Sidestepping pet insurance

[Froghat]

We've had a terrible shock with our PetPlan insurance renewal for our 4-year old dog. The premium is set to go up to £167 per month. It's currently £109. We have £7000 per year on a life cover plan.

I got another quote today and it was in line with the above (slightly higher overall since the excess was considerably higher).

My question is: have you chosen to put money away instead of getting pet insurance? I'm thinking of going down that route.

This is my first dog and I'm nervous of what he needs he might have when he gets older (and whether I will regret not having insurance). But then if this is the premium level now, what on earth will it be when he's a senior?!

I'm looking for comfort that this isn't a barking idea (pun intended!) and any war stories.

I put the equivalent of the premium in Premium Bonds. Fortunately we have not had any large vet bills and unfortunately we have not won the million pounds.

That's a crazy amount! I couldn't risk not being insured though, so maybe look elsewhere. I have a 7yr old cross and 2yr old King Charles, older one has a heart murmur that is just scanned each yr at the moment. I pay £72pm for both for £7000 lifetime cover. The older also has arthritis but I choose not to cover that for non financial reasons.

Are you saying I still need public liability insurance even if I don't have pet insurance?

The dog is a type of French basset hound called a basset griffon.

Just seen your post - THANK YOU for sharing this info. Most helpful!!

You often get public liability insurance with your home insurance. In fact, pet insurers often have a clause to say that if you've other insurance which covers the risk, you have to use that. So you'd have to use your home insurance anyway.

Same here.

i’ve been doing it for over 20 years of cat ownership and my current cat now has a significant “inheritance”. I’ve not needed to dip into it so far as I’ve been able to afford any routine vet bills and age related stuff.

Check your home insurance. It possibly covers public liability already.

Oh wow we're just hitting £50 a month for an 11 year old and think this will be the last year we pay for full cover. We've started claiming regularly for arthritis so it'll sky rocket next year and might as well just pay the treatment and know if something bad happened we wouldn't put a senior dog through surgeries and treatment.

Pet insurance is a relatively new thing. And all it's done is put vet prices up which used to be quite reasonable. On the odd occasions i used them in the past before pet insurance became a thing I was shocked at how reasonable they were! Compare private healthcare costs between YS and U.K. Insurers create false supply and demand - you'll pay much more via an insurer than a lot of people can afford it would agree to pay, and do prices increase. Vet fees are now getting on for extortionate so people feel forced into pet insurance. So it's a vicious circle.

People also treat pets like children now so that doesn't help either!!

Pet insurance is also a bit of a con as soon as you claim they just whack the price right up in the following year. And do the same as the pet gets older. I'd rather see it work a bit more like life insurance.

Having said all that I have pet insurance. But also have self insured from day one so that when the cost becomes too much, I've got a pot to fall back on. As she gets older I am less inclined to keep her alive with ongoing treatment or give her invasive tests etc.anyway as it won't be worth it for the amount of life she'll have left.

I wouldn’t ever skip insurance. I’ve had a lot of dogs, and other pets, and one rescue dog cost us £3,000 in vet fees only four weeks after we got her. Thank god our insurance had already kicked in by then. And we have always used Pet Plan, partly because they are so reliable in terms of paying out and a lot of vets will let you use the policy without up front payment as Pet Plan are so well known. But even my most elderly, and Increasingly infirm Labradors and Greyhound didn’t cost that much. I’d the breed particularly prone to any conditions that might push it up?

This is a good point actually. I pay an annual 3rd policy. For all 5 (2 of which are horses) and 4 riders in the family the cost is about £170. All in. I feel that covers me and I’m being responsible.

Edited to point out I was trying to answer one of the posts about 3rd party liability. I clearly failed.

I know smaller dogs tend to be cheaper but my 11 year old Chihuahua is £32 per month with LV and £10,000 lifetime cover. LV have changed underwriters recently. She's had loads of claims too as she has a lifelong condition and is a monkey when it comes to eating things she shouldn't.

But last year it was £20.

@Froghat - I agree with 3rd party insurance via dog trust , but it might be worth phoning Tesco pet insurance . When our premiums started going up we switched to them and much cheaper. I would not go without 3rd party / public liability insurance though .

No worries @Froghat ☺️

Everyone should have public/third party liability - just in case.

We have self insured our dogs for about 20 years, putting £60 per month into a savings account, which we keep an eye on and switch when necessary to get a better rate. It has worked well for us, both our current dogs are now 13, one had cancer last year, operation to remove the tumour and then radiotherapy but we had enough to cover the cost easily.
Also, join the Dogs Trust, membership costs £25 per year or £12.50 if you're over 60. You get 3rd party public liability insurance up to a max of £1 million per claim, so if your dog causes an accident you're covered.

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I stopped paying to insure my Lab, he’s almost 13 and has arthritis. We claimed when he was 7 and the premium went over £100 a month. The consultant surgeon found a kidney disease marker and my usual vet decided to dine out on it for the next few years treating him as if he had kidney disease. Insurance said they wouldn’t cover my dog for a whole host of things as a result.
But he’s had a leg op £7.5k, a lump removed £1500, medication for the last six years along with Librela £300-400 a month ish occasionally more. I wouldn’t put him through another op now, just letting him plod along as the vet says he’s happy enough.
He still doesn’t have kidney disease but that’s another story.

Vet bills in the U.K are extremely high. My friends in the U.S can’t believe how much I pay. It’s close to £70 for a consultation and £65 for a follow up.

We do this. We have 2 cats and 2 dachshunds. The pet insurance was going to be £300 per month!

We now have £7k in a pet emergency fund plus access to more savings/high credit card limit should be need it.

I am considering getting a super cheap insurance provider as back up now we're near our target savings for them.

Blimey...I've just had my renewal premium of £57 pm for my 4 year old dog. He's a purebreed that's not common and I was going to shop around but thinking I'll not bother and go ahead with the auto renew as it seems good value. It's with Waggel pet insurance

Hmmm. Apparently vet bills and car repairs are two services that have seen disproportionately high inflationary increases since the cost of living crisis took hold.

I can see that maybe they are disproportionately affected by higher labour charges (vets) and higher parts charges (mechanics) but you do have to wonder what the influence of widespread insurance is. In my experience people are very blasé about claiming on pet insurance, almost like a given. Obviously car insurance is a bit different as there is the implicit rise in premiums for claiming, even if you technically have no claims protection.

With pet insurance I do wonder how they make it pay. Literally every non routine trip to the vets with my dog costs hundreds of pounds, and anything like eg a joint problem a broken bone or intestinal surgery, histology plus follow up, weekend overnight stays, etc, ‘cost’ several years of your average punter’s dog premium.

With pet insurance I do wonder how they make it pay.

We have two labs who are insured, neither have ever had a trip to the vets other than for vaccinations/worming/spaying.

Keep the insurance - we spent thousands though Petplan for our cat - you never know when you’ll need it but I would query the price rise and also
ask to look at the vet notes to see if there’s something in there you’ve not seen but they have - this happened to us

@NoisyDachshunddd for every dog that wracks up thousands of pounds worth of bills, there will be ten or twenty who never claim a penny.

I've had five pets over the last eight years and I've only ever claimed for arthritis medication for one of them.

Third party is crucial. I got sued for an accident involving my dog, I dread to think how much the solicitors would have cost if I hadn’t had insurance. Plus the settlement was the equivalent to 3-4years of pet insurance premiums. Probably would have emptied me out.