Can't afford pet insurance increase.

[Doggyoho]

My dog is 3 months away from 7yo.
Been insured with animal friends since she was 8 weeks old. Up until last year we never made a claim. My dog had an episode after finding walks increasingly difficult and it was recommended she have BOAS surgery. The insurance covered it but her monthly premium has now gone from £26 a month to £59 and I absolutely cannot afford that. Especially as she will be approaching 8 soon and another 20% is added on at that age. If I ever had to claim for something else the price would be astronomical.

I will have to cancel her policy and take out a new policy and anything to do with her BOAS won't be covered and I recently went and had her seen for allergies (with the hope we would be able to get some panel tests done and covered by her insurance which wont be possible now I guess as they will be pre existing)

I don't know if I should go with animal friends again or someone else?o

@Dunnocantthinkofone is right OP. My boy had an allergic reaction a few years ago, now any skin conditions are excluded on his policy. You can’t say other issues won’t come up again. And you absolutely need insurance for a worst case scenario - what if your dog is hit by a car? Has an allergic reaction to something? Is attacked? Gets cancer? Gets an infection from a tick bite (again, one of mine has this - over £800 at the emergency vet) or any number of issues? £56 really isn’t that much for such a young dog.

8 is very young, unless it’s a giant breed, to be cancelling insurance.

I hope negotiation with them goes well. I tweaked my 3 dog policy with Many Pets recently. Only 1 dog has had any claims, although she's had a lot paid out - almost £7k in one year for 2 conditions.

By going from £0 excess to something like £50 per dog annually (paid only if there is a claim), I reduced my premiums by about half. Even if I claim for all dogs, it will still save me on the annual premium.

I also agree with PP that it will be risky to change policy, as you'll find anything in your dog's vet record could lead to a related claim being denied, even if you never claimed or had treatment for it.

Are you asking for permission to change insurance provider OP? If so, go for it!

I think sometimes you just have to suck up the cost and cut back somewhere else. At 8 I wouldn’t change. My insurance started at £28 and 11 years later it’s now £102. I’ve just accepted it’s one of those things I have to pay. We claimed 5 years ago and they paid out £3k with no quibbles. Personally i wouldn’t change as there would be so many exclusions

Unfortunately it is one of those things we now count as a vital expense.
my DPs dog is 11 - been jaunted with the same company for years. However he never took him for check ups etc and subsequently he has no vet history. Now he needs dental work and they won’t pay - lesson well and truly learned. My dog is insured at £35 a month and he has all his check ups etc as when it goes wrong it isn’t worth the heartache.
and ignore advice to say to just put it in a savings account. Some vet bills can be thousands - my old spaniel cost 15k - that’s a hell of a lot of saving and if you can’t afford £60 a month that won’t get you far.

Dental work is only ever covered for trauma (and that’s if you are lucky)
Its considered general wear and tear/maintenance not a medical thing in the main

@Dunnocantthinkofonemine is covered for dental illness and decay. But he has the top tier level and comprehensive cover

Interesting - I’ve not come across one that does. Nice to know it’s an option I guess - but very expensive I’m assuming?

@Dunnocantthinkofone its as follows - he’s on the complete cover lifetime cover so the allowance resets every year and is 20k. His cover is £37 a month.

Not sure if it helps but I took out a policy with animal friends (have used them before). Lifetime policy. Rehomed dog who was 8 and is now 10. First year I paid £16 a month. Last year she had to have surgery costing £2k which was covered, less the excess and 20%. This year her premium is £35 a month. She is purebred. I think it's a bargain!

Definitely speak with them and see if you can negotiate.

We had dental care and only a medium lifetime cover with petplan. Condition was vet had to check teeth yearly which wasn’t an issue and we had several dental claims with the first just being a vet recommended equivalent of scale and polish to remove plaque. It really pays to look at the T&Cs across all companies as cheap is often a false economy. Our dog was insured at almost 10 for just under £100 a month but we claimed far more that it cost us over his life.

As an aside I give my 7kg dog half a citirizine a day and that's stopped the itchiness you describe. Only needed in summer

@OrlandointheWilderness Thank you - what company is it?

I’m with many pets. With them because they cover working dogs (we have Gundogs) and I’ve known a fair amount of people with them and they been brilliant paying out.

That’s encouraging! As it’s who new pup is with - I might look to up the cover to the more fancy one on renewal then! Thanks again

historically Ive always used Equine and Leisure but they stopped offering cover to new dogs some time ago.

Yes mine is a spoiled rotten pup I’m afraid but it’s just the thought of anything going wrong scares me silly!
oh that’s funny - when I had horses E&L had a terrible reputation for insurance. I’ve no idea what they are like with dogs though.

For me - bloody brilliant. But there’s good and bad stories to tell about all of them I expect.
they did theirs as a weird ‘lunar month’ cover so I had £5,000 per month to spend if needed - literally £60K per year! It’s not entirely surprising that they’ve pulled out of the market with that offer 😂

And a side note - they do 24/7 vet video calls and phone calls which are fab. I’ve used them before - notably when Ddog decided to open and eat my post. Which contained a 6 month supply of my contraceptive pill….. luckily he only ate a few and the vet said it’s more common than you’d think!!