Dog insurance

[ThedementedPenguin]

We are discussing the best dog insurance for our new pup. Have read a little on money supermarket & think life time insurance is the right one for us.

Can anyone recommend the best place to get insurance? Anything in particular I need to look out for.

Any advice is very welcome

Pet plan - still the best. Only one I’ve seen that allows you to cover an illness over a year. If dog has an ongoing problem you’d be paying £££ after the year it started in

I honestly think insurance is very personal to your own circumstances but yes I agree life time cover. We have had our dog for just over a year and am now nearing around £3000 in claims over the year (accidents and one major illness).

I use petplan which seem expensive initially but I had heard that they didn't put premiums up much for claims (more the age of the dog). In fact ours went up I think around £15 this year despite all the claims.

What I would recommend is you look closely at the T&Cs. For example mine will only pay out for dental care if a vet has checked their teeth every 12 months which isn't a problem for me as he is in a vet plan with a 6 monthly checkup but you can see how that might be a problem for some.

NFU (eventually 🙄) recently covered huge chunk of cancer treatment costs for 10yo springer - premium ridiculous now but he’s healthy and fit and expected to stay that way for a few more years. We had cover for £2k per illness or incident but somehow they paid out 3 or 4 times that amount because 2 different cancers plus new insurance year. But it was effort, at first they offered something like £34 towards almost £10k of treatment costs 😱

PetPlan here. More expensive but it's worth it for the convenience and the fact they pay out. I view it as I love my dogs more than my car and I pay a lot more for car insurance.

Yes as above, we have £4k per year but having seen how easily the costs mount up it isn't nearly enough but we are fortunate that we have the money to top that up if needed. If you don't then get the highest amount you can afford.

Petplan is great and who I use for my two, but other big well known companies are also good (eg morethan, directline).

You want lifelong cover and at least £4K per condition per year, though more would be better.

An MRI scan for neurological conditions costs at least £2k alone, and that's before any other investigation and treatment. Cruciate ligament repair will be £2k for EACH leg and may count as one condition. Diseases like Cushings disease can cost £100s/month dependent on how big the dog is and are lifelong conditions.

Well done for looking into it and making sure you are properly covered :) remember if you ever change who you are insured with all previous conditions and even similar conditions will not be covered so you need to be happy with who you choose first.

Thanks so much for the replies.

We have bought a miniature Schnauzer. So having looked into the breed there’s lots of conditions he could possibly get. So I definitely want him covered best I can.
Have checked pet plan but was £30 for the cheapest plan & I didn’t think it would be that much but as you’ve said that’s nothing compared to the price if we weren’t covered.
Will have another look first thing & get it set up ASAP.
Will also check out local vets to see what they offer in terms of vaccinations & check ups

I'm with Tesco but would go with pet plan next time due to the preferred vet policy Tesco have. Which basically seems to mean avoiding known expensive vets even if you have to travel miles and miles to one of their preferred vets.
Tesco have been good at paying out though, 6k for two ilnesses. When they deducted money for my not using their preferred vet I disputed and they refunded. However it was a hassle I didn't need .

Ours has a lifetime policy with Direct line and I’ve never had any trouble with them paying out , it did go up quite a bit this year but I increased the excess to keep the payments lower which suits us as I’ve never claimed anything less than £150 anyway .

I work in a Vets and would definitely recommend petplan - they are so good at paying out. Other good ones to look into are the supermarket ones; sainsburys, Tesco, m&s are all very good at paying out and have good levels of cover.

Definitely avoid anyone underwritten by e&l, their cover is much cheaper but they are really poor at paying out!

Yes e&l and animalfriends - not good at all

I pay more than that OP as they will work it out on breed/age/area etc. £30 seems a lot and it is if you are fortunate to never need it but if you go through the year I have had it is cheap considering I fill a few things in on a form, hand it to my vet then within 1-2 weeks the money is back in my account.

We have petplan £4K a year lifetime cover for our 4 year old lab. We are £3k into it this year and have just been told he might need a second more expensive op 😞 costing another £3k then all the usual follow ups. Thankfully we have some savings.

Have checked pet plan but was £30 for the cheapest plan & I didn’t think it would be that much but as you’ve said that’s nothing compared to the price if we weren’t covered.

Be aware the cost will increase every year as your dog gets older. We started with £28/month for our Labrador and we are now £43/month and he is only 4 (but it will be paying out the full £4k this year so has been worth it). I suspect it will be close to or even more than £100/month when he is older than 8.

While I would never be without it, unfortunately pet insurance is going a bad way. The cost of insurance now compared to say 10-15 years ago is huge. I think this is due to the ever mounting costs of vet fees at referral centres.

More pets insured = greater ability to thoroughly work up cases = higher average vet fees = higher insurance premiums

Of course it's worth it if you have to claim, but I worry it will start putting people off insuring their pets :(

And the cost of insuring an older dog is often near the £100/month mark. That's when people stop paying but also when chronic illnesses are more likely to occur!

I looked at petplan but went with the Kennel Club. I pay £29pm for £7500 of annual cover.

I’m not best impressed with petplan. My puppy turned out to have “slippy” kneecaps. Petplan did pay out when one completely dislocated, but now they have placed a complete exclusion on my policy so if her other knee goes, or there are any further issues with either knee, we aren’t covered. The vet is recommending preventative surgery for the knee that didn’t dislocate but it’s 2k and petplan won’t pay.

Micah is your policy the basic one rather than a life cover policy?

If it's the 12 month policy then afterwards the condition will be excluded just as it would if you moved companies.

Micah that's standard for any policy that's not life long and will be the same for all companies

It’s not the basic policy. I do need to sit and read the t&c but i’m sure i have the one where it’s up to a certain amount per condition per year. So while we’ve used up the allowance for this year, i thought as an ongoing condition they would continue to cover it up to that amount per year?