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So the annual renewal has come through for the pooch - 9 year old Sprocker with zero medical conditions. Everyone still thinks he is a puppy looking at him.
Petplan are wanting a ridiculous £950, up from £800 last year, which was also up from £700 the previous year. It seems they can do what they want, spouting the usual we are the best in the business etc etc.
Now I appreciate he is getting older and prices won't be low, but has anyone left Petplan and gone with someone else in a dogs older years? If so, any recommendations? He's currently got Covered for Life which Petplan say all they can do is remove this to reduce premiums.
Any advice greatly appreciated
I change pet insurance every year for our 2cats and dog. I go through Quidco for cash back and usually go through a price comparison for the best deal. Petplan increased all of the renewals recently. One of my cats (who has had issues) now costs more to insure than both our cars on her own.
£150 for last year's 8year old sprocker sounds incredibly cheap though - our dog is also 8 and is more like £400.
Similar situation here with our 8year old Karelian Bear Dog, we were at break even point as he cracked an upper front tooth/fang and had expensive root canal reconstructive surgery on it a few years ago.
Otherwise they are solid healthy primitive breed dogs and I'm tempted to 'self insure' but I wouldn't want to be in a position that something expensive happened and I was weighing up between financial cost and his life.
I don't insure my dog now. I just put £60 into a savings account each month to cover future bills.
I started doing this when my last dogs insurance started to hike up when she got to 10. She died at 15 a rich dog. I am doing the same for my current dog who is coming up to 2 years old and has £1300 in her savings account.
What frustrated me about my last dog is that I had never claimed, but the insurance still doubled when she got to 10 years old.
We don't insure ours either and, interestingly, I've had a number of conversations with different people who work in vets practices (two clinical directors and one practice manager who used to be a head nurse) who say that they don't either, they just put some money to one side.
We have just had to fork out about £4k for stuff for the dog, and although that's a lot we've had him three years and it pretty much breaks even at what the insurance premiums would have been for him to this point.
Our dog passed in December, but make sure you read the small print carefully for any policy - we went with M&S for ~£700p/y for a 12yr old sprocker. with a headline figure for £x,000 covered per year. Looked a good deal via a comparison site.
When she got cancer we discovered she only had £1k per illness per year, not the multiple thousands we thought we had cover for.
We ended up paying around £3k out of pocket to manage her last year over and above paying for insurance. Insurance was cancelled the day after they paid out to the Vet's though.
At best we got 1/3rd of the amount paid into insurance, back out again to cover treatments with what we had. If and when we get our next 4legs, we will self insure by putting £60 a month aside into a completely separate "Insurance" account and self fund any care.
I don’t insure my dog now. I just put £60 into a savings account each month to cover future bills.
That's fine unless you've only saved a few hundred and are suddenly faced with a bill for thousands.
OP - I think you are stuck with it I'm afraid. Very few insurers will take on a 9yr old dog without wanting a big premium.
Pet plan are good, but expensive. Three of our cats are insured with them, and one can't be insured as he had a pre-existing condition that can cause all sorts of illnesses - except he's butcher's dog fit, and has been for 5 years.
We paid for years for a previous cat, needed nothing until she was older and suddenly developed breathing difficulties. Trip to vets, you need to get to animal hospital. An overnight etc, phoned pet plan as hospital wanted a grand out of us there and then, they covered it. Must have cost a couple of k just for 48 hours in pet hospital.
Two other previous cats did use the policy, one for various injuries they caused themselves, and the other had gingivitis which needed lots of dental work.
You just don't know, but it's a tricky one. We pay about £60 a month - £45 for three of them, and the rescue has a 'checkup/vaccination/flea/worming plan' that's £15. The other three cats got £100 vaccination for life plans when they were kittens (pays back by year 2).
I'm with manypets for my lab, £41pm for for their middle ground coverage. Very tempted to be one of these people that just puts 50 aside every month. They hiked it up £10 a month at renewal.
It is expensive whatever the dog. Currently our dog’s insurance is not significantly less than both our cars and the house insurance combined.
That’s fine unless you’ve only saved a few hundred and are suddenly faced with a bill for thousands.
Fair point. In theory I should have carried over the £3k my old dog had saved up to my new dog, but I spent it on a bike, its what she would have wanted for me isnt it?
I have a very simple rule of never taking out insurance for anything I could afford to cover, which basically means we only have car and house insurance. Insurance companies aren't charities. They make quite healthy profits. So, on average, over your whole life, you will nearly always lose out on insurance. Of course for any one thing it can seem attractive. But as long as you apply the rule to enough things (including extended warranties) you should come out on top overall. So, we've never insured our dogs. Our 12 year old Collie will probably rack up some bills soon, but we've saved 12 years of premiums.
Also, when I last looked at pet insurance (admittedly many years ago) they seemed to have a cap on what they would pay out anyway, which was the opposite of what I wanted.
Roverpig - there is of course plenty of sense in what you say … but it does rely on you being sufficiently cash rich (or perhaps credit worthy) to be able to put your hands on significant sums at short notice.
does nobody offer a fixed price “for life” deal like you can get with human life insurance? Probably more expensive in the early years than annual policies but might appeal to those who really understand the total cost of ownership of a pet.
@IHN - people who work in vets have an advantage over the average punter though. They likely have access to mates rates / staff discount and general advice for free and perhaps have a different perspective on “trying everything” to save their dog etc. they are also usually in relatively secure jobs with stable and reasonable income. For some people insurance will be the right way to manage risk.
Within 5 weeks of arrival (post insurance) my 'healthy' rescue mutt blew through her insurance allowance for the year. Then more, then ate a tennis ball that needed removing, 2 months into the next years policy she ate another one.
We've paid out about £600 in premiums and they've covered £10k in bills so far. We have also had to top up though as she has a lifetime illness that leaves us tied to the same insurer for herlife span.
If I'd had a healthy dog for 12 years that was getting expensive to insure I'd probably wonder if it was worthwhile, but luckly she does seem to be the sort who wants to/will live all that long, although she will be 3 in a few weeks which was something we never expected to see after her first few months.
We’re getting a cocker puppy in a couple of weeks time and currently trying to decide what to do about insurance.
The favoured option at the moment is to insure him for the first couple of years then self insure from there onwards.
Roverpig – there is of course plenty of sense in what you say … but it does rely on you being sufficiently cash rich (or perhaps credit worthy) to be able to put your hands on significant sums at short notice.
Peter and Paul, isn't it. If you're paying (say) a £700 annual premium for ten years, that's seven grand you should have if you hadn't paid for insurance. That then isn't a reliance on being cash-rich, it's a reliance on forward planning.
I've always self-insured. I'm almost wavering on the side of this being a mistake, but my thinking is that my "premium" then covers the cats, the bikes, the washing machine, the Xbox... without fear of any smallprint loophole ****tery. Ten quid a month here, fifty there, £2.99 for the extended warranty on the toaster, it all rapidly adds up and it's just giving away free money if you never claim against it. I justify this to myself going "well, if I was presented with a ten grand bill for the cat I'd just get another cat" but... well, that's a bold statement and the reality is that I just don't know. The furry little bastards get under your skin somewhat.
The favoured option at the moment is to insure him for the first couple of years then self insure from there onwards.
I "did the math" when we got the kittens. With vaccinations, spaying discounts etc Petplan worked out very cost-effective for the first 12 months. After that, not so much. I cancelled it after two years because (as above, ****tery) the vets insisted that I couldn't cancel mid-year as I was seemingly in the middle of a second annual contract. I rather suspect that this was a lie but it was like two months short of the year so 🤷♂️ it wasn't a fight I could be arsed with.
Our previous dog reached 7 having no issues then needed veterinary care and soon racked up 10k of bills, Petplan were amazing and quickly paid out, we certainly had our moneys worth from the insurance.
Our second dog was insured with bought by many, the policy was cheaper and they have been ridiculously slow at dealing with claims but have still paid out over 7k in total including refund the cost of purchasing him once he passed.
We're with PetPlan. 11 year old large dog, ~£150/month now.
And that just pays out 80% of the bills after the excess.
NONETHELESS I reckon we've broken even over his lifetime, more or less. "Thanks to" (!) the last year :/
We did - at one time - take the "self insurance" route. Then came a year where vet bills would have paid for a reliable second hand hatchback and only one of the dogs we had then survived.
We now pay for good quality insurance, to divorce the pain of losing the money from the pain and worry of dog being ill. That's our decision but YMMV.
Dog has had 2 major surgeries in a year (to remove 2 different tumours), plus supporting scans and tests (lots), and is currently going through chemo. £££ and I think we're going to hit the 22-23 limit. Thank god the insurance year rolls over in a week or two.
Thing is - the treatment has kept him happy and well. He goes on his walks, he sleeps, he shakes us down for treats, he barks at the postie, he's living his life. If we hadn't treated, we would have had to put him to sleep, he was not a happy lad at all.
We didn't want to be in the position where dog has something entirely treatable (if dear) and we dither because it's £6k.
Prices have gone up and vets are thinner on the ground as well. Thanks to Brexit and the pandemic :/
One of our rescues we had for barely 3 years, the last year was spent on reassuringly expensive drugs and referral centre visits for heart failure. The insurance company made no money from us on that dog. Similarly 2 years at £50 a month wouldn't have covered 3 months of the illness year.
Op at 8 you're stuck with Petplan as most other places will charge more for less.
Our second dog was insured with bought by many, the policy was cheaper and they have been ridiculously slow at dealing with claims
We're with them too and so far (touches wood) payouts have been next day using electronic bill submissions.
We stopped paying insurance premiums after dogs 1 and 2 in 2004. We’re now on dog number 6 and have over £10k in savings set aside to cover such eventualities.
we were in the self funding camp until mid way through last year, whe we decided to take out insurance with Co-Op. upper limit of £10k for the year.
quite glad we did as our 5 year old Kokoni has had an op for bloat just after christmas, and then about 2 weeks later spinal surgery for a prolapsed disc.
it's been a pretty stressful time, but at least we know we'll stand a chance of recouping the £6k bill and have a dog that's alive.
I can’t tell you how glad I am
That I insured both my dogs with petplan when they were puppies!!
One of them in particular.
We’ve claimed tens of thousands for her in the last 10 years (and continue to do so for medication and ongoing related issues). Petplan have been really good throughout.
Second dog bust a disc in her spine, 7k all in and all we paid out was the excess £80. Never had to pay upfront and claim back.
Even with us now paying £100 a month we are thousands of £‘s in pocket.
Without it I genuinely don’t know what we’d have done
Two dogs both insured with Animal Friends. 1 13yr old Whippet £ 645p/y, one 3yr old Lurcher nutbag £265p/y. It is a tough call, the old boy hasn't been any trouble and we've barely claimed a penny over his lifetime so we could have been quid's in if we hadn't been paying for it. The lurcher however has been back and forth to the vets so many times in her short life, to the tune of circa £8k.
We did move to Animal Friends later in the old lads life and we didn't get stung too much for an older dog so they may be worth a look, however i do think we do get a bit of a discount for the two dogs together. Still a rip but on balance i'd rather have it just in case. Neither I nor my better half could find the cash at short notice for some of the big bills that we've seen for the youngster. Saved a couple of very difficult decisions.
Roverpig – there is of course plenty of sense in what you say … but it does rely on you being sufficiently cash rich (or perhaps credit worthy) to be able to put your hands on significant sums at short notice.
It's a fair point. We are all different, I am probably more fortunate than most and I wouldn't want to judge anybody else's choices. It's part of an overall philosophy though. I don't have a pot that is earmarked for the dog. But at the same time I wouldn't feel at all comfortable (and wouldn't even contemplate getting a pet let alone having kids) if I didn't have at least a few months worth of salary in the bank "in case of emergencies". I've always been that way though, even when I didn't have a pot to piss in and I'm aware that most people can live quite happily without any sort of safety net. In which case having insurance probably does make sense.
I wonder if there are some regional differences in vets too. I thought of posting this earlier but can't think how to phrase it without risking causing offence. But I wonder if the vets up here (who deal a lot with farm dogs and even farm animals) have a different attitude (or maybe are just more used to dealing with customers with a different attitude) to how much is reasonable to spend on a pet.
I'm on my 2nd dog now..my 1st hardly had any problems and she lived to 16.
My new dog is the same breed , so I suggested why not put the money in a account instead of getting insurance...no no no my wife said, so we took out insurance on her...4 months later my dog got a bug that 98% can beat...she was in the 2% ....3 days in intensive care plus 5 days at the vets...we actually maxed out the insurance ...about £4k...the total bill was £5200...was I glad I listened to my wife..always a gamble with insurance...after my experience , I won't be gambling no more
One thing insurance companies are rubbish/devious about is cover for pre existing conditions. They don’t ask for a full history and then give you a breakdown of things they won’t cover when you take the policy out.
All very well to swap company every year but is a new policy and essentially anything that has happened to the dog before won’t be covered.
Lameness on the right hind two year ago may mean they won’t cover the cruciate surgery that has now been diagnosed in the same leg as you weren’t insured with them then. Only find out when you send them the full history as they request at the time of you making a claim. Seen a lot of people caught out with such things.
We have been with direct Line for a few years now. 6yr old dog, claimed on some dentist work once, and I think it is around 5-600. I won't change because they dealt with our one claim really well, and they don't increase massively each year. In comparison to Pet Plan and KC the cost was significantly more palatable for the same cover. The only gripe is that they don't run the pet insurance online, your docs still come in paper form.
Our mutt is insured with Pet Plan. We've had him for 4 years and monthly premiums are now 2.5 times the first year. However, he's got a couple of allergies plus a heart murmur so is on permanent medication and 3 echo cardiograms per year.
All told, if we'd self-insured, we'd probably be a few hundred a year better off paying for his existing treatment so the way I look at is, those few hundred a year is pretty damn cheap insurance should any major surgery be needed or new illnesses occur...
knew i could rely on stw to have a thread already so i dont need to start another.
my wifes upset with herself as she misunderstood the 'annual' policy we took out on our jack russell with argos. we're now faced with paying for ongoing treatment for his heart now the years up.
hes now 13, got a heart murmer, a narrowing windpipe that makes him cough, and just discovered dental problems.
i suppose its pointless asking whether theres any insurance company thatd take him on a 'lifetime' policy now that these conditions are present, cos as has already been mentioned, theyre not charities, they want to make money from you.
what i would like a bit of advice on please is cost of prescriptions/medication. we just picked up some 'vetmedin' heart tablets for him at £100 for 2 months. ouch. i think you can get them on the internet which would save some money, but you still have to pay the vet for a prescription, but still probably the cost effective way of doing it?
and can you just chop and change vets for treatment? you know, ask around for who would do such and such treatment for the best price?
we've been told that he needs a load of teeth out, but due to dodgy heart and windpipe, and being 13, its not 100% that he'd come out of a general anaesthetic, so he'd need a heart scan and bloods first. our current vets charged £600 for a scan last year (paid by insurance, but next one will be on us) whereas we see that other vets nearby charge £250. so can you shop around? do they all want your custom or do you have to stick with the one youve got once a condition is known?
we're thinking that the teeth out/general anaesthetic is our last chance saloon, so only put him through all that if hes in pain with his mouth through abcesses, ulcers etc, and consider whether he'd have a decent life afterwards. if he can just keep going on heart tablets and no painful mouth abcesses for now, and still enjoys a good walk, then why take the chance with having his teeth out.
think we may have some difficult times ahead :-/
thanks
So sorry to read this. What a headache! I can't offer much advice on the insurance, although we are paying a stupid amount a month with a pet plan now our pooch is 12. However, we have found asking the vet for a paper prescription and then either buying it online (we use pet drugs online) or from the pharmacy if it's licenced for humans, our local pharmacy dispenses for us - is much cheaper, £ 7/month vs over £100 from the vets. The vet still charges us £11 to write the prescription, but it's still miles cheaper.
We started this when they tried to charge us £16 for a single paracetamol. I do hope your dog is okay.
I do hope your dog is okay.
thank you. yeah, its the worst part of having pets isnt it, when they start to get a bit older and you have to start thinking about things youd rather not think about. hes cost us nowt over the first 10 years so never had to scrutinise the policy, just press 'ok' to renew 🙂
but, as we pay £50 p/m currently, my wifes now upset that she didnt initially understand the policy, she really intended one that paid out for the lifetime of any condition. its our error tho.
we said that any decision we make for him wont be financial, itll be purely on his quality of life, whether hes in pain, whether to put him through a traumatic ordeal. would we want to go though it and come out of it the other side if it was us, that sort of thing. i think we're kinder to animals in that way than we are to humans really.
thanks
I’ve had a number of conversations with different people who work in vets practices (two clinical directors and one practice manager who used to be a head nurse) who say that they don’t either, they just put some money to one side.
well of course they do, they will get whatever treatment they need at cost, which will be considerably less than us.
Not a great example but our dog had painkillers recently. £80 from vet, but could buy the drug itself for £10
Our 5 yr old dog has just had ACL surgery. £4.5k. The other one needs doing at some point too. No way would I be without insurance
and can you just chop and change vets for treatment? you know, ask around for who would do such and such treatment for the best price?
Lola adores all the vets, goes in happily, has a sniff round, knows she is about to get a digit up the arse is a bit nervous and looks at the door then me. Deed done the tail is wagging she is getting treats and is off to visit behind reception for more attention.
Proper old school indie vet.
Its worth quite a lot for her to feel secure and confident to go in. No stress no drama.
Our dog (rescue terrier) is just coming up to 10
Apart from the first year, I've always taken the 'self insured' approach and fortunately (pure luck really) we haven't had a single big vet bill. We've literally only paid for his jabs and annual checkup. no pre existing conditions.
So as things stand we're quids in, and I'm wondering whether now might be the time to pay for insurance again before he turns 10
He's fit and healthy so hopefully will keep going for a few more years
What does the hive mind think?
So as things stand we’re quids in, and I’m wondering whether now might be the time to pay for insurance again before he turns 10
Get a quote and weight it up. At 10 years old it is obviously going to cost a lot more than at 1 year old but no previous conditions is very helpful as anything he gets will be new and covered in theory.
Our vet was quite happy to write a prescription which I then filled using an online vet supplier. It was all relatively painless, I did let the receptionist know that the appt was to get a prescription as this is cheaper than a consultation for a problem.
Our dog is not insured currently but we are considering it.In the interim, we have a Herbert fund which is funded by our premium bonds winnings.....
I really need the insurance cover to include him being looked after by friends while we're on holiday but I am struggling to find out in the plans I have looked at. Does anyone have an knowledge/experience of this niche area?
We pay £45 a month insurance for our 18mth old pup. I too considering the self-insurance route.
My thinking is that anything life limiting, and likely long term operation/medicine, then I would have the dog put to sleep; I am very much about quality of life over quantity.
So as things stand we’re quids in, and I’m wondering whether now might be the time to pay for insurance again before he turns 10
From previous research most companies weren't taking new business where the dog is over 7. If they are now that's a significant improvement but expect to pay rather a lot for the policy.
Edit. further up thread I said Bought by Many were quick at settling claims. They are for small amounts for the recent nose surgery they were right on the 6 week target limit for repayment. There was also an attempt to wriggle out of payment by requesting full history for the dog from the vet. This was for £1300 of surgery, I hope there is nothing more expensive in Bodie's future
Everyone saying "I had PetPlan and they have paid out £10k on Rover and I only paid £1k in premiums". Yeah that is how insurance works. Some 'win' and most 'loose' and the insurance company makes a profit margin if they get their sums right.
Pet insurance industry is in the shit at the moment though. High loss ratios, huge increase in vet costs.
I'm also not convinced that the 'try anything at all costs' approaches to pets is great. Arguably I kept my pet alive longer than I would have if I had been paying out of pocket. She was on three different medications, frequent vet trips, getting increasingly more breathless. You don't notice the decline so much when you see your pet every day, the meds were only ever going to be able to buy more time, not cure. Probably would have had her PTS several months earlier if I had had a the cost/benefit on my mind and it wouldn't have been a bad thing for her really. At the time you think "well the vets are offering this treatment so it must be the right thing to do" but she couldn't tell me if she was comfortable or not.
As I commented before I thought I'd add an update, last premium jumped to £1k p/a for a 4 year old dog. Luckily her lifelong condition has settled down now after hammering the vets in the first 2 years. We have (touch wood) not needed it much since. Depending on renewal quote (our policy only covers £5k total per year as we didn't know what we were doing when we arranged it and you can't change without losing any cover for the lifetime illness) we might go with the self insured option, however, after the last big vets bill 2 years ago I started building up a 'just in case account' which is over £6k at this point, a sum she's been easily able to spend at the specialists in the past. So it is possible to self cover and it may or may not help later in life.
A friends dog went from happy and healthy to passing in his sleep one night recently, I hope for that for her over more vets trips and trauma, although she associates the vets with good things so going is a treat for her!
I'm in the same boat, just gone up to £800 per year for a 7y/o yorkie/shitzu cross, stuck with it as liftetime cover needed due to a spinal operation when he was 3.
Our Petplan insurance has just gone up over £200 odd to £1168 for a 5 year old dog.
He's had no issues except when he ate a corn cob as a puppy and had to have it removed.
Seems very steep.
Has everyone's gone up loads this year?
Anyone use anyone else other than Petplan?
They seem to have something of a monopoly. 🤔
yeah, £100 p/m is steep for a 5 yr old IMHO and tbh petplan are probably the dearest insurers (altho very good im told). probably dog dependant but our jack russell went from £50 to £100 this year (argos, plus you pay the first £200 of any future claim) after we claimed for some heart tests and his teeth out last year so we decided to cancel and 'self-insure'. he's 14 this year so we know we wont have him for many more years but i guess we've 'saved' around a grand so far towards anything that comes along shortly. we've already decided that we wont put him through any more operations, it just wouldnt be fair on him so i guess all we have to consider is end of life costs now.
Ours was over £1k last year for our 4.5 year old. However, she's a 'special' case and spent her full cover plus lots more for her first two years. SRMA (an autoimmune disease), a phantom pregnancy and the consumption of 2 tennis balls lead to over £25k in bills and a lot of heartache. So while it is an expensive thing it has been useful(ish, her cover was capped at £5k per annum). We may self insure from now on too, she's got an ISA I've been building up for the last few years that's doing quite well.
Although I'd probably sell a kidney before seeing her suffer unnecessarily.
Harold!
Bert was £80 a month for an 11year old Karelian Bear Dog. I always thought up to a few months ago that I should have / or would next time self insure. However despite him being a super hardy long lived breed that hadn't had any claims - at year 11 we ran into sudden health issues.
He had a foreign object granuloma in his paw that needed an MRI and follow up OP at my choice of Liverpool small animal hospital.
Then a few months after that we ran into what was ultimately cancer. I didn't and wouldn't have subjected him to any unnecessary treatment but I was glad of insurance for some (v.expensive) specialist diagnostics that quickly gave us the full picture of his health and prognosis and helped minimise his suffering.
Petplan covered the costs of everything including the individual cremation - we had an annual £7.5k limit and I'm pretty sure we over ran. I had to cover 20%
When I get another dog in the future I would use petplan again. However dogs aren't cheap - MrsRNP and I have been chatting this holiday and reckoned Bert was ~£500 to £600 a month (food, insurance and car transport costs) and well worth it!
That then isn't a reliance on being cash-rich, it's a reliance on forward planning.
That's all well and good when dealing with forward thinking humans, not so useful with a dog that lives for the moment and will be apt to do something ridiculous at the most inopportune moment. Our last two went from heart failure (we chose his time of going after a year of reassuringly expensive drugs) and eating the string off a joint of meat (either from counter-surfing or scavenging outside). Many Pets are currently charging £77 a month after 2 claims for our current 5 year old.
That’s fine unless you’ve only saved a few hundred and are suddenly faced with a bill for thousands.
Fair point. In theory I should have carried over the £3k my old dog had saved up to my new dog, but I spent it on a bike, its what she would have wanted for me isnt it?
Just to add 2 1/2 years later. Dog is now 4yo. Pot is now upto about £3k. There have been some minor expenses (2 x split claws, 1 x eye infection) that have just paid for. Obvs something major will wipe that out.
Also am now custodian of another dog also 4yo which comes with £10k set aside in premium bonds as insurance, to be held until dog dies & then split between family. Suspect though that will be grabbed by the council & wiped out by carehome fees for the dogs owner.
Our pooch is with pet plan with a £7k a year limit. And a good job too, he was at the dog minders on Saturday and came back with a badly broken back right leg, both bones above the hock (ankle) and in numerous pieces. They said they’ve no idea how it happened.
Anyway, he’s had two nights in the local emergency vet hospital and then two nights at a specialist orthopaedic vet hospital down in Castle Donnington (very much recommended though I hope no one ever does). He’s come home today following surgery last night, now has three pieces of wire in his leg, an external fixator with five bolts holding it all together. And had we been without insurance we’d be £6,700 lighter.
Poor thing. That sounds horrendous.
A bloke at work says his Tesco insurance is much cheaper with a clubcard.
I wonder what they're like in the event of a claim 🤔
Yep, pretty traumatic. We (me and the wife) have never had kids so the dog (a dachshund) is basically treated like royalty so seeing him go through this over the last few days has been exhausting.
But, he’s now home, I nipped to the supermarket before we picked him up to get him his favourite sliced topside of beef (I wish I was joking) and he’s now asleep downstairs with the Mrs so things are looking up.
Yep, pretty traumatic. We (me and the wife) have never had kids so the dog (a dachshund) is basically treated like royalty so seeing him go through this over the last few days has been exhausting.
But, he’s now home, I nipped to the supermarket before we picked him up to get him his favourite sliced topside of beef (I wish I was joking) and he’s now asleep downstairs with the Mrs so things are looking up.
My dog always gets a reverse seared medium rare rump or sirloin on his birthday lol.
I have to cut it into little cubes though as he's small and doesn't do chewing.. It just goes straight down the throat lol
I'm hoping for some advice on the Petplan insurance I've just taken out for my 2 year old Patterdale.
When I was giving all the details they asked for any previous vet visits of which there was just one. This was when she was about a year old and had a tiny lump on her chest near her front leg, the vet wasn't concerned and said bring her back in a month if it's still there or gets bigger. It went away in a few weeks.
Petplan have come back and and said that anything relating to cysts or tumours is excluded from the cover, which seems quite broad to me. Perhaps I should have not mentioned it but reading about how they have requested vets records for others made me think it could invalidate the cover.
I've emailed back to ask if the exclusion can be narrowed with more detail, but perhaps I should just cancel and go elsewhere? I'm still within the first 14 days.
We've stuck with Petplan through 2 dogs and now onto the 3rd.
They are not cheap at all. BUT...when you need to claim, and it runs into £thousands, my experience is that they just don't dick you around or try to find ways out. No messing, and paid quickly.
Cancer treatment for our angel of a black Lab hit about £11k. I just had the excess (£100 maybe ?) to pay.
As one of the other sisters said, be aware of caps on treatment. Also cheap insurers tend to have other get-outs such as 1 illness only, if it occurs again (say the next year's policy) then not covered. Or a cap on reoccurring illness that screws you if it becomes a long term health problem.
When I did look at the cheap alternatives some also had exclusions after say 8 years old (ie exactly when illnesses start to appear). And then you're bolloxed as insurers won't take on new dogs at older ages. My other concern has been that these 'supermarket' insurers may bail out of the industry in say 3 or 4 yesrs tiime, again leaving you high and dry and not able to get new cover if you dog is getting old by then. At least with Petplan (which is part of Aviva), Allianz, or say through the Kennel Club, there's a good chance ce they are in it for the long term.
but perhaps I should just cancel and go elsewhere? I'm still within the first 14 days.
My experience is that 'pre-existing conditions' are always excluded. How they get from a cyst to excluding tumours is a bit of a leap, but in our experience it is also worth talking to people as they can clarify or correct automated decisions at times too.
Ultimately, they are trying to reduce the risk of a payout, which isn't great for you as it's exactly the reason you are buying the insurance of course. Petplan have always been good with the people around us who have used them so hopefully they can be reasonable for you especially if the vet can clarify why they weren't concerned it was cancerous.
In my experience over the last 10 years of using PetPlan they have paid out every single penny every single time without question and I have claimed more than I have ever paid in premiums.
Willing to continue to use them based on that even if they are more expensive.
My experience is that 'pre-existing conditions' are always excluded. How they get from a cyst to excluding tumours is a bit of a leap, but in our experience it is also worth talking to people as they can clarify or correct automated decisions at times too.
Ultimately, they are trying to reduce the risk of a payout, which isn't great for you as it's exactly the reason you are buying the insurance of course. Petplan have always been good with the people around us who have used them so hopefully they can be reasonable for you especially if the vet can clarify why they weren't concerned it was cancerous.
Yes I'm not surprised that something pre-existing is excluded but to exclude all tumours seems like the insurance wouldn't be worth it, because cancer is something I would want covered! It does sound like the best insurance from what I've read on here so hopefully I can get it worked out.
Poor thing. That sounds horrendous.
A bloke at work says his Tesco insurance is much cheaper with a clubcard.
I wonder what they're like in the event of a claim 🤔
So far so good on Tesco covering us for recent bills and thanks to their v.professional Vet helpline asking the right questions and getting us to take him in rather than leaving him another night to see how he'd have been in the morning. We're getting close to the £7500 limit at the moment with his checks and various drug/steroid treatments but fortunately are also close to the annual renewal date so should be covered for future treatment as well. Issue being a sudden onset auto-immune attack on his red blood cells.
Insurance for mine just come through... it's gone down... by about £5 per year 🤔
£875 per year not including vaccination and worming plan for a 9 year old yorki/shitzu cross who had £14000 worth of spinal surgery when he was about 3.
I think we're stuck with that provider though, as it has lifetime cover for the above, which I don't think we'd get if we switch.
How the **** is a person on minimum wage/benefits/pension meant to pay such exorbitant insurance costs for their pets?, the mass takeover of multiple vet practices by large companies that then feed the insurance racket is a ****ing scam
A company called Agria came quite high up in a Which article.
They were a bit cheaper than Petplan though of course you need to try to compare them like for like which isn't always too easy.