Pet insurance renewals... is anyone else getting absolutely hammered on renewals?

[JasperCava]

My dog's premium just jumped 33% at renewal (and not the first time!)... I'm trying to dig into switching options but its a rabbit hole. I'm finding comparison sites basically useless once your pet has had any treatment, because a new insurer can exclude that condition entirely. And it's really confusing whether the trade off to switch to something cheaper & accept that exclusion is worth it.

Has anyone actually navigated this successfully? Has anyone found a way to switch without getting burned by a prior condition, or whether you ended up staying put? What did you actually do?

I thought I did research when first taking out a policy but now it feels like I was flying completely blind...

(picture is our dog during our home reno as this is what I feel like doing... just cancelling the insurance and putting high vis on to keep him safe...!)

Hi OP

No good news im afraid. I have 4 pets and ive struggled with insurance for them. My cat was runover and I had to claim. This meant that if I changed insurers and anything happened to his back legs they wouldnt cover it. I then had to claim again as he was losing weight and his fur was poor. Now im stuck with my insurers as no other insurers will cover him as hes had claims.

Same with my dog. He started acted funny. Staring and just seemed off. They thought it was a brain tumor. Long story short he is fine but again I cant change insurers as I've claimed.

So with my dog ive had to reduce the cover value to offset the price difference a month. And ill have to do the same with my cat. Whose only 6. So frustrating.

My other dog who was poorly as a puppy is insured but has the exclusion for the condition and thankfully hasn't had any problems since touch wood. So that is an option.

We had this - with our 2 elderly dogs (who died last year) it was costing us £100 a month insurance as they had pre-existing conditions so we couldn't shop around.
However the insurers (M&S) were great and never quibbled a thing during both dogs' treatment, and we were able to follow the vet's recommendations without worrying about finding £000s to pay for it. If you can afford it, it's well worth sticking with an insurer you like for the peace of mind.
Obviously it's heart-breaking if it is actually not affordable (rather than just really annoying) that the premiums increase. I have heard several accounts of vets negotiating on price of treatment for non-insured owners though so maybe this could be a help if you reduce cover.

Hope you get sorted OP

Yes but he had a long term health condition (epilepsy) so we were stuck with them. They were also excellent at paying out so we always got our money back and more.

He's just died so now we are trying to make a final claim (which I'm putting off!).

Its a shame it all costs so much to have a pet.

No easy answer, OP.

I changed one of my dogs recently from KC to Petplan (all my dogs are now with PetPlan). It cost £5 less a month for the same cover, but it excluded 'any and all issues related to the skin for 2 years' - but for me that's fine. His skin issues were due to allergies, which I now know about and can manage. If it was an exclusion of something more major, I wouldn't have done it.

It's about just figuring out what sort of risk you're happy to take. Who are you with now, and what's the cover? Some insurers are notoriously terrible, with high premiums, and some are notoriously terrible with low premiums. Pet Plan, Sainsburys and KC are about the best, from what I have seen/experienced.

He’s very cute!

Once you’ve claimed, it’s a nightmare. Ours was £50 last year and due to a claim and age is now £90 per month. I want to cancel as the cost of his treatment is about £250 every 6 months which we have to pay out and claim back anyway but DP says it would be too risky if something does go wrong. I had the same issue as you - comparison sites simply said no and you can’t call them all to save £2 a month, maybe.

The choices are simply stay and pay or cancel. Or they were for us.

Love the pic!

I rehomed an elderly dog 18m ago. Paid £15 per month for the first year but with exclusions such as dental and having to pay 20% of any claim and a large excess. Lifetime cover with Animal Friends.

Stupid animal is food obsessed, ate something on a walk, got ileus, was in the vets for five days and the total bill was just under £2k. I've also had to pay for teeth to be removed and treatment when she hoovered up a chocolate Father Christmas at my neighbours. My renewal for her insurance in September went up to £35 per month.

I don't think that's too bad for a 10yr old dog but she's costing me a lot in vet fees that I can't claim for (teeth, chocolate). I'll rethink it at renewal this autumn.

It's a tricky decision @JasperCava

We just recently decided to pay for it ourselves as our pets went up to £90 and that wasn't including there monthly fee I pay at vet for all there annual checks,flea stuff etc. my DH worked out that we had paid almost 6 grand in 5 years and never claimed so decided to pay ourselves should anything go wrong

This approach is fine if you can afford £5k+ at a drop but seems a gamble to save £90 a month.

I've had the most innocuous thing cascade into multiple tests or scans and they add up rapidly. I’d never advise this approach for most people.

I actually feel for people who have/ are thinking of rescuing because it’s just all so unaffordable now

One of our dogs costs £121 per month now the other one is about £62 we are stuck because if we change anything pre existing won’t be covered, we worked out the cost of the medication the expensive dog needs and compared claiming on insurance with buying from online pharmacy etc and decided to stay.
The expensive one I think went up so much because I made one claim for his allergy injections so the doubled the price. It was the first claim with him for his whole 11 years.
I also need the insurance for the other one because her breed has health issues and will probably need medical treatment in the future (she’s a rescue)

Ours has just decreased a bit as he is now too old for the payout of initial purchase cost if he died. It’s still over £1200 for only 4K cover but he is 9 and we have claimed thousands which is far more than I have spent on premiums over his life time.

Who are you with at the moment?

There are some companies that cover pre existing but only if they've been symptom free a certain length of time. . sympathies, my car insurance jumped by 40% and I've never claimed!

Just renewed ours. M&S wanted nearly £800 (4 year old Labrador) £250 excess, £5000 cover. Rang Sainsbury's and got £7500 cover, £95 excess, around £480, but £45 of Nectar points too. Two minor exclusions for the next year

I agree because pet ownership is too costly now. We’ve 3 dogs, all insured but costs £350 per month just for health(insurance and vet preventative care) that without food and grooming. We’ve decided to only have 1 dog when the eldest 2 aren’t here anymore.

Our last renewal quote was almost £200 a month for an 11 year old boxer.
We decided to cancel the insurance and put the £200 a month into a savings account. We had made the decision that at her age we would not be paying out for any treatment involving an operation. She is now 13 - old for her breed and has probably cost us less than £100 in vet bills a year.
We took out an interest free credit card to tide us over if need be. No regrets but she is old. Perhaps it is worth thinking about.

Last year it only went up by around £15 which was a relief but on a Facebook page , people’s premiums have tripled for no reason. Dreading when Dog turns eight which is a big spike.

Yes, very expensive now. But my dog is also 11.

Iv just cancelled my insurance because it went up to nearly £100 a month from being closer to £40.
Not as much as some are paying but lots of our bills are going up right now and it's not possible to keep paying them all.
My bitch is a cross so she's cheapish but my dog is a pedigree with no papers and his shot up.

For now we've got a credit card as a just incase and we are saving the money we would have spent on insurance in a separate account.
Hopefully we won't have any big bills soon as they are both young and that will give me time to save.

It’s a mine field.

my elderly dog who had never had any illness until she suddenly did a few months ago was insured with animal friends. I was happy she was insured and animal friends only paid out £740 of the bill which was 2k. Apparently in the small print every single thing is capped, so a cap on blood tests, a cap on consultation fee, a cap on x, a cap on y. I knew I had an excess, I knew I had 20% copay but I thought they’d pay the rest as I had 7k of cover. Absolute scam artists imho. But I can’t move her to a different insurers now without all digestive issues being excluded. And I’m sure when her renewal is up it will go through the roof.

im thinking of moving my younger dog from Admiral to PetPlan….which I know is more expensive but they say they don’t go up if you claim. They do go up for age and inflation though 🤷‍♀️

I've been lucky and ours has gone from £11.66 a month to £11.77. I've got a 2 year old border collie, so a young and healthy dog. No claims made either.