Dog Insurance hike ridiculous?

[Lloki]

Just got my pet insurance renewal through, it's gone up by £163 a year!
I've never made a claim and this will be going into the third year I've been with them.
When I first got the insurance out in 2024 it was £258 per year, its now £489 per year!
He's a 5yr old lab, as I say never claimed.
This is a rip of right? Or is this totally normal?

@DamnedIfIDoDamnedIfIDont what sort of insurance is this please? Do you mean a fixed price per year every year with the same level of cover? For life? Sounds really good.

I though the price is driven by breed and age before past claims. We have two dogs, similar ages, insurance going up every year, we are now at nearly £240/dog/month. And the total yearly cover is going down, although at least it covers everything. I’m very close to cancelling. We made good use of it over the years but, in all honesty, keeping dogs as pets is a rich man pursuit nowadays.

I have a Labrador and a curly coated retriever both insured for £7k each per year with my monthly premiums £44.30 each dog. They cover all new and any previous conditions up to £7k each per year, when it’s gone it’s gone until the following year if that makes sense. My curly has just had knee surgery £4.5k and is about to have physiotherapy and hydrotherapy up to our maximum of £1k so that leaves £1.5k in the pot until renewal in October. My premiums will never go up and they don’t drop your policy when the dog becomes 10yr old like my previous dogs insurance did (I’d never claimed and was totally unaware they did that, think it was Tesco or similar I insured with prev)
when I started the current cover it was my breeders recommendation to insure with “bought by many” they changed names a few yrs back now called “many pets”

What I'm arguing is that higher veterinary fees feed through into higher turnover and thus more opportunities to make money, for the insurance companies. A 5% profit off £10 million drawn from insurance premiums from 20k customers is twice as much as a 5% profit off £5million drawn from insurance premiums from the same number of customers for basically no extra work.

So higher vet costs => higher premiums => more money to insurance companies => higher profits for them.

What is true of all insurance companies is that they work out very carefully how much they're likely to have to cough up vs how much is paid in by their customers.

@SpanielsGalore theyre not going to be making a killing on every single insured pet (though I wonder how much you'd paid in premiums over the years before your £4K claim?) but overall they're quids in.
As you yourself said, they're businesses out to make a profit.

Exactly! I don't remember any of my childhood dogs being referred to specialists for treatment. Back in the day, my dog would have lived with a limp and in pain, had the leg amputated or been PTS.

But medicine, be it human or veterinary, makes advances. My daughter has bone cancer. Her consultant told her that a little over 5 years ago she'd likely have had her leg amputated, but now she'll have an endoprosthetic bone replacement instead.
Not sure why you think medical advances are driven by insurance.

@CBA2RTFT I have paid approximately £1557 for 5 years insurance. In that time I have claimed just over £14,400. And since I have paid up until November, I am sure that amount will increase.

My other dog has probably cost £500 in premiums and I have claimed around £200 back. Like I said, I am just glad she is healthy and hasn't been through as much as my older dog. I don't feel I am being scammed.

I don't think medical advances are driven by insurance. I said vet bills were higher due to advances in medical treatments. Years ago, I would have paid a few £100 for an amputation instead of £4k for a ligament surgery.

I am sorry to hear about your daughter and hope her treatment goes well.

@Forfogsake thank you for sharing that.
Extraordinarily good value, I am now a bit annoyed with myself for not knowing this existed!

Surely you'll have paid more than the £12k over the life of your dog though, and you may well never need it? Or am I missing something?

Or you could claim £12k of vet fees every year for the rest of your dog's life.

No one knows what's round the corner. Insurance gives some people peace of mind, that their vet bills will be covered if needed.
I wouldn't have been able to afford all of my dog's treatments.