Dog insurance

[Lemmon3101]

Hi all. We have our first dog arriving in just over a month, a year old rescue called Teo. We are very excited. :)

I'm checking out insurance and was after some advice as we've not done this before.
I've seen a lot of comments and reviews in various places quoting huge increases in premiums when a dog reaches 8 years old, regardless of whether they've made any claims. However, I've found a policy by Bought by Many that offers a 'fixed for life cover'. It's almost double the other quotes I've been getting at £37 a month, but it will never go up in price. For that you get £7,000 of vet fee cover per condition and up to £20,000 in total claims during your pet's life. Do you think it's worth getting? Has anyone had any experience with Bought by Many?

I had that but switched to their lifetime cover within a couple of months.

They've been good and very reponsive for claims etc. I just switched because of the £7k per condition limit which felt like it could be tricky if he ever got anything serious.

If your dog needed hip ops or elbow ops I think it would blow the 7k limit very quickly.

I have 4K yearly limit life policy with petplan and feel a bit underinsured. For example my dog had severe D&V for several weeks and required several days admission with tests and treatment and it was over £2k and that was cheap because I know someone who had a similar condition and paid the same for less.

I wish you could see into the future but you can't so I think you just have to make the best guess at what is right for your financial situation.

Per condition is rubbish for anything that’s expensive to treat... or for anything that’s going to need treatment for life.

I'm with directline and they've been really good it doubled in price after year 1 and unfortunately I had to stick with them as was in the middle of treatment but my dog has had about 5-6k of treatment in the last 2 years.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I think after giving it some thought I'll just go for a typical 12 month plan with higher cover.

Do you mean a plan that only covers 12 months and not a life cover?

If it's the former then do be aware that anything you may go to the vets for even if you don't claim will be viewed as a preexisting condition and thus excluded by most policies the year after. We have been for limps, stomachs issues, eyes and a variety of others things that we would be pretty much uninsurable had I not got a life policy.

Please get lifetime cover. It just means if your dog ends up with something like diabetes or arthritis you won't end up out of pocket after your insurance refuses to pay out after x amount of bills.