Health care plans

[Bambamber]

Hello, we picked up our first puppy a couple of days ago and feeling a dazed with all the options.

Does anyone do a health care plan with their vets, and if so is it worth it? It would be used alongside insurance not instead of.

Also, before getting the puppy we were pretty set on using petplan insurance, but our vet has given us 5 weeks free with Agria and they look quite good as well, although slightly cheaper. Has anyone got any recommendactions? We will only use lifetime cover and we are just a bit wary about being caught out by increasing premiums

Thankyou!

I use a vet care plan and think it is worth it. As well as vaccinations, flea/worming, 6 monthly checkups it also gives us 15% off any treatment or purchases through them. This means we actually get 15% more of our insurance limit which is handy as we have claimed a lot over the past couple of years.

I can only tell you about petplan insurance. They aren't the cheapest but we have claimed over £4500 in less than 2 years. They pay within 10 days and I have had no issues. Despite claiming over £2500 in the first year our premium went up by only around £15 for the year. Premiums will go up with age but they advertise that claims do not affect this and from our first renewal it does seem to be the case. Will be interesting when we get our next renewal to see what the premium is.

I would try and get the insurance you want sorted quickly as most have a 2 week exclusion period for illnesses which means anything you go to the vet for would then be deemed as a pre existing condition. I got 2 weeks free kennel club insurance with my breeder but ignored it as it wasn't the cover I wanted so switched to pet plan immediately rather than waiting until the end of the free period due to the initial exclusion period.

Premiums will go up no matter which company you use as disease gets more common as your dog gets older. Exactly how they rise will be dictated partly by the breed you have. Agria was set up by an ex-employee of Pet Plan so is modelled on Pet Plan.
Heath clubs etc do usually include a discount over pay as you go so if you intend to follow the recommendations for worming, flea treatment and vaccinations then they will be cheaper.

Brilliant thank-you!

I looked at a local vets health club and found it was considerably more expensive than paying as you go, however I get a script for millbemax and bravecto and it is massively cheaper than the vet.
I'm with direct line which has a pot of £8000 per condition which lasts the dogs life, they pay our quickly without quibbling for me. No higher excess as the dog gets older but my lab is 10 it has gone to £95 a month, but I was on a thread recently where another poster was saying their pet plan had gone up massively as the dog got older.

I’m in a vet plan club and have insurance. I pay £16 per month which covers all vacs, milbemax and bravecto. It works out cheaper then pay as you go for us.

Ours covers milpro, bravecto, 2 health checks a year and nail clipping at health check, vacs including kennel cough.

definitely worth it in the first year as it includes vacs, microchip and also 20% of neutering