Insurance - not covering ‘scavinging’

[Delatron]

We’ve been with Many Pets for about 4 years. No real problems, they pay out quickly without quibble. We have a lively lab who has had a few accidents now - one involving eating mince pies and one accident running in to a branch.

Coincidently (or not) our premiums rise by the exact same amount as the claim. So we’re now up to £170 a month. Tried Pet Plan and they’ll do £125 per month but not cover ‘scavenging’ so I’m guessing anything involving him eating something he shouldn’t.

We are careful in the home but can’t account for things he may find outside. Can’t decide whether to stick with Many Pets or accept the lower cost but with this exemption.

Anyone else had this with labs and Pet Plan? Trying to think of worst case - I guess if he eats something and has to have surgery to remove? Then they don’t cover that.

It's a tough one as the consequences of "scavenging" can be pretty expensive - not just surgery, but days in the vets on fluids etc, plus the cost of emergency vet fees if they do it at the weekend (which they always seem to do).

Even £125 seems very expensive though - how old is he?

I think with pet insurance you’ve got to come to the decision to 1) just continue with expensive insurance, 2) save the amount from insurance every month but accept it might not cover everything 3) just pay for the bills as they arrive.
personally I think £125 a month is too much for pet insurance

Would scavenging include eating anything he shouldn't, wherever he got it from I wonder..?
A friend's dog ate a large-ish piece of toy he had chewed off which got stuck and set up an infection. Multiple thousands of £ of vets fees in operations and intensive care, but they lost him anyway after a week ☹️ They were not insured....! They insured their other dog pretty damn quick!

This is a good reason to muzzle your dog. Protect them from harm and save on the insurance premium.

Oh wow, that is a dilemma. Is your lab 4? That seems a really high cost if so. we've also had a mince pie incident and I half expected the claim to be turned down because scavenging, at least at home, seems preventable. I would be worried about not having cover for scavenging in case of an op being needed one day. Have you tried any other insurers?

That amount for pet insurance seems ridiculous. Have you done a comparison? A generic, no illness 5yo lab would be about £200 per year

Blimey. I pay £25 a month for my 9yo dog and that’s a policy with a good amount of cover…but I’ve never claimed in 9 years so maybe that makes a difference

How much cover would you get for that £200?

I read an article about dog breeding the other day. It mentioned labs and how they have a gene that predisposes them to overbearing as they dont get signals that they are full. That’s one of the reasons Labs can easily become overweight.

I'm paying £237 a month for my retriever currently....! She is 10 this year and has had cancer and has a degenerative spinal condition, so I'm stuck paying because even a scan is ££££ nowadays.

I've never heard of a policy not covering scavenging...I think I'd better go and read mine because she will often lunge and eat something off the pavement if I'm not fast enough to stop her.

I'm with Tesco Pet Insurance on a lifetime cover plan (up to £8k a year). They have been brilliant and only recently ramped up the premiums after I claimed almost £7.5k the year before last....

Thanks for all the replies! He’s 5 years old. They asked if he was a scavenger and I said ‘as much as any other lab!’ And then disclosed the mince pie incident. He is a bugger - he definitely has the lab gene that doesn’t tell them they are full.

I can’t decide whether to go for the £125 with the scavenging exemption or stick with Many Pets for £167 a month.

He has had quite a few vet trips so is probably high risk and I doubt I’ll get anything cheaper sob. He ran in to some bamboo and last year and it got stuck in his throat.

I think I'd be inclined to stick with what you know, especially if they've always paid out promptly in the past.

I know £40 sounds like a lot but if, heaven forbid, he eats something he shouldn't and makes himself sick, you could potentially be looking at a bill of thousands of pounds.

Yes this is true and then the added stress and worry when I’m still paying lots.

They sound good. I will investigate!

£167 per MONTH?! Wow! And to think I was quibbling with Tesco Pet insurance over their premium rise of £60 per year (to a total of just under £300 per year) for my 9yo cat. I had no idea dogs were so expensive to insure.

I mean we have made a claim of at least £1k every year we’ve had him. It’s more than doubled though - we used to pay about £60 per month. I did joke that soon he would be uninsurable. Not so funny now.

If you've had lots of claims and there are exceptions with a new policy, I would just suck up the £40 tbh. It seems a lot over the year but it's a lot less than the costs of an emergency operation!

My Tesco premium went up by £78 a month...I'd be SO happy paying £300 a year (instead of nearly £3k)

Lab owner here, but not had the problems you have. My last Lab was insured with Petplan and we did have to claim a couple of times in the first year, but when he reached the age of 7 the premiums went up a lot, despite the fact that we hadn't claimed for 4 or 5 years. Apparently this is the norm with them. I used a different insurer this time around, where they just ask for a larger excess as they get older rather than the premiums rising by so much. As your Lab is already 5 I personally wouldn't.

I’ve actually made a mistake and the Many Pets is £125 too 🤦‍♀️. So Pet Plan and Many Pets coming out at the same price but MP cover everything. Sticking with the old policy for now but hopefully we’ll have a good year and I can shop around next year and look at other providers such as Tesco.

Pet Plan did make it clear that the costs would increase every year even if we didn’t claim.

Thanks for this. Yes they insinuated the price would go up and then not covering scavenging (with a lab!) doesn’t feel like the company for us.

Will review next year!

il guessing dogs (and maybe labs!) are just a lot more expensive to insure than cats.

I think that the huge increase in vets bills due to the lack of competition is also to blame for the large rises in premiums - for all animals. I wonder whether the investigation by the Competition Commission into the monopoly situation will lead to lower premiums in the future....(I think I know the answer to that.....😏)

The good thing is that PetPlan doesn't put up premiums if you do claim.

But I'd only do it if you can afford the cost of a scavenging claim. If you're very much living paycheque to paycheque then I would be worried. If you could swallow a four-figure vet bill, then go for it.

Thank you - decided I did not want the worry of a scavenging issue. And the old company was actually the same (albeit high!!) price with scavenging included. Seems insuring scavenging/accident prone labs is expensive!!