Petplan alternative?

[cleowasmycat]

I have an intact male pug and Petplan have just quoted my renewal at £45 a month!!! What's the best alternative because a compare site had loads that are cheaper. Thanks

Petplan are the best - beware cheaper quotes. You may find you are only getting a certain amount per condition or a years worth of treatment etc per condition. Unfortunately you do get what you pay for with pet insurance. I use Tesco (but used to work with Petplan) and I pay £62 a month for my female spaniel and she gets lifetime cover for each condition. It's worth the money.

tbh that sounds about right for the dog you describe - pug medical costs are huge and intact males tend to attract higher premiums than others.

I use boughtbymany's lifetime plan but the costs are about the same as petplan (for comparison, an intact male springer costs me £27pm and this was the same as petplan when I looked) so you could try them but am not sure you'd get much cheaper, if any.

Really cheap plans have tight limits on how much money you can claim, stop covering conditions after the first year and/or hike the premium price up dramatically as the dog ages or you make claims. You could risk that but you have a (high?) chance of paying smaller premiums for a product that does not cover what you need it to or stop paying out after the first £2000 (for e.g.).

Also, I think petplan have a deal with most vets that they can pay claims direct so you don't need to pay the vet for costs and then claim them back off the insurer - i.e. you don't need access to money while the claim goes through.

We are PetPlan £48 / month for a 5 year old lab. Was worth it when we needed it recently for orthopaedic surgery which cost £3,800 over 6 months including meds, xrays etc.

PetPlan insurance will increase as your dog ages but not if you make a claim. Beware of initially cheaper polices which might entice you to join by where your premium will increase the more you claim and will end up just as expensive.

Also beware, once you are tied into an insurer you can get stuck as anything in your vets history for your dog (even if you haven't claimed) can be an existing condition. e.g if you have seen your vet for a minor eye issue any subsequent more serious eye issues might not be covered with a new insurer.

You need to factor in all the t&cs with insurance.

By all means go to a cheaper one but if it only pays out a fraction of your current one you may find you are left with a big unexpected bill. Also be aware that anything you have been to the vets about, even if it didn't result in a claim, can be deemed to be a preexisting condition.

That's (slightly) less than I pay for my 2yo terrier cross with the same insurer! I am in London though, which roughly doubles it...

Pugs are expensive to insure because of all the health problems - eyes, BOAS, etc etc. I've heard rumours that Frenchies are becoming borderline uninsurable.

Out of curiosity, I've just run a search for how much a 2yo neutered male Frenchie would cost me - £169/month for £7k lifetime cover.... But only £54 for a pug with all the same details!

I have to say that PetPlan have paid out without quibbling for double elbow dysplasia surgery and suspected pancreatitis and all the blood tests that the condition routinely requires. And they will keep paying out because we selected lifetime cover (phew).
Insurance is a gamble - you may never need to claim ! - but we are very happy with the service we’ve had so far.

I looked around quite a bit for my insurance and Sainsbury use the same insurer as PetPlan, more or less the same conditions (save that the limits for individual treatment were slightly higher than PetPlan) and were cheaper for comparable cover. I have to say that the overall cost still makes my eyes water!

Petplan are one of the best. We are with them for our cat,have made several claims and I can't fault them. We are currently with John Lewis for our dogs as they were slight cheaper but with good terms. With pet insurance you do get what you pay for

I have a Pug cross, 5 yr old, no pre existing conditions.

Started at £20 per month but now £32.
£12.5K per year vet fees.
Life term policy.
That's with Agria.

Also be aware that some have variable excess. I have seen some have an excess with then a percentage of vet fees on top. Whilst this can help keep the premium cost down if you are unfortunate to have to claim you will have to pay a higher amount.

Pet plan paid out over £19000 For our Airedale Terrier over his lifetime including 2 hip replacements 1 emergen y and 1 planned. The specialist vet hospital only did direct claims with pet plan - we would have needed to come up with £6000 with 1 days notice!
No quibbles over any claim we put through and prompt repayment with texts to say how the claim.is going (i.e received, processing, payment on its way)
We have another Airedale who is I shred with petplan and also an older lab who is also still insured with petplan- wouldn't use anyone else.