How much money is a realistic "pot" before cancelling insurance?

[LibidinousTurkey]

Insurance for three dogs and one cat comes to about £120 a month 🙀
A recent claim for a minor injury totalled £209, with a grand total of £42 coming back to me We have just worked out that this one policy alone costs over £350 a year.

Previously we have always kept insurance going due to the fear of large bills and I have always been a firm believer in it. However we have been fortunate to hardly need to claim over the past few years and when we have done it has always amounted to no more than £250 before deductions, therefore within the limits of a CC or our disposable income.

So my thinking is that I squirrel away X amount as a buffer and then cancel the policies. I then set up a standing order for the monthly amount to go to a dedicated savings account. My question is, what should X be and ultimately what would be a comfortable pot to be sitting on?

[tabulahrasa]

Lara - it's not the insurance that works like that, it's up to the vet whether they accept insurance forms as payment or not. Some vets do, some only certain policies and some don't at all.

[orangeyellowgreen]

My insurance covers only vet's fees, which is all I need. They pay the vets direct so I don't have to pay then reclaim. Just as well when dog's accident cost £4500+ These things usually occur over a bank holiday.

[Lara2]

Just to add, what makes me furious is that I have to pay up front and then claim. I can't think of any other insurance that works that way round. Thank god for a credit card to pay the vet immediately!

[Lara2]

DDog 1 died of cancer in the Spring, but not before she'd had a very expensive operation and tests which we would never have been able to afford without insurance. Then DDog2 had a stroke in September, spent the night in hospital and again had a huge bill - another insurance claim. Other posters are right, for peace of mind you'd need thousands.

[TeenageWildlife]

Shop around for pet insurance, mine went down by half on previous year

[daisy5569]

My old Jack russell was insured and in her whole life I never claimed once, she used to put her back out now and then but taking into account the excess it was never worth claiming.
My other old boy who died a month ago at almost 17 had cushings since he was 8 (not covered) and at the beginning of this year was diagnosed with heart disease. I made two claims for him one for approx£500 (castration due to lump found when he was 12 ) and another earlier this year for £1700 which they declined and I had to complain and get the vet to contact them before they paid out. Of course then almost everything possible was excluded from the policy so I cancelled it. Just before he died I was spending £200 per month on meds which luckily I could afford, but this year I had spent almost £1000 on meds etc. I'd still do it all again though as he was a lovely old boy
I'm not sure I would have insurance for my next one or not, if I didnt though I think I'd put a fairly decent amount away each month just in case I got a big vet bill.

[pigsDOfly]

Not sure there's a reasonable sized pot big enough to make me feel comfortable cancelling my pet insurance. You never know what might happen and I wouldn't want to have to make the decision to have my dog pts because the cost of treatment was more than I could afford.

Towards the end of their lives my two cats were both on daily medication that went on for several years, especially in the case of the female who lived to a happy 19 and half.

Insurance company paid out without any quibbles month after month.

Dogs tend to be more expensive.

I'd never have an uninsured pet. Treatment can run into thousands of ££££

[tabulahrasa]

The thing is... Would you be able to afford things like a cruciate repair? That's the best part of 2 grand, but is completely worth doing in almost all cases - you're usually looking at a completely normal lifespan and quality of life after it.

Or ongoing medication for a sudden mild heart condition, or painkillers for arthritis? NSAIDs are cheap enough, but, it's not uncommon for dogs to not tolerate them.

I pay about £120 a month in insurance for one dog, who can't have NSAIDs, his painkillers cost more than his insurance though.

We're at the no more big interventions stage with him, because it wouldn't be fair on him...but that doesn't mean his medical care is cheap, expensive doesn't always mean invasive.

[MilkTwoSugarsThanks]

Tbh at those ages I would stick with insurance.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

You might find your eight year old very difficult to get insurance for at that age.

[YeOldeTrout]

The rule with insurance is that on avg the insurance company makes a good profit. So on avg, individuals pay way more than they can ever claim back.

I think with a load of pets over a lifetime, they won't all cost us a load of money, so I'm quids in to go without insurance... but not every year .

I would probably have insurance if we couldn't get the money the animals might need, though. I also don't feel bad about putting a pet down if they have had a high quality life & the only treatment is very expensive with uncertain prognosis.

[CrabbyCockwomble]

I'm considering this at the moment because our dog insurance jumped £100 last year and over £100 again this year, despite us not having claimed anything for three years. The premium for the coming year's insurance is over £500. That's for a 6 year old cocker spaniel. We've paid far more than we've ever claimed, and if it keeps going up at >£100 per year, it'll be totally unmaneagable within a few years. Fuckers!

[TrionicLettuce]

Don't underestimate how expensive medications can be for common (and very manageable) conditions that often come with old age.

For the last two years of his life DDog1 needed vast amounts of medication for congestive heart failure and arthritis. It cost us £150 a month for all his pills. That's £3600 over the two years

His heart was also not covered by insurance as he'd had a murmur since we adopted him. Good job we loved the old sod!!

[LibidinousTurkey]

DDog1 is nearly 8, DDog2 nearly 3 and DDog3 about 18 months. I reckon they would need to remain insured for at least another year while I squirrelled away a little pot of cash which covers our "two year rule" for all of them. I would guess a good age is 12-14 for all of them.

[MilkTwoSugarsThanks]

Howbold are your pets? And what is considered a "good age" for them?

OldBoy was insured up until last year, when he was 17. It's only now that he's getting frail that I think I wouldn't put him through invasive, traumatic or in-the-big-scheme-of-things-pointless procedures. (I'm thinking about his possibly slightly dodgy heart which they can check by doing a scan, but it would involve an anaesthetic and they wouldn't be able to do much about it anyway.)

[Lancelottie]

Well, yes, on average the insurance company wins. Otherwise they wouldn't be in business. The aim to to balance things so that anything unexpectedly huge isn't too painful.

(I missed out our other cat, who went to the vet for annual vaccinations only -- nothing else at all, over the course of a 17-year lifespan.)

[LibidinousTurkey]

Goodness scuttle, I bet you were pleased to have insurance :o

But for every tale like yours, there are infinitely more tales where people have only ever claimed a tiny fraction of their premiums back (for us two high value claimants, one of which we only did because of insurance, and seven either non or very small claimants)

[Scuttlebutter]

For anyone in doubt, let me tell you about our beautiful Callie and her year last year. Within a six month period she:-

Got her paw stuck between the slats of a wooden footbridge while out on a walk - had a very nasty degloving injury which was expensive and awkward to treat.

Developed a soft tissue sarcoma on one of her front legs. Treatable, but some issues with the healing on the scar (paper thin greyhound skin).

Then the big one. Ran head first into a tree at high speed. Fractured skull, many injuries on front leg, spinal damage so paralysed. Over to Langford vet hospital, in ICU, had MRI, fantastic care. Amazingly, she regained the use of her legs and one year on, is now frolicking like a gazelle.

Each of these were eminently treatable, and she has recovered beautifully, but that little lot would probably have cost not far off £10K if you added it all up.

As well as the 3rd party costs mentioned upthread, after Callie's year last year, I don't think anything less than several thousands is enough of a cushion, and personally I am delighted we have insurance.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

When our old boy died last year we had spent about £1500 on tests, treatments and drugs. We could have sent him for an MRI if we'd thought it would do any good, sadly he was a bit too far gone, which would have set us back another £3,000+. We cancelled his insurance years ago. The only thing that was ever wrong with him was he used to have these random fits, epilepsy ruled out, and the vet couldn't get to the bottom of it so the insurance company wouldn't pay out. Seemed pointless keeping it going by then.

[KinkyAfro]

Well our dog is 3 and our insurance has covered almost 8k of medical bills

[80sMum]

Not so long ago, pet insurance barely existed. It was unheard of for pets to be offered hugely expensive treatments. If a condition wasn't curable at a reasonable cost, then the pet died. Very sad, but it was the accepted way of things.
It has all changed since insurers jumped on the bandwagon and started pushing insurance for pets. Now a vet won't shake his/her head sadly and say there is nothing they can do, they will offer hope of recovery with some massively expensive treatment. For owners who don't have insurance, it then feels like they have 'killed' the pet by not consenting to the treatment.
Someone is making a lot of money out of people's devotion to their pets, as most owners now feel they have no option but to fork out for insurance (which incidentally is often void once the pet reaches the age where it's likely to become ill). Pet insurance exploits pet owners, in my opinion.

[Lancelottie]

Cross-posted with Fish about the steady £50 a month for elderly cats - did your vet mention the repeated testing, without which they won't prescribe the meds? I get a wee bit humphy about that bit.

[Fabellini]

I have two dogs, and a cat....and a horse, but he's a separate issue! All insured, (the dogs and cat) at a cost of around £60 a month - younger dog injured himself in September, emergency vet appointment with painkillers was around £100, next day appointment with anaesthesia, X-rays and more medication was £500...and the operation he needs now as a result of the injury is going to be between £1200 and £1400. He's three, older dog is seven, and cat is eight.
I've paid the insurance and never claimed til now, but I'm fecking glad it's there.... I wouldn't have saved that much, there would always have been a school trip, or a washing machine fault, or something, and I would have reasoned that the animals have always been fine....then Bam!

[LibidinousTurkey]

I should also say that DH and I had almost decided on an "insured for two years" policy, from the time of birth or adoption.
This would hopefully allow any hidden conditions and the general haphazardness of youth to get out of their system before they settled down to a peaceful, healthy life :o

[Lancelottie]

We didn't insure Old Girl.

She is three years into treatment for thyroid and kidney problems costing us a steady £50 per month for meds plus £60-100 every 3 months for blood tests plus emergency treatment roughly once a year so far at around £600. So that would be about £4500 so far and probably £1500 a year for the rest of her life...

If we'd had insurance, we might have opted for thyroid surgery at a one-off cost of about £600-800. I'm reluctant to try that now on a cat quite this old.

Little Cat is insured. She's only 6 months old and we've so far claimed back far more than we've paid in (admittedly because she is remarkably thick clumsy for a cat).