Should I get pet insurance for my kittens

[summercompanion]

I'm just wondering if I should get pet insurance or just pay the vet when I need to?

Growing up with cats my parents never had pet insurance- we just took them to the vets when we needed to.

I'm just wondering what people tend to do nowadays?

[Defiantlynot41]

Listen to @toddlerteaplease and @msollie for cautionary tales about the cost of vet fees and the value of insurance.

Mostly it depends on your household finances. Could you bear a one-off large bill? Our boy was admitted to emergency vets on Christmas Day a good few years ago and cost £1000+ . Surgery or extensive investigations could be multiples of that.
What about chronic conditions? Could your finances stand up to a regular medication cost of £100 or more a month plus regular blood tests?

Pet insurance premium is basically the expected cost of claims plus the insurers profit, cost of capital, cost of admin and distribution cost (commission to whoever is selling the insurance, cost of advertising etc). You can cut out all of the latter part of that and put money aside to self insure. You will win if your actual cost of claims (vet bills) is lower than the expected cost, you just need to be sure what you will do if faced with a big claim before you have built a pot of money.

[Desiredeffect]

Yes all 3 of my cats are insured. It's peace of mind I feel. Specially as 1 is 13 and the 13 and 2 year old are outdoors most. Of the day

[334bu]

I took my daughters cat when she went travelling and thankfully took out insurance, as 3 months later he was injured requiring almost £4000 in surgery and vet fees. He is now 19 ,still with me ,and now has a chronic condition which is still covered ,as he has lifetime insurance. Best decision I ever made.

[DomesticShortHair]

My partner is a practicing vet, and we still have pet insurance for our two cats.

If something happened to them, we’d spend every penny of our savings to make sure they get the treatment that they’d need. And then every penny we could borrow on credit cards etc. After that, every penny we could beg from family and friends. And finally (and I’m not being melodramatic, even though it sounds like it), every penny I could steal and get away with it.

Having pet insurance will hopefully mean it won’t come to any of that.

[coffeecupsandfairylights]

We have three cats and they're all insured. It costs me less than £25 a month.

My previous cats weren't insured - both got unwell (unrelated conditions) one after the other and I spent over 2k in as many months on surgery and medication 🙈

Please insure your pets, or have a bank account with access to several grand that you can happily spend at a moments notice.

[Blowyourowntrumpet]

My insurance has paid out just under £10,000. Definitely worth it