Insurance for new puppy

[Squaddielife]

Due to get Patterdale pup soon and still looking at insurance

I was set on Bought by Many but on trust pilot there's feedback of increasing (like double!) Insurance cost at renewal.

Anyone know of insurance companies that don't hike their costs extensively year on year? I understand premiums increase but I'm not keen on them doubling and making it unreachable as pup grows.

Also, im going for a lifetime plan but would you say a yearly total (so £7000 over the year for eg) would be better than a limit per condition per year (say £1000)?

Another company I've seen is Animal Friends - anyone with experience of those?

@PearlHeart3

I bought a lifetime cover insurance policy which covers for £15000 per illness for my mini schnauzer, he's 4 years old. He has lymphoma cancer and I have claimed a lot on the insurance in the last year, about £7000 so far. Everything has been covered except the odd weird things like they don't pay for drugs that have been priced over 100% of markup, so I have to pay the difference. It's usually only a couple of pounds.

Before the lymphoma, I was paying about £24 a month. Since I've claimed and the insurance policy has renewed, I pay approx £34 a month. It's gone up but not excessively. Sadly my mini schnauzer will have to be put to sleep in the near future, but I can recommend my insurers for their help. They've dealt with my vets directly but apart from one occasion, have always been really quick to pay out.

It's with Purely Pets.

Purely pets bumped my premiums up so much that after they doubled it for the third year running I cancelled it, especially because they stopped paying out for things like his pain specialist vet, because they decided it was a behavioural consultation.

I mean, stuffed if I was paying that much to not be able to claim the vets visits and painkillers she prescribed him 😐

And every 6 months or so they’d demand his full medical records from the vet, delaying the claim and causing loads of hassle to the vet (it was a very long record)

Really useful thread! In a similar position to OP here.

Trying to work out what level of cover is sensible-sounds like the middleish £7k policies may not be enough.

Has anyone any experience insuring with Agria? Have seen them recommended by a local vet but not come across them before.

“Has anyone any experience insuring with Agria? Have seen them recommended by a local vet but not come across them before.“

My rescue puppy came insured with them... I’ve another week or so before I need to decide whether I’m sticking with them or not...

@PollyRoulson

BBM racked up the price after our initial first year. Ours was a multi dog policy not sure if that makes a difference. I will not insure with them again.

How old were your dogs if you don't mind me asking? I know policy cost increases once pet reaches 9yrs

I'm with Bought by Many and my renewal price was reasonable especially considering I had made a claim. I stayed with them this year

@SquaddieLife at the time all dogs were under 5.

The reason they gave for the 7.5% increase was that vet costs have gone up and the 3 year old dog had the biggest increase - really random and made no sense. No claims had been made on any of the dogs in that year.

My older dogs in the same year were insured under Pet plan their ages ranged from 7-14 and there was no increase for them at all.

Oh that's a pretty poor experience you've had. Were you able to find insurance afterwards to cover for existing issues?

I can't say my experience has been the same but it's good to hear other people's dealings with them.

Sorry, my last post was aimed at @tabulahrasa but it didn't quote your last message in my reply.

Animal Friends are great. Pay out fast and offer lifetime cover. Can't recommend highly enough.

@PearlHeart3

Oh that's a pretty poor experience you've had. Were you able to find insurance afterwards to cover for existing issues?

I can't say my experience has been the same but it's good to hear other people's dealings with them.

Didn’t even try tbh, his medication was about £150 a month by then and he had 4 pre-existing conditions...

Figured it was easier just to pay for the medication , especially because although he wasn’t particularly old, we’d already decided he wasn’t getting any invasive treatment or treatment that involved leaving him at the vets by himself - the upset just wasn’t worth it for him.