Is pet insurance actually worth it?

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I have 2 cats BSH. The oldest is 4 and has been insured since 14 weeks. I have never once needed to make a claim for him and so far have paid about £450 for him in insurance. The cats are both house cats. So is it worth it?

Depends how much money you have - if I was well off enough to be able to deal with a large vet bill I'd probably not bother, but as I'm skint paying the smallish premium each month gives me peace of mind that I'll never have to consider having a cat put down just because I couldn't afford a £1000 sudden bill. Hope that makes sense
My 3 year old indoor cat (deeply mistrustful of the catflap!) landed us with a £600 bill for bladder problems earlier this year, and I was very glad of the insurance...

I would also say yes its worth it. Our kittens treatment for an abcess and subsequent euthanising when the infection escalated was £268 - that was for 1 small bottle of antibiotics, abcess drained then 2 days later saline drip, blood tests and being put to sleep.

Stinky my friend has 2 indoor cats and lives in central london. when one of them got a kidney infection the treatment cost £2300!!

I have my other kitten insured with Argos on their highest level of cover, this pays out up to £7000 in fees and will also cover any condition for life as long as we renew the plan. We got this as they never worked out exactly why Pixie had died so suddenly from a seemingly minor complaint and there was a possibility something could affect the bloodline hence we thought it prudent to have good insurance for his brother. It cost £101 but Quidco are offering £20 cashback so £91 and the excess is only £65, making it better value as cheaper policies with higher excesses and less/limited cover.

i've got pet insurance for my two house cats.

my old cat (also house cat) had a heart murmur what was discovered just before she was due to have dental surgery age 4. she ended up having some sort of attack when she was 10 when her lungs filled with fluid meaning she had to go to the emergency vets in the middle of the night, i ended up having to pay 600 pounds for that stay, plus her stay in my own vets the following day. then more costs for antibiotics, steroids etc. she managed to live a good life for another 2 years but had another attack which was a lot worse and they vet had to put her down. the vet believed it was related to her heart murmur. i wish we had taken out insurance for my old cat when we first had her. That's is why for the two i have now i have had insurance since i had them. it is the top cover which will cover any illness for life should they get diagnosed with anything.

i guess its like any insurance....car, house etc we rarely need to use or make a claim on them but it gives peace of mind

In the last year one of my cats has cost me about £3000 in vets bills and tbh sometimes it's not exactly easy paying for it (slight understatement there, lol).

The treatment she's having, I know other people wouldn't give her for various reasons, (she has lymphoma) but with her situation and her personality, it really did come down to money and I couldn't not treat an illness because I chose not to take out insurance.

Even if I hadn't treated it, it would have still cost me £1000 to find out she had it and money for palliative care...

I'd not have an uninsured pet again.

Well the rule with insurance is only pay it if you couldn't possibly pay the bill if you got it in one go (unless you are legally required to have it). We cancelled our dog insurance this year after a 40% increase last year followed by a 35% increase this year. After much humming and haa-ing we took the gamble that we would cancel it, but put money aside each month instead. We have however kept our elderly cat insured. Massive vet bills are a distinct possibility, but we worked out how much she would need to cost us given all the exclusions and the excess and decided it was worth the risk. We may be wrong. If I was starting again I would put money into a separate account and pool the resources between pets on the basis that you would be unlucky to get two or more of them needing long term very expensive treatment - but it could happen.

My cat broke his leg when he was about 3...he was insured for costs up to 4K and we used all that money trying to save his leg and eventually having it amputated (which was £900) SO glad he was insured!

We cancelled our insurance this yr for both cats after 6 yrs. spent so much more thn have claimed (ESP with £80 excess). Am sure our vets referred us to a specialist once just because we were insured, not as it was necessary....
Also pet plan prices jumped dramatically whilst some conditions (like bladder probs and related food), were taken off life cover. Not impressed with them. We moved to tesco for a yr, but decided will treat as happens (indoor cats here too).

My 15 year old cat is not insured (we could not afford it when we first got her) and has only cost us about £200 in total in vets fees up to now (this may well change now due to her advanced years).
Our new kitten I think we will be insuring him.
Our dogs have always been insured (and its been well worth it as some of their ailments have run into thousands).
We use Tesco.

I agreed with the posters who have said it depends on how much cash you can lay your hands on in a hurry. We had insurance for our cat for a couple of years with M&S but when she turned 10 the premiums shot up. So we now pay a little (the same as the original premiums) into a ring fenced account each month which in the past 5 years has built up nicely. Whilst we have had a couple of vet trips costing approx £100 each this would only just have tripped the excess on our policy anyway. I don't know of I'm cold and hard but if at 15+ she needed a lot of expensive treatment I do wonder how far I'd go

dizzy - I dont think you are being cold and hard, we think the same.
At 15 years of age (or in the future) if our cat developed something serious or terminal we too would have a long hard think about medication, quality of life etc.
Our vet thinks the same.

I would say if your cat is outdoor then you need insurance, mine had 3 fights in 6 months .

If you have an indoor cat, I would be tempted to leave it until that cat is say 5 or 6. I would however have a small savings account set up maybe paying half of what insurance would cost.