help choosing insurance

[ParsleyCake]

I haven't got a dog yet, but I am currently looking into pet insurance cost to see whether I could afford one. I was hoping to get some advice , as I am finding it hard to decide what I really need.

I would be adopting a small, probably mixed breed adult dog from my local SPCA. Assuming that the dog has no ongoing health problems, what advice could you give me on what I need as part of my insurance policy? Also, if you had to pay an enormous vet bill because you overlooked something in your insurance, what was it?

Bumping and placeholding, if I may. I'd like to know too!

You need a 'covered for life policy', so that if you put a claim in once, you can claim again for that condition. If you get an 'annual' policy, then when you renew at the end of the year, that condition will be excluded from your new policy.

My SIL's dog was on an annual policy. He swallowed a nerf gun dart and had surgery. She claimed on the insurance. He is now not covered for anything abdominal, so they are having to put aside money each month in addition to insuring him, so they have savings if he swallows something else!

Petplan is gold service -they pay vet fees direct so you don't have to find the money upfront.

Policies under written by RSA ( Tesco. More than and John Lewis, but maybe others) have new restrictions that in non emergency situations your vet can only refer you to their approved panel of referral practices. In these policies it is not just the money value alone you need to consider, but where you may have to travel.

Lonecat that is good to know and I bet its not clear in the policy documents when signing up (we are petplan so not affected)

When I chose a vet for my dog its because I liked/trusted them and they have now got to know my dog. I wouldn't want to be sent to another unknown vet for treatment. That's more like car insurance than treatment for a loved pet! Hope this isn't a sign of all insurance companies going this way to save money.

I'm jumping onto this thread too because I need to sort insurance for our soon-to-arrive puppy. With our cats we have always had fairly cheap insurance policies to keep the monthly costs down. One of our (now sadly deceased cats) became insulin dependent diabetic and much of the treatment wasn't covered but we just absorbed the cost and it was fine. That sort of cheap policy covers stuff like fractured bones needing acute treatment etc just not the more long term stuff. We are probably still 'in profit' by choosing cheaper insurance for 3 cats and paying for insulin and regular blood tests that we would have been paying 14 years of a Petplan policy.
However, ought we to be more thorough in our insurance of the dog ie is it Petplan end of? Are dogs more/less prone to 'Stuff requiring vets' than cats or is it just a case that they are animals and who knows what will go wrong and when and to what extent. Or is it simply a case of personal circumstances dictating what you can pay for and whether you need the security of really good insurance or not?

Actually I've just looked at the cover options for our current cat insurer and a 'lifetime' for our puppy would be half the price of the Petplan lifetime one. I haven't looked in detail at the excesses and policy limits but might be worth a look they are called petinsurance.co.uk