Pet insurance

I know someone with two cats.. one year in and one cat now needs to eat special food and have steroid injections every month. This adds up to a lot of money, what with the vet costs as well. Luckily it was insured so all covered and as it’s the same ongoing illness it’s all paid for until the cat passes. So a good choice to take out pet insurance. It’s not only useful for those one off accidents.
Back to your question.. that seems a little high for a young dog.
 
At the risk of derailing the thread a bit, from my chats with other pet owners a lot of these ongoing and expensive vet bills appear to be around allergies of one kind or another. To my mind, it’s down to the highly processed etc. food and perhaps to a lesser extent the cosmetics (shampoos etc etc) that have been pushed on people as the right thing to do.

this has a knock on effect with insurance and premiums.
 
[snip]...Back to your question.. that seems a little high for a young dog.

It was explained to me that young dogs are still considered to be risky to insurance companies. They might not have the risk of illness associated with old age, but are at higher risk of theft, behaviour issues, running off in traffic, eating stuff they shouldn’t etc. As a puppy owner, I can kind of see the logic here, although it’s annoying to pay more, my puppy is far more likely to get itself into bother than any of my friends chilled out mature dogs. Also some breeds are prone to certain illnesses and issues, so they want charge more to begin with for when it does occur if it’s likely it will. At least that’s what I’ve been told.
 
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I don't actually think £35 is that terrible for a puppy to be honest, but as already mentioned search around.
I think I paid around £30 for my dog at that age, but that was 8 years ago. After that prices started going down as he aged before starting to climb again.
Both of my claims were from him eating things he shouldn't and both were when he was under 2 years old.
 
I agree about the cost due to thefts.. little or large shits around here in Wiltshire are going around stealing dogs... numbers are going up. grrrrr :mad::mad:
 
My kitten is now 3 months and about to start going outside. I still can’t decide whether to insure or not.
Bought by many want £22 a month with £0 excess.
 
I agree about the cost due to thefts.. little or large sh*ts around here in Wiltshire are going around stealing dogs... numbers are going up. grrrrr :mad::mad:
Bastards!

puppy farmers, people who hiked prices during COVID and people who steal pets... all ****s!
 
My kitten is now 3 months and about to start going outside. I still can’t decide whether to insure or not.
Bought by many want £22 a month with £0 excess.

That seems like a lot to me. My last cat was £5 a month when it was a kitten with £25 excess. That was with Tesco's.
 
Got to be careful when it comes to the headline monthly figure that we are comparing like for like policies.
 
It was explained to me that young dogs are still considered to be risky to insurance companies. They might not have the risk of illness associated with old age, but are at higher risk of theft, behaviour issues, running off in traffic, eating stuff they shouldn’t etc. As a puppy owner, I can kind of see the logic here, although it’s annoying to pay more, my puppy is far more likely to get itself into bother than any of my friends chilled out mature dogs. Also some breeds are prone to certain illnesses and issues, so they want charge more to begin with for when it does occur if it’s likely it will. At least that’s what I’ve been told.

I agree with others that are saying that £35 p/m seems excessive. I'd probably try to knock them down on price with a bit of shopping around/ haggling. As for Pet Plan themselves, my German Shepherd was with them for his whole life and I always found them to be spot on.

With regards to insurers and vet fees, I did question this many years ago and was told by my vet that the reason for a hike in fees once an insurance claim is mentioned is because they'll normally add on any medication required (sometimes life-long) to the bill, whereas if Mrs. Miggins turns up with one of her 32 cats and needs expensive medication, but is not insured and only has her state pension to live on, the vet will advise her to shop online or source meds another way, as animal medication can usually be sought for much cheaper prices than the vet can charge, unless it's specialised in some way.

On the other hand, if you're going to be paying your insurance excess for a claim and your premium is already going to rise next year, then adding potentially £100s if not £1000's of medication costs is a sensible thing to do, rather than a con.

One thing I would finish on for those that say insurance is a waste of money; Unless you are cash-rich or have easy access to savings and don't need to worry about massive vets bills, then imo, insurance is an absolute must for a loved pet.
I would never want to be in this situation (which I'm certain happens every day);

'Well Mr. Jones, we have two options; option one is a specialist in London, who will look into Fido's mystery illness and symptoms, using the latest state of the art scanning equipment and treatment. This will cost £10,000 and would be covered by insurance. Option two is that Fido is put to sleep tomorrow morning and this will cost £160'.

Not many people can just lay their hands on 5 figure lump-sums...
 
My cats are with lv. Always have from kittens been around £5-6 each. Its got excess but not had to use it much... eye infection then one time when the male got hit by a car.. bills/cage for a while.. all paid for by insurance... around a grand I think...and I live in a quiet area - no through road. Luckily young and strong soo no real damage. Now I see he is different around car noises where before he didn’t bother about them.. life lesson learnt. 8 lives left.
 
I am :rotfl:
 
Our cat is 10yrs old this and from having at 8 weeks have it insured, its around £15 a month but have to shop around every so often, goes up with age to.
Never had to claim, but if stopped next week be would need to!
We have always lived on not fast main roads to or near to many, so that helps in getting run over some.
So must depend on cat to as my parents cat gets in to scrapes all the time with abscesses etc from cuts, sis in-laws cat to, has broken leg from jumping off stuff etc.
Guess we been lucky, then we pay the vets on a pet plan for the yearly jabs and flea/worm stuff.
 

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