How much is your cat’s insurance?

[CatPurple]

I’ve just got the renewal quote through from my cat’s insurance and it’s going up from £29 to £40 a month.

She’s twelve years old and has no illnesses except some dental work and a funny turn many years ago that she fully bounced back from after 24hrs (vets never got to the bottom of what it was).

We’re struggling for money at the moment so £40 a month feels so huge to me right now. But maybe it’s a completely average amount?

Sorry, so as not to drip feed:
After she had her funny turn the vets advised us not to switch insurers as new insurers could use this unexplained moment as a ‘previous condition’ and refuse claims on any possible future illnesses.

Hence why I don’t think I should shop around for a better deal.

Mine was about £20 and £30 at 9 and £10 respectively. I took the chance 2 years ago and decided to put that £50 aside into a savings account each month.

The cat costing me £30 a month has cost me £150 for an abscess in that time. The other cat needs thyroid meds but it's an affordable £15 a month plus a blood test every 6 months. If I had insurance they would whack premiums up anyway for that and I would be tied in as pre existing.

I dont think Bought by Many counts it as an existing condition if it was more than 2 years ago. Prices do go up after age 8. I would still shop around. I pay £27.10 a month for 2 x 4 year old cats

I was also stuck for company on the older cat as 2 years before the vet had said he may have a heart murmur and to watch and wait Not detected in further standard check ups.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

What did you do in the end @Newnormal99 ?

Mine is 19 this year and her insurance is £7.50 a month, I've been with the same insurer for 15 years and the price has gone up ever so slightly but nothing crazy. Also, I've never had to claim so thats possibly why it is so low.

@CatPurple

I just put the £50 a month the two would have cost me in a savings account. I'm taking the chance but I've spent about £400 on vets over 2 years.

So £800 up! (More if you count excess and the policy increase that would have lead to)

It's a risk but decided it was worth the gamble. I live mid terrace so they cannot easily get to a road so that helped decision as likely hood of car accident is low.

Sorry new, I didn’t read your post properly the first time. It’s a good idea.

Mine is also an indoor cat so the chance of accidents are very low. But she is slightly overweight so I do worry about her getting something like diabetes and needing long term medication.

£7.50 for a 19year old cat is amazing @summersolstice43 !

I imagine £7.50 doesn't give a very high level of cover and is not likely to be lifetime cover either

I spent £17.50 a month for 2 cats, one who's 5 and one who's 6. I've claimed once in the last 2 years but it didn't seem to change my price. That's with a £69 excess and £20k limit per illness.

And it's lifetime cover.

I need to shop around. 11 year old cat, last year it was £35 pm, got refused a claim but now it's just gone up to £48 pm.
Really peed off with it BUT I know that one injury or illness could wipe us out if we didn't have it.

You didn't say who it was with @Mylittlesandwich

£32 a month each for two 12 year old cats. It does go up a lot as they get older. Ours is very good cover and includes dental.

@dementedpixie

You didn't say who it was with *@Mylittlesandwich*

Oops, bought by many.

I would always have insurance - it's just part of having a pet. A few years ago one of ours needed thousands spending after an accident - we wouldn't have been able to afford it ourselves.

Bought by Many are good, that's who I'm with too. Don't think my limit is 20k though

About £38 a month with Tesco. Had a 3k claim last year

Doesn't include dental but he has no teeth so.. (sorry, he does have one fang left!)

Honestly £50 a month is a good deal for a cat that age. If she develops any of the common medical conditions associated with ageing in cats like hyperthyroidism, kidney disease, osteoarthritis etc (and it'd be a rare cat that didn't) the medication alone would likely be double that then you'd have regular checks/blood tests etc which can really mount up.

@dementedpixie

Bought by Many are good, that's who I'm with too. Don't think my limit is 20k though

I just looked the policy docs up it's only 15k not 20k should still be more than enough though.

Just checked and its £15k cover and £69 excess with BBM

My insurance went up noticeably after my cat was 10. She was with me until she was 13, and by then it was £70 a month. Which seemed SO much but I couldn't shop around at that stage and still have her existing conditions covered. The excess also went up and I think there was a further piece of fine print that I can't quite remember that had a financial sting. This was PetPlan.

I did have a two or three biggish bills over the years but I never did the math to see if I would have been better off just putting the money into a bank account.

I hope to have another cat one day and I will insure - think I'm risk averse when it comes to this.

I’ve just checked with Bought By Many, thanks so much for everyone who suggested them.

Their £15k cover has a tick for ‘covers conditions that ended more than two years ago’. So as her funny turn was a loooong time ago then I’m right in thinking that I could switch to this right?! I need to look at the t&cs properly but I’m tentatively hopeful!

The cover i have is actually full cover but is cheaper as I've had the same insurer for many years. Its animal friends if you want to get a quote from them.