[Closed] Pet Insurance (Dog) - Who's good, who to avoid?

We use Petplan, probably not the cheapest but always come through for us.

Tesco have been good for us for a number of years.

Over the 15 years of having a labrador we probably managed to actually claim on the insurance once, because of the high excess and exempt procedures.

For our second dog we're just putting the money that we paid in insurance straight into a separate savings account...

No doubt plenty of people will say this is crazy for various reasons.

We use waggle. Was cheaper than renewing with the coop and seem like a nice organisation to do business with.

Petplan. In our 12 year experience they have paid out again and again without quibble, up to £3k individual bills.

From talking to our vet, never ever go anywhere near E&L.

Bought by many, had to make a couple of claims with one of our dogs all dealt with quickly.

@Nickb, Does Waggle offer a lifetime policy? Couldn't see any options? Premium on quote was low so I'm guessing not?

Thanks

Petplan, no its not cheap but they're one of few insurers who vets will deal with direct so you don't need to find the money in the meantime. Have a bill mounting up currently and I have no concerns at all that they won't pay without question. Lifetime policy and a good amount per year.

I use Petplan they have just paid out on hip replacement for the dog, they are not the cheapest but paid to policy limit.

Avoid Animal Friends refused tooth claim for our cat amongest other things

@Ponty. All of their policies are lifetime options as far as I recall. We are definitely on the lifetime plan.

Nick

Heard a lot of bad reviews for Animal Friends, my dad has 2 wolfhounds insured with them and not particularly positive about them.

We insured our greyhound with boughtbymany, a colleague at work has had no bother getting several K out of them for his frenchie.

John Lewis were initially great. After one of my dogs had lump removed(nothing serious) other dog developed epilepsy again no issue had him on meds(I paid for them) John Lewis almost trebled my premiums and wouldn’t cover anything to do with existing conditions.

Petplan overtime. Have made for absolutely everything, every time without quibble.

It is insurance though after all so all depends on the risk. It is great to just put the money away instead but that is not much good if the animal has high vet costs in the first year so I would recommend insuring for at least the first year while the animals health is unknown.
Our dog had major immune issues that cost £3,500 a year for the first 2 years so for me the £30 a month was well worth paying yet I don't insure any of my cats.

Petplan were good for us and a local friend who breeds retrievers rates Tesco.

The Dalmatian Welfare people use Agria, very good cover but at a price. (£74 a month for the top cover on the recently acquired puppy).

Animal Friends for our two. Good quote got me interested, I could insure our (then) new puppy and our old boy for the same amount as just renewing our older dog from Petplan. Our older dog is 12 years young now and they had no quibbles with taking him on.

Ironically, in the previous 12 years we haven't made a claim for the older dog, but we've had two claims in the last 12 months, one for each dog and Animal Friends have paid up with no issues for both of them.

@doublezero, tooth/dental work is specifically not covered by Animal Friends, our new pup needed an abscess working on and this wasn't covered.

Bought by many here. So much cheaper than previous, (Both dogs covered for less than the cost of one elsewhere) Same level of cover. Just about to claim for some knee surgery on one of our pointers. So will say if it doesn't go so well...

Bookmarked

thought id have a look at a petplan quote for our 8yr old jack russell (no health issues so far, currently with tesco ins)

choice of two quotes, for 1 year only, or lifetime. itll only allow us the year at a time tho, says the lifetime policy isnt available for our pooch. that sound right or am i doing something wrong?

cant see any reason why lifetime would be refused.....

Oh, that's a point, boughtbymany do cover emergency dental (ie non routine/unpreventable) work. For us it would have been £4 a month difference.

@Sadexpunk you're stuck with whoever you were using when the dog turns 7 as the risk makes them an unattractive business proposition to any new company and the premium gets loaded accordingly.

Pet plan for us. On the for life programme they’ve been great pay the vet directly and have paid out no problem. Our limit per condition is £12k a year with £100 excess on first claim. Highly recommend them.

For our second dog we’re just putting the money that we paid in insurance straight into a separate savings account…

No doubt plenty of people will say this is crazy for various reasons.

This is what we do, £60 a month for two dogs and a cat.

We've been doing this for 14 years now, I got fed up with the insurance company (Directline) ramping up the premiums as the dogs got older. It is a risk at first as you may get a large bill without having saved enough to cover it, but my thinking was that I'd pay it on a credit card, then do a balance transfer to another one with an interest free period and pay it off. So far it's worked out OK, had a few things to pay out for but we're still in credit. Pretty much how insurance company's work!

Over the 15 years of having a labrador we probably managed to actually claim on the insurance once, because of the high excess and exempt procedures.

For our second dog we’re just putting the money that we paid in insurance straight into a separate savings account…

No doubt plenty of people will say this is crazy for various reasons.

I don't! I've used a few Pet insurance companies over the years but the premiums go up and the excuses for not paying out get more common as the dog gets older. The whole of life policies sound good in principle, but you are locked in and can't shop around when the premiums keep rising. Defo keep away from Animal Friends though.....bunch of scammers!

As a vet....
Avoid Animal Friends and anything underwritten by E&L, they will do anything to avoid paying.
Don’t go for the cheapest quote.
Only consider lifetime policies. Ideally with a yearly budget. If it’s a budget per condition then make sure it’s a lot - £7,000+. Yearly budgets better because they renew each year ie cannot run out.
Make sure there are no stipulations for the maximum cost for certain things eg MRI scans.
Overall - Pet Plan are the best option but not the cheapest.

We have over £10k in Premium Bonds which are the accumulated premium payments for the pet insurance for our dog approaching his 14th birthday.

Whereas I claimed £10k in insurance in first 2 years...

It is insurance so it is risk and luck. You were lucky that you have had a very healthy dog for 14 years, I was unlucky and certainly didn't. My advice is to insure for at least the first year (as it is also the cheapest year) just in case they have early issues and can then make a decision when the year is up to continue or not.

We have Direct Line pet insurance, and they have been admirable.

We got a quote before we got a dog, to see if it was affordable, price was fine, so we saved the quote and got a puppy.
We accidentally took the policy out with the pets name as Puppy (used as a placeholder when we got the quote)
We had to make a claim fairly soon after getting the pup, as he broke his leg hopping off the sofa.
Had a small issue with the claim being queried (not rejected) due to name discrepancy, but they amended to policy to match his name, and pay the vets several thousands of pounds for his operation.

[img] [/img]

This thread is rubbish without pics - Watson is now 3 months off his 14th birthday and still goes out for his daily walks.

I'll also qualify my statement that we're now on our 5th dog in 27 years and we've suffered slipped discs, bloat, tumours and chronic ear infections but luckily avoided any huge bills.

Just my experience:

Our previous dog was a disaster zone at times, he broke his leg, he ran into a thorn bush and poked his eye out, and ultimately got knocked down by a van - three large bills totalling about £10k.

One of our current dogs managed to get some weird wart infection on her nose. £1.5k bill for biopsy, blood test, course of medication.

All paid out by Tesco with no quibbles.

Pretty much how insurance company’s work

I'll second (third/fourth) the need to avoid E&L and any of the insurers they trade as (E&L are a big underwriter) based on experience. Every pay out is a fight, if you're lucky enough that they haven't excluded it out...