Best insurance recommendations please

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Our new puppy should be arriving in three weeks or so. I need to start getting some insurance in place. I've heard good things about PetPlan and looking at their website, I could have full cover for life starting from about £25 a month. I'm sure it will increase with age. He's a labrador.

Anybody got any recommendations or cautionary tales?

*despite whatever

7k per condition means 7k per medical condition...ever, once you've hit that figure you can never claim for that or what they deem to be that again.

7k a year is precisely that, you get 7k of vet's treatment per year and it resets at renewal.

Alpha - if you're lucky, then no, insurance is a waste of money...but if you're ever likely to have to say no to emergency medical treatment because of the cost then it's not worth not having it IMO.

If he wasn't insured my dog would have died last year as there's no way I could have come up with the 5.5k his perforated ulcer operation cost.

So you could have different conditions and claim up to £7k on each condition?

Sounds complicated. £7k a year sounds more sensible. Thanks everyone.

Alpha, with all respect, that is a crazy view!
Our Newfoundlands medications and ops etc all go on weight, our insurers are currently way out of profit and have to bear it, thank god! Unfortunately it is in the lap of the gods, but would you hold off on a life saving op because you couldn't afford it?

landrover - no it isn't crazy . Pet insurance companies aren't in it for doing good for the animals, they are in it to make profits and they make big profits. And NO I would NOT hold off from a life-saving op in spite of not having any insurance. We can afford it. We are absolutely committed to our pet and will do absolutely what's necessary to keep her well and fit. Our decision not to insure is borne absolutely from being able to bear the cost ourselves. (PS One of us works in the insurance industry so please don't think we don't know how these things work.)

If you can afford to foot costs of up to £10K yourself, then yes, you probably are better off financially by self paying.
BUT most people don't have that sort of money lying around. The people who struggle to pay insurance premiums are the ones that need it the most, unfortunately.

Agree with Five, if you have funds to potentially pay out £000's of pounds for treatment, you can take the risk, hope your pet is remains healthily/accident free and not insure.

If you don't have funds to pay out £000's, you can also decide not to insure, but must be prepared to make the PTS decision on a possibly relatively healthy animal. I accept some people play this Russian roulette.

For the rest of us insurance is the safety net and the most risk adverse way to keep our much loved pets healthy and give them medical treatment otherwise out of our financial means.

Of course the insurance companies make a profit (and its a bit patronising to assume everyone not in the insurance industry doesn't know this already) from those that don't need to claim. With insurance (and i sound like an insurance advert here, but its true) you are paying for peace of mind for you pet.

That's exactly it. I'd rather have peace of mind. I can afford to pay for insurance, I could probably afford to pay for treatment too but I'd rather not take the risk.

I've just gone for M&S cover for our puppy, it seems to be fairly comprehensive at 20.50 a month. Anyone else used them?

Weallhavewings - I didn't mean to be patronising to anyone. I was trying to explain the fact that it isn't a "crazy view".

Only 15% of dogs and cats are insured. www.abi.org.uk/News/News-releases/2014/04/We-are-claiming-cats-and-dogs-pet-insurance-claims-on-the-rise

I know lots of people who are insured and they still have enormous ongoing vet bills because of their insurance policy limitations.

I think if you can confidently say that you can put away enough/have enough to meet any costs then it's fine not to have insurance. An understandable decision and one which a few of my dog owning friends have taken.

Me, I'd rather take the gamble, knowing that the company are quids in if we don't claim. With an energetic outdoorsy dog we didn't want to take the chance, so £65 per month and rising every year is fine by us.

Do check the policy carefully every renewal. Our dog went from Spayed to Unspayed at the age of 6