our working Cocker Spaniel on Sunday and would like to get her insured. Can anybody recommend any particular companies or any to avoid. Also anything to look out for when comparing policies?

www.pet-insurance-surveys.co.uk/

The owner of this site has posted here before and by all accounts it looks like a very useful and comprehensive resource. It's important to understand the different types of policy when weighing up quotes.

Always go for a lifetime policy so if your dog has an ongoing illness it will be covered.

We are with PetPlan and its expensive (£30/month), but we have claimed a couple of times already for our 16 month old Labrador with no problems and they pay the vet direct.

Had a friend who did not have a lifetime policy and they are now paying alot for ongoing skin and eye problems with their Westie. Their vet told them they should have gone Pet Plan. Once you have a condition you will not be able to change your plan to lifetime for pre existing conditions.

I don't agree with petplan, I had my new pup insured with petplan and it was supposed to be 4 weeks free insurance so I got in touch with them to renew they said they had no record of it and the policy number I had wasn't a POLICY number so basically he was not insured so here is me with a piece of mind thinking he was insured but he wasnt....good job nothing happened to him.

Make sure you get all the details off them in writing before you pay a penny.

John Lewis Pet insurance was given good reviews by people on here (a while ago) - I did it for a foster dog, it was £20 a month and covered up to £7k a year (I think). Others have recommended Tesco - can't remember others. i would certainly look for one where the vets get paid directly by insurance company, so you're not shelling out huge amounts and then waiting for insurance to reimburse you.

Also, go for high level of cover. If your dog is going to be working, then I would imagine that risk of injury happening is slightly higher than normal (I may be wrong!) so worth having good cover. Many offer £3k a year but, from what MNers have said on here, £3k doesn't cover anything really big/serious.

Of course, if you pay a bit more a month, then you can have lower excess, but you need to weigh up if that's worth doing in your circumstances. Also, worth looking around at what you can get directly online. Again, MNers have said they can often buy some medicine much cheaper online

We're with John Lewis and can't fault them. We've got the lifetime cover policy and had to claim for the first time this summer. Very easy, call centre bod gave me their direct phone no and claim settled within 5 days. I just scan and email invoices as we get them now. They also pay upto £250 pa for prescription food which my vet has never known any other company to do.