Pet insurance- any advice?

[niceberg]

We're hoping to take two kittens from our local rescue centre soon and I've started to look at pet insurance. Last time I had any pets such a thing didn't exist!

Any advice? What should I look out for (e.g. Lifelong cover vs annual)? Any insurers to look at or avoid?

No doubt I'll be back on here with other questions over the next few weeks

Lifelong cover for the maximum you can afford ideal works 10K that renews each year.
Avoid E&L or any words that give this combination.

Definitely lifetime cover. Vet bills can soon add up especially if your cat has an ongoing condition (more an issue when they are older).

We had Petplan for old Vinocat but switched to them when she was 12 so couldn't start lifetime cover. They paid up pretty quickly for all claims and think we will go with them again when we adopt another.

I'd definitely recommend life cover with petplan. Not the cheapest but I'd say one of, if not the best. The trouble with swapping insurances over the years is you will find conditions excluded. We have been with petplan 11yrs for our cat and have made many claims (although all quite minor and nothing chronic) and have never had an issue. We pay £23 a month which I think is ok for full life cover for an 11yr old cat. My aunt recently tried to swap to them for life cover for her similarly aged cat and they wouldn't even offer a life policy.

There's a two week waiting period before you can claim on any illnesses so make sure you get insurance well before you take them to the vets.

I didn't know this so now our newly adopted 3 year old cat has a heart murmur I can't afford to treat despite having excellent insurance.

We’ve got lifetime cover with Petplan and I would recommend them as we’ve made quite a few claims without any problems. Ours pays out £7k a year.

Fab, thank you everybody for your advice!

Our insurer gave us the PUSH-OFF': The name for harsh new fees for pet owners with 'lifetime' cover – because providers DON’T want them to stay
• Lifetime pet insurance is supposed to cover a pet for their entire life
• Dog owner Tony Dearsley's yearly premium rose to £7,410 to stay with insurer
• 'Push-off' fees are designed to persuade per owners to lapse insurance policies
• Ombudsman sent more than 1,500 pet insurance gripes in the last financial year

Tony Dearsley was left stunned when he was told he could keep his lifetime pet cover – but only if he was prepared to pay an annual premium three times higher than the year before, a massive £7,410. ▶ Full story on dailymail.co.uk
Read more: www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-5403419/Our-insurer-gave-PUSH-cover-pet.html#ixzz599ftF0Yh
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www.dailymail.co.uk/money/bills/article-5403419/Our-insurer-gave-PUSH-cover-pet.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-rsa-results/rsas-hester-sees-higher-shareholder-payouts-after-2017-profit-beat-idUKKCN1G60NZ

I agree with petplan lifetime cover, our cat is in her final days (she's only 6) and due to her heart condition/now heart failure, she's had thousands of pounds of treatment over the last year. Each scan has been £700 and she's had three in the last year, they've paid with no quibbles and her cover went up by £1 a month this year, but please take it out as soon as possible. if we'd not taken cover before we took her for her first check up years ago when the discovered her murmur we wouldn't have been covered and she would have had to be put to sleep last year as we wouldn't have been able to afford £150 a month for her drugs alone