Would you keep lifetime pet insurance after lipoma treatment or switch?

[Optimistic2021]

Hi,

My dog has just turned 7 and had X2 lipomas removed back in April. His pet insurance is due for renewal and has more than doubled going from £21 to £45.

Just looking for advice on what others do. I've found cheaper insurance elsewhere however this is obviously excluded whereas with his current pet insurance it was a lifetime policy so would be covered for any future fatty lumps that may appear!

With his current policy, we had to pay 20% per condition so after his op we still had to pay around £500 - a lot less than the £2355 I guess.

What would others do in this situation?

Thanks x

Stick with your current policy. He's not very old and will get more fatty lumps, and if they are in tricky places they will need removing.

I would stick the current policy.

That said even after treatment do not forget about regular checkups! If you are looking for the fairest prices highly recommend checking out vetnear.co.uk

Stick with it 100%.

When Insurers do exclusions it's often not only the specific condition they tend to group so may find excludes all types of lumps not just lipomas

Thank you, I think I'll stick with his current policy and just pay the extra. He's got a small little lump that has appeared on his leg so I think he's going to be prone to them so probably safer just in case any more need removed.

I'm guessing very few insurers/no insurers would cover pre existing conditions? I've had a look and it doesn't look like it from what I can see anyway.

First time actually claiming on my pet insurance so this is all new when it comes to renewing! X

Some of them do but they have an exclusion period, or a condition where your dog has to be “clear” of the condition for a certain amount of time before they cover you again.

Also at the age of 7 many providers won’t allow you to start a new policy anyway as the risk of claiming is too high.

Keep it, that’s still a good price

I would stick with them, and that seems like a very good price for a 7 year old dog to me. We're paying £120 a month for our 9 year old

Definitely stick with, I made the mistake of moving our 7 year old labs policy because I found one half the price, never claimed a thing on it but because he’d had a single visit to the vets with diarrhoea which didn’t quickly settle, nothing actually found, the new insurance states he’s not covered for any digestive tract problems , they obviously didn’t bother telling me that when I took it out. Fortunately he’s had no issues

I would stick with it. I have just changed insurers, but my dog is 3 years old with no visits to the vet apart from annual vaccinations.

Thanks for all of the advice, I will stick with his current policy.

I've always shopped about as he's never had to go to the vets other than for vaccinations until this year.

I agree with sticking with the policy. £45 per month is £540 annually. If you have another excess during a 12 month period then your total outgoing for the year will be approx £1040. Still a lot lest that the full cost of the op. Just keep your eye on it though because every future claim will see the annual price rise.

Potentially it will rise anyway. We had a dog who suffered pancreatitis when young. She had a couple of 1-2 night stays in the vet (no actual op) and the premiums kept going up every year, despite us keeping the condition under control with her diet, and making no claims. For the last few years of her life we cancelled the policy and put money into an 'vet fund' account instead because the premiums had skyrocketed to a ridiculous amount. Fortunately we never made another claim before she died so what we had saved up we didn't lose.

Keep it OP. From experience, the prices shoot up once the dog reaches 8 years of age regardless of previous claims. Then it keeps going up and up forever just based on age alone. Any claims would also affect the price I think.