Insurance

[Lou573]

Stuck choosing between petplan and Bought by many for our new pup. Have been with petplan for the cats for years with no quibbles - have paid out for all sorts of things but premiums have gone up a lot. Can’t change over the cats now due to preexisting conditions.

Bought by many seem a better deal at this point but does anyone know if they whack premiums up down the line? Need a for life cover which is why I’m looking at these two, thank you for any words of wisdom.

I'm with Bought by Many for our cat. We adopted her at 9, the first year premiums were £18 a month, the following year with no claims it's gone up to £25 a month. I've had to claim about £1000 in vet fees recently so I'm expecting another hike. But they are excellent with settling claims quickly, very responsive to email and I have £15k cover for as many claims as I need to make in the year. Would definitely recommend them but they aren't the cheapest.

Thanks @Vbree. That’s almost a 40% hike in one year with no claims though! That’s what I’m worried about - they lure you in with a good starting deal and then increase. And with a big dog it adds up!

Perhaps it's because she turned 10 before renewal but I'm not looking forward to the renewal again in February! Can't move anyway as she has a pre existing condition now. Worth checking on trust pilot etc. Some people have said it doesn't jump too much but it wasn't the case for us. So hard to predict too!

Hmmm, possibly best to stick with petplan. Better the devil you know and all that!

We’ve never had huge year on year price hikes with PetPlan, even with a dog that had thousands, in fact tens of thousands, of pounds of claims.

My remaining dog is a crossbreed (Lurcher) so that does tend to make policies a bit cheaper. He will be 16 in just over a week and his policy only went up £3 to just over £75 at renewal this year - he’s been insured with them for about 10 years. I put in two claims a year to cover the previous 6 months of all his monthly meds and regular monitoring appointments and they always pay out without quibbling.

We debated cancelling the policy this year, as we wouldn’t put him through any expensive/complex treatment at this stage and we do have to pay an additional excess and percentage of each claim due to his age. We looked into it and found that we are better off keeping the policy going, as it still works out cheaper than paying directly for his monthly meds and regular appointments for monitoring.

Another example of how prices increased for us with PP was our Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier (only pedigree we’ve ever had) who was insured from a pup at around £35 pm and her premiums were around £100 when we lost her age 14 1/2. We lost her 10 years ago though, so things may have changed for new policies. Last policy we took out was 8 years ago and that was for the dog that had thousands of pounds worth of claims.

Obviously I don’t know what BBM are like though, as we’ve always gone with PetPlan.

I'm curious with BBM for older pets as that seems to be when most insurers try to offload with unaffordable price hikes.

I've a 15yr dog with Petplan and it's just gone up 18% for renewal, same as last year for both dogs (other younger & no claims) but have nearly used up the 7k and think at least 4/5k previous year so it's still good value. Arthritis medication and the regular blood tests makes the premium worthwhile alone. Petplan are easy to deal with and specialist vets happy to direct claim so I've only had the excess to pay.

For some reason jumped few £p/m when I changed address but am still in main postcode area/same vets which is annoying.

OP- I can't advise either way. I'm been looking into all this, as getting a pup next month. The breeder said to get 1yr with pet plan, then cancel, and just save that money instead. She said that many policies won't pay out- unless its a life threatening illness. Is this normally the case?

@Hairyfriend

OP- I can't advise either way. I'm been looking into all this, as getting a pup next month. The breeder said to get 1yr with pet plan, then cancel, and just save that money instead. She said that many policies won't pay out- unless its a life threatening illness. Is this normally the case?

Petplan have paid out well over £5k for my dog who is now 5 years old with a life policy. Claims have varied from a cut paw pad which needed dressings, scale for his teeth due to plaque, investigations for stomach issues as well as emergency operations. As long as you look through the T&Cs and understand preexisting conditions which seem to catch people out thinking they can swop about every year or just get a 12 month policy then you should understand what you can claim for. The issue with putting money aside is that hip operations, cruciate ligaments etc can run into many thousands and can affect young dogs and even a bad case of D&V cost us over £2k (paid by our insurance).

@Hairyfriend

OP- I can't advise either way. I'm been looking into all this, as getting a pup next month. The breeder said to get 1yr with pet plan, then cancel, and just save that money instead. She said that many policies won't pay out- unless its a life threatening illness. Is this normally the case?

If we had just put savings aside we would have lost our boy two years before we did. He developed a rare autoimmune condition that cost over £20,000 to treat over 18 months. The medication that saved his life alone was over £400 a week and he had a week in the ICU at a specialist vet hospital, in addition to two at our own vets. There was no way we could have afforded all that without his insurance.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a claim refused, be it for something like an ear infection or a major op/illness and I’ve been insuring with PetPlan since the 1990s.

@Hairyfriend

OP- I can't advise either way. I'm been looking into all this, as getting a pup next month. The breeder said to get 1yr with pet plan, then cancel, and just save that money instead. She said that many policies won't pay out- unless its a life threatening illness. Is this normally the case?

Our dog developed immune mediated polyarthitis; he became unwell at the end of July and we've racked up over £7000 in vet bills. So glad we have insurance.

Your breeder may mean they won't cover minor things - an ear infection, upset stomach or similar might cost you a hundred or so but not be worth claiming as it's not much more than your excess. Insurance is more for the bigger things - accidents, serious illness or ongoing conditions (a skin condition for example might need specialist input, lots of investigations, and ongoing treatment - it adds up).

I'm with BBM, paid £23 per month for our rescue dog, claimed £7k first year and out premium went up by £1.20 per month. They were absolutely brilliant about paying out not only for the op, but for physio and hydrotherapy afterwards.

@Hairyfriend Petplan have never quibbled about a claim for my cats and over the course of a decade there’s been a broken leg, abscesses, recurrent UTIs, including emergency vets in the middle of the night.

I know some people self insure but I don’t want finances to have to come into consideration when I’m deciding what treatment my pet needs.

I’ve been more than happy with petplan’s service, I just wondered how BBM compared from a cost perspective.

Have worked in a vets for over 20 years. Go with pet plan - they never quibble about paying out. Also most vets are happy to claim from them directly so you only have to pay your vets the excess + admin fee if they have one.

Pet plan is expensive but honestly better than paying vet bills that are ridiculous!

It's a gamble with insurance but you need plenty funds available and not miss to self insure. Think lot of people get caught out with 12month cover or limited £ per condition rather than true lifetime so becomes pre-existing and don't fully read policy details to be aware of what it covers so think have few thousand and is perhaps few hundred per condition. They also massively underestimate vet & specialist fees, these are likely to rise in future years given shortages of vet staff, along with every other cost increasing.

It's tricky as people are used to hunting out cheapest price for £x cover and assume all alike but unlike most insurance you have to careful buy with the long-term in mind as may not be able to switch once a condition is noted on vet records ( claims not important) as they group so minor can become all bowel/lumps incl cancer etc. Also make sure the vet fees cover is high enough, seen lots of people have under £4k policy which isn't enough these days let alone in 10yrs time given they don't increase.

My only quibble with Petplan is that they limit hydrotherapy to 10 sessions per condition and that's it. Many insurers do also have a limit on sessions or £ for hydro under complimentary but are more generous. Hydro is like gym work takes time to build up so 10 session is minimal for rehab and for things like arthritis useful treatment longer term.

Our dog bought by Many insurance has remained low for lifetime cover at £22.36 a month and been really good so far, our dog is young though so only had it two years . They paid out straight away direct when she needed the vet for a general anaesthetic with a grass seed in her ear.
If anyone signing up anyway and wants a £20 amazon voucher with my referral code when join you are welcome to PM me. I do think they are competitive ; watch the small print as your dog’s vaccinations need to be up to date and I believe they ask for a yearly health check too for the terms to be valid.

Hi. Our BBM is £37 per month for the lifetime cover, the highest you can get. We claimed 1k during the first year so expected it to go up, but it actually went down £2 a month at renewal! They also paid really quickly and fuss free.