What to claim on insurance?

[MarcoPoloCX]

What would you claim and not claim on pets insurance (excl neutering) ?
Is there a criteria ie in terms of cost and whether it's on going before you consider claiming?

I use petplan for a life policy and they explicitly state that premiums will rise based on age, breed and location and not on claims.

I therefore claim anything over my excess. If it's a relatively small amount I wait until we have finished all vet visits and then claim. However, we had one illness which spanned several weeks and ended up over 2k so I put in several claims for that as it was ongoing and expensive.

Why would location have an effect on the premium?

Also be careful about not disclosing things you’re dog has had done but you haven’t claimed for. Vets often send full history notes through when claims are made and if the insurance company sees things that have been wrong with the dog that they haven’t been notified about they can exclude them. Ie if your do was a bit lame and the vet prescribed painkillers and rest and it seemed to get better. But you didn’t tell insurance co. Then lameness came back in same place and x rays showed arthritis the insurance could refuse to pay as it was a pre existing condition they weren’t informed about

*Your not you’re

I guess like all insurance companies they have different premiums depending on your address. Differences in cost of vet care, risk of theft etc

The policy I have will not increase regardless of number of claims, age, location, —her breed won’t change— it is fixed for life. I claim for everything over the excess, so far they are winning but I suspect as pup grows old I’ll be glad of it.

her breed won’t change— it is fixed for life

Haha I just read what I had put about petplan and it does suggest that doesn't it but I guess it means premiums are calculated on those variable alone every year .

So far I am winning lots with my insurance which makes me glad I got it early on.

I actually meant the premiums are fixed for life but her breed is too

It’s a shame for biteypup that you have had to claim, I hope her is fit and healthy now

Yes fortunately BiteyDog is all fit and well now. I worked it out that we are getting close to 3k claimed so far and he's only 15 months old. One big illness requiring lots of tests and overnight stays and several injuries because he likes to run around like a loon. It's amazing how quickly the costs add up.

Wow who are you with wolf of your premiums don’t go up (and how much is your premium if you don’t mind me asking)

I haven’t claimed in 5 years with my PetPlan covered for life and I’m now paying £71 per month

It with Bought by many, it’s not available to puppies and it’s £30 per month for us. Pup is a healthy breed. I think it’s £7000 per condition limit.

It’s only available to puppies. Auto correct hates me

I’ll have to look into that for our next dog. We are tied to PetPlan anyway as it’s the covered for life policy and he is 8

wolf is that 7k per condition per year or for the life?

£7000 per condition not per year (that would be a really good deal!)

We claim for the big things. One dogs hydro and we currently are doing a direct claim with a specialist vet hospital for joint surgery - close to 4.5k without rehab which we will also claim. Limited to 7.5k per condition per year with lifetime cover.

wolf We couldn't swop now but if it was £7k per year I would have definitely considered it for any future dog

You have the benefit of your premiums never increasing whereas mine will. However, my limit resets every year. Argggh insurance is a real gamble on which is the right one.

That’s it really, it’s a gamble. We all hope that we never need it but I suppose that we are gambling that we will.
Vets are not too expensive down my part of the world.

We are with petplan which is lifetime cover with a yearly limit
We claim for anything over the excess limit. With our old dog who was insured from 8 weeks old with petplan - this added up to over £20,000 When he died last year at age 12. 2 hip replacements at a specialist hospital, accident and injury prone gets expensive!
I would avoid any policy that rose on amounts of claims.

@AuntieMay being nosy, did you ever work out how much your insurance premiums and excesses were over the 12 years to compare?

I've just done a very rough calculation and it's about £6/7000 so much less than we reclaimed back. Monthly payments only ramped up when he got to about 9 yrs old and started off at a monthly cost of £22 When he was a puppy, increasing roughly be £2/3 per month once a year.
The high costs at the end of a dogs life are when the monthly payments ramp up, as well as the excess and only a % of costs are covered by his final year.