Insurance - Petplan cost

[Jamsroll]

Hi everyone,

I recently adopted two cats who came with 4 weeks free insurance through Petplan, which is about to expire.

I've seen a number of threads recommending Petplan, saying it's not the cheapest but is great at paying out and easy to deal with.

I've checked the cost to renew and it's £30 a month per cat for short-term cover only. If I want lifetime cover, it's £65-100 a month for each cat. The cats are 3 and 4 and have no pre-existing conditions.

Looking around, I can get ManyPet (also seen some recommendations online) complete lifetime cover for £60 a month (total for both cats). Or I could get any of The Insurance Emporium, Animal Friends, Healthy Pets, and Whistle & Wag for £30-50 a month (all lifetime cover, for both cats).

Am I missing a trick or is Petplan really that expensive? I expected it to be maybe £60 a month vs. £40 a month for others, but £130+ each month is crazy. Especially when other companies are offering it for <£50.

If I don't go with Petplan, any other recommendations?

Thanks in advance

Hi, I have just extended my Cats protection 4 weeks insurance with PP. We have 2 12 week kittens and for like time cover max of 7500 for £28 per month. I notice it is much more for pedigree cats. I will shop around but want the continuing cover for now

Petplan really is that expensive.

Mine are with Directline which has been excellent. The big draw back with all of them is that as the cats get older it gets extortionate.

If you put the money you would spend on pet insurance aside for the sole purpose of the pets you will more than likely have enough for their needs, considering that insurance will not cover all eventualities. You might even have some left over once they are no longer with you, that will not be the case with insurance.

My cat is insured with Tescos. Their tip policy a year at a time has just cost be £11:50 for two cats per months with Clubcard discount. I think it would normally be around £9 per cat. In terms of the amounts covered, it compared well with the major competitors.

You could try Tesco, or run your specifics into comparethemarket.com? I reduced my PetPlan premium from £21 per month to £11 for 1 cat. The cover looked better.

I’ve been with Sainsbury’s before and found them to be fine (may have changed?). I’m currently with PetPlan with a 14 yr old pedigree, it’s £40 a month for high level cover but cat is at the age where they might need treatments and well
past the age where it’s easy to swap to another provider.

My petplan covered for life, was £25 a month. How is yours so much more??

We also have the top tier cover with Tesco for both cats. It's pretty decent cover for the cost. We had a couple of cheaper (approx £400) claims without any effect on the premiums, but a more recent £800 claim saw the premium double (still less than £30 pcm for two cats). However, the level of cover is good, and all the cheaper insurers would now exclude one cat's pre-existing condition, so we're sticking with them.

They have also been lightning fast and completely hassle free to deal with on the three occasions we've claimed.

We have pet plan for life - dcat has been unwell pretty much since we adopted him from Cats protection. His cover is just under £30 a month and he is knocking on 11 years old now.
A pp mentioned putting the money away each month - that could work for some but in the last 6years dcat has had two major dental surgeries, had a spell being diabetic (that was fun) and has an ongoing skin condition for which the medication costs about £400 a year if I buy it online with a vets prescription.
Pet plan have picked up all the costs so far without a murmur (although one of his dentals is pending, I hope I haven’t jinxed it as the cost was between £1200-£1400). I absolutely would use them again, they’ve been brilliant and well worth the cost to us.

If that’s to me then premiums are affected by all sorts of things - breed of cat, your postcode, age of cat (mine increased each year), health and claim history, policy limits etc. For instance, Covered for Life has different cover levels so will have different charges depending on which cover level you have.

PetPlan insure our older pair and the premiums are getting eye-watering but they didn't blink when one needed a major dental. I just got quotes for the kitten (pedigree) and his is 50% more than if he'd been a moggy - £30 a month already! I'm looking at them and Agria (also lifetime policy) for him. He's got the 4 weeks free from Agria at the moment.

Also watch out for the excess that kicks in when they are over 10. From that point on PetPlan only pay out 80% of anything...

Also watch out for the excess that kicks in when they are over 10. From that point on PetPlan only pay out 80% of anything...

I think most insurance do this - Tesco it’s from age 8 for instance. Agria don’t seem as upfront but the Ts & Cs mention increases to fixed and percentage excesses so I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an age based percentage excess.

I'm shocked at the price you've been quoted - I pay £23.40 a month to petplan for my 3 year old cat. I used them for one of my rabbits years ago and they were amazing.

@SabrinaThwaite it was to the OP , £60-£100 a month!

Dcat is 8. No claims, no conditions, no pedigree. Top level cover.

Ah OK!

Hmmm that seems a lot. Guess it depends what they are and where you are. I'm paying £43 for an old codger and £22 for the young lad. However this year they coughed up the better part of £2k for treatment for the old boy without a squeak, so I know I can trust them to pay out. If you've taken on young cats then I'd probably shop around but older cats gets v expensive so the premiums have always balanced out for us.

Are you 100% sure you’re comparing like-for-like? Because that Petplan cost doesn’t seem right - if it was the highest tier of Covered For Life, maybe, but not for limited insurance on fairly young cats. Have they applied the multipet discount?

My cats have always been moggies and we’ve had Petplan for them and costs about £35 for my 2 on the middle covered for life tier. I suppose if you’ve got pedigrees and ticked the ‘cost to replace them’ bit on the quote (cost to replace my ex-farm cats = free!) then that could bump it up but it seems likely there’s something off with that quote to me.

I pay £45 per month to petplan for my cat who is 14 and diabetic, and that is the highest tier covered for life etc. Your quote seems very high, even for petplan. My dog is insured with Admiral for £40 per month, he is a pedigree and has epilepsy and we have claimed £££ for his scans, blood tests medication etc and they’ve always been really easy to deal with.

We pay £60 a month on many pets

Just bought Pet Plan cover for 5.5 yr old cat. £3k limit for £150/year.

Thanks all. I thought the Petplan quote seemed high given what I'd read on previous posts.

I've just run it again and it's still coming out at £100 a month per cat for the top level of coverage (lifetime cover, £12k a year) or £65 a month per cat for £4k a year lifetime cover. I'm not sure why it's so high. We do live in London but they're still two perfectly healthy, middle age, non-pedigree cats.

I've put the details through comparison sites and it's looking like the best I can do is ~£30 for both cats. I'd rather pay a little bit more for a decent level of cover with a recommended company. Direct Line is £41 for both (though not lifetime), Tesco is £55, ManyPets is £60.

I'm tempted to self insure by whacking a few grand into an easy access savings account and topping it up each month. We're lucky enough to have savings where we could do this, but I'm not sure I want to put myself in a position where I'm forced to make a decision about exactly how much the cats lives are worth to me...

but I'm not sure I want to put myself in a position where I'm forced to make a decision about exactly how much the cats lives are worth to me...

There's also the consideration of what kind of treatment you would be prepared to put them through and for what reason/whose benefit. Sometimes insurance/people will pay for life lengthening treatments that are really not in the best interests of the animal.

I'm with ManyPets as when I first looked for cover Petplan was charging for 1 cat what ManyPets offered for 2 cats. I'm still with them and pay £37.22/month in total for both of them.

They were easy to deal with when I made a claim and it was all done online

It could be that your postcode is throwing up something that PetPlan doesn’t like, so rather than decline cover it’s offering high premiums.

Which? provides a table of recommended insurers for cats, maybe worth checking them out.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/pet-insurance/pet-insurer-reviews/best-and-worst-pet-insurance-adlAD3Y24cYN