Dog insurance - how to choose and which insurers are reliable?

[Catsinahat]

I have a 6 year old dog and my insurance has steadily increased year on year, it is now up for renewal and is £65 a month. I can’t afford this with everything else going up too so have looked at other companies, but how do I know if any of them are any good? Trying to work out cover and covered for life etc but don’t really understand what I’m looking at. If anyone can help I’d appreciate it. Many thanks.

Following as have a similar issue for 11 year old hound. Hard to know which companies are trustworthy.

Trust pilot is a fairly good way of seeing what users have made of them.

I also phoned my vet. Theye can't/ wouldn't recommend an insurer but they could tell me the ones they accepted direct claims from aka I don't need to fork out and await the payout. That was a cincher for me and whilst it's not a recommendation from the vet, it's a good insight into what ones they trust to ante up the cash.

As an insight, I was previously with Animal Friends. 2.5 year old mongrel with no health issues. £4k annual limit, life cover = £29pm. They refuse to negotiate at renewal, said they offer best deal first time.

I'm now with PurelyPets. £6k annual limit, life cover = £8.52 pm. Good rating on TrustPilot and my vet uses them.

I generally go for the path of least resistance and if Animal Friends had been willing to communicate with me and offer even a moderate reduction, I would probably have stayed put. But when I feel they are being obstinate for obstinates' sake....nahh, goodbye.

Beware the pre existing conditions thing when swapping insurer, or even swapping policies within one company

We insure 3rd party using £25/year Dogs Trust membership. Any vets fees we pay as we go. I find it's a LOT cheaper to say 'no insurance' when asked.

Ask your vet who they deal directly with as it can make things much easier. You want a policy that will cover you for any on going chronic conditions. Limits will depend a little on the breed of dog you have- larger breeds treatments tend to cost more, because of medications done by weight etc, and any conditions your dogs breed is predisposed to- so labs for example with a predisposition to hip dysplasia- your going to max out a 10k limit on a double hip replacement. Animal Friends have just launched a policy with an 18k limit- and I think other insurers will follow.

Personally I like insurers who offer the best deal at renewal. I don’t want them adding on extra to see if they can get away with it, it seems a bit shady.

Many Pets (used to be bought by many) can pay the vet directly. Claims done online.

Over the years we have used Marks and Spencer, Petguard and now More Pets. M&S were excellent but working gundogs were a grey area so next time we used Petguard. They were fine but did take their time paying. Many Pets cover working gundogs as long as it's not my job (not a gamekeeper etc) and their quote was half the next cheapest for more cover (£15,000 I chose). I haven't had to claim yet, so I can't comment on how easy it is.

Dog insurance is a ripoff. It goes up and up as your dog gets older. You can hardly ever claim because the excess is a couple of hundred pounds. And if you do manage to claim, they increase the monthly premium so you still end up paying. If your dog develops a long term condition you’re trapped with that insurer because no other insurer will take you on with a pre existing condition. And then your insurer has you captive so they massively increase the premiums.

I don’t have dog insurance. I put £50 per month in a savings account. By the time my dog gets old and sick I’ll have about £5-6K to cover any vet fees. And if my dog doesn’t get sick I can keep the cash, unlike insurance which is gone down the toilet.

We are with PetPlan. We've had dogs for over 25 years.
It's all about cash flow. We did at one point stop insurance, and then two of our dogs got cancer, an injury requiring surgery, and a condition requiring surgery. We paid out about ₤5k in a year over 10 years ago and only one of those 2 dogs survived in the end.

We went back to insuring them, so, when a later dog got cancer aged 5 and had scans, surgery, and treatment for post surgical complications which he did not survive, our grief at losing him wasn't accompanied by the grief of losing another £5k in one lump!

Our current dog is over 10 and only 80% of vet fees are repaid under the plan but he IS still covered, which is good, because this year the insurance payouts have been roughly what we've paid in over the years, and could easily have been more. We avoided hitting the annual payout limit because his vet visits straddled insurance years.

We decided to go for the security of knowing big bills would (mostly) be covered, and having the pain of seeing the money go spread out, rather than losing a dog AND many thousands of pounds at the same time.

I know people do sometimes take the view "I wouldn't pay out more than X, I would have them PTS", but I would find that very difficult. The vast majority of the time, vet treatment for my dogs has been effective - even when it did not cure, it yielded many months if quality life - and they bounced back very quickly, much faster than humans do!

So I pay the insurance for the privilege of saying, "do whatever is best of the dog" and being able to just worry about getting them through it.

Be aware that vet costs have gone up and vets are very busy (lockdown puppies and Brexit and COVID) so shopping around may introduce significant delays.

Dogs are expensive! Mine now costs ~£3k/year (old-dog food, old-dog insurance, jabs, excess vet fees, kennels, treats).

I agree with Fenella123. Our insurance lapsed and a couple of months later our youngish much loved dog got cancer. She had invasive spinal surgery and radiotherapy which cost about £15k but with a very high (>90%) chance of success. That worked and she recovered fully and we were over the moon, as she was expected to live another five years. However, six months later she got a different, unrelated cancer, which cost us another 5k in scans for diagnosis and emergency operation and she died a few days later. It was all insanely traumatic and all the worse for having paid the lot ourselves. It was the perfect storm of a dog who coped really well with vet treatment, a few situations where you had to choose do this or have your dog put to sleep immediately, and having the savings in the bank. I will now forever have insurance until my dogs have reached an age I'd be willing to let them go. Diagnostics are expensive, so putting £50 away every month doesn't go very far.

Not dog insurance but I've used pet plan for my cat and they pay directly to the vets, never had an issue with them, over the last 16 years they've paid around £5000 for treatment for our cat.

I'm with Sainsburys. Tesco are also good. PetPlan are also good.

I personally would avoid Animal Friends and similar, when I worked at a vets they weren't always great to deal with. Lengthy delays and (sometimes spurious) excuses. Some owners also didn't always realise that they weren't covered for the whole amount of the bill, even after deduction of the excess.

Always read the small print, of course. Agree with others who advise getting a few recommendations from the vet or impartial reviews on Trustpilot.

It is an extra expense, but I would always recommend having insurance. From experience on the vet side (having insurance can give more treatment options and can potentially make a very distressing situation fractionally easier) and from the pet owner side (my dog was involved in a serious accident a few years ago. The excess I had to pay was in the £100s, but the overall bill came to over £6,000, which Sainsburys paid direct to the vet without quibble or delay. My dog made a full recovery; having the insurance in place gave great peace of mind).

Best wishes to you. x

We were with waggle. We are yet to finish our claim but when our puppy died last week they were excellent.

Very helpful and kind.

Downside is a small team so can take a little longer to get through but they offer a call back service and we've said even if they don't pay out we are glad we are with them for their compassion and kindness this last week

Thanks for all your comments. It’s such a minefield! I am with Petplan and the renewal is £65 a month for £7000 lifetime cover. Looked at Animal Friends and they offer two types of lifetime cover - per condition or per year and I’m struggling with the difference! If you got £4k per condition a year, could you then claim for multiple conditions each up to £4k (so therefore they would pay out more than say a £4k total annual policy limit)?

We're with Agria. Had a recent claim and they were great, paid the vet direct with no problems and even gave me advice and support at the time.

I'm with petplan for my 11.5 year old lab cross. He's got complex medical,problems including arthritis and diabetes and if it wasn't for petplan and the £7000 a year cover, plus the £1000 for complementary therapy (he has acupuncture) then I'd have been bankrupt a long time ago.
Because they are trusted by vets, vets can directly claim and they are really quick to pay out. When I've had to call them they respond quickly and the call centre staff are so lovely and always ask how my dog is.
Yes they are expensive, and I'm paying over £60 a month....but as my dog has cost £14000 in the last year and half, they are a necessity rather than a luxury, because I'm on my own and work for the NHS so not rolling in it...but no way would I have had my beloved dog put down because of money, I'd have always found a way to pay.

Per condition usually means for the life of the pet, for example, my dog has Cushings and we pay £100/month average for meds/bloods. Once he hit your £4k limit (over a number of years) there's no more for Cushings and you're on your own for that, but a new condition would be covered.

Per year means anything/any illness you need to claim for upto that limit is fine and it resets the next year. This is the policy we have with M&S who have been brilliant (£7k limit).

He's 13 now, Cushings, arthritic, a bit deaf and we'd unlikely treat him for anything major now, he's definitely showing his age, and tbh if we weren't paying more per month than we're claiming, I wouldn't be looking to cancel it when it's due for renewal.

Be aware that vet fees are going up - a couple of scans and a major op and poof! £7k gone - with a younger dog I'd look to see what plans offered a higher limit.

I’ve been really pleased with Many Pets which paid our vet direct easily when we needed it. I’ve had it for over 3 years and pay £35/ month for a £7k/ year limit.

(if anyone wants a referral code PM me as it gives us both a £20 Amazon voucher - but so far I would recommend it regardless as it’s been good and also given me peace of mind espec as our dog’s breed can be prone to hereditary illness.

We're with Many Pets, we've not had to claim at all yet but we have made use of the FirstVet online service which is free. This alone saved us a trip to the out of hours vet which would have cost as much as our yearly premium.

Insurance is always about spreading risk, some will pay more in insurance than via self insurance some will pay less. If I get through each year not getting value for money from my insurance that's fine with me. I'd prefer to be paying 350 a year and getting nothing in return than getting 10k worth of treatment!

We found PetPlan very good - no hassle at all settling bills directly with the vets. They are expensive - of course, insurance always costs more than paying directly unless you're unlucky.

I’ve been with Pet Plan for all my dogs for years. I tried self-insuring and got stung badly when one of my dogs was diagnosed with cancer and the diagnostic tests alone ended up costing thousands that we had to put on a credit card.

I also tried another couple of insurance companies, but both gave us the run around, one treated us appallingly when our dog died and neither are still around. Pet Plan have always paid out quickly and without a fuss and we’ve never had an excessive premium increase despite one dog costing tens of thousands to treat over a few years. It also helps that my vet and the local specialist hospital will both deal with them directly for big ops/treatments, which is a load off your mind when you have a seriously ill dog to care for.

I have just insured my new pup with them as well. Meanwhile the blooming Kennel Club have been spamming my email, texts, mobile and landline trying to get me to take out a full policy from them following on from my 5 weeks free breeder initiated insurance. It seemed to start when I changed my pup’s registration from the breeder’s to mine, as ever since they have honestly been nothing short of harassing us, to the extent that I would never consider taking out a policy with them for that reason alone - which is what I told the slightly taken aback young man that rang this morning.