Insurance - to claim or not to claim!

[FlowersOfSulphur]

DDog (aged 4) ate some chocolate yesterday, and had to be rushed to the emergency vets to have the vomiting injection. She brought it all up and is fine now, but it was very expensive (£230) and now I have a question about paying for it!

Ddog is insured with PetPlan (the Classic Covered For Life option). Does anybody know, please, if it's cheaper in the long run to:
A) claim on her insurance and only pay the excess (£110) now (but then her insurance premiums may go up)
Or B) pay for this emergency treatment myself now and hope that her premiums don't go up too much.

Her insurance for this year was £640, up from £500 the previous year (despite no claims over her lifetime). It's already expensive but we've got it because she's a Cavalier cross (albeit from health-tested parents) and is therefore at higher risk of heart problems in later life. If you've been in a similar situation, did you claim on your insurance, and if so, what happened to your insurance premiums afterwards?

Thank you!

With Petplan they guarantee that the price does not go up for claiming, it just goes up each year as the pet ages.

As above PetPlan do not increase premiums if you claim it just goes up with age so you have nothing to worry about claiming as it won’t effect your premiums going forward

I'm with petplan and make a lot of claims (chronic illnesses and a penchant for eating things he shouldn't) and they've never penalised me.

Thanks all, you have reassured me. I'll do the claim now!

Mine scavenged a rogue mince pie out on a walk couple of weeks back. Straight to the vets, £150 quid later, thanks very much and HNY to you too you knob dog!

With PetPlan though, similar policy, and our claim just got approved on Friday. Getting £40 back, but it's better than nothing

As much as I despise insurance companies, Pet Plan are good 👍

Ps, hope your Pupper is ok now too! It's not nice watching them heave up everything (even though it's what's needed)

Bloody dogs! (Joke!)

While visiting family, our previous dog ate some chocolate not long after Easter a few years ago. It was a Sunday and so required a trip to the emergency vet and cost us about £800 (she didn't really vomit anything up and needed to stay overnight with charcoal etc). We claimed from PetPlan because it was such a big expense out of the blue. They didn't increase her premium for claiming, just as she became another year older.

Hope your dog is okay now.

You might have an admin fee from the vets as well, usually about £20. Still worth claiming though.

Thanks all. I've submitted my claim now and eagerly await my refund (minus the excess and possible vet's admin fee)!