pet insurance recommendation?

[Shellywoozle]

I need to urgently insure Samson as my current company pulled out insurance market.

I want a lifetime cover but the quotes I have had so far are stupid, my car and bike together are less. Its a dog he ain't covered in gold ;/

Can anyone recommend any good companies that are reliable ?

[SoulKiss]

I need to urgently insure Samson as my current company pulled out insurance market.

I want a lifetime cover but the quotes I have had so far are stupid, my car and bike together are less. Its a dog he ain't covered in gold ;/

Can anyone recommend any good companies that are reliable ?

1st of all - sorry this isn't going to be helpful.

It seems that all the cheap players ni the market are pulling out because its costing them a fortune and there is just no profit in it.

So, good luck, I thnk you will need it - and tho he's not Gold Plated, hes worth as much as he would be if he was :)

[Shellywoozle]

You're right to me he is worth it but surely 360 quid a year to insure a dog is daft.

I was with Halifax, I try and go with known companies that you wouldn't think would stop insuring but it appears their life cover wasn't life, and they had to pull out and pay ooodles of compensation.

Oh well I will go a hunting lol

[SoulKiss]

You're right to me he is worth it but surely 360 quid a year to insure a dog is daft.

I was with Halifax, I try and go with known companies that you wouldn't think would stop insuring but it appears their life cover wasn't life, and they had to pull out and pay ooodles of compensation.

Oh well I will go a hunting lol

Phone your vet and ask for some examples of their bills, one for the average of a dog like samson being hit by a car, one for him swallowing something, one for a broken leg requiring partial amputation and one for a long term treatable with medication illness - diabetes or something like that.

It will scare you how much the vet wants for it.

I had a cat that got into a fight and needed some stitches in its leg.

That was a couple of hundred quid from memory.

£360 might not go that far if something happens.

Probably best to take the £360 (quid a day) and put it in a savings account - and then every year add another £360 (or whatever you arre quoted for Pet Insurance) and build up a fund against anything happening.

If ithe fund ever came up short, don't forget there is the RSPCA and similar organisations/charities that can help.

[ophic]

I'm with PetPlan, they're definitely not the cheapest but most vets deal with them directly so you just have to sign a form and pay the excess and that's it. Kaiser costs me over £50 a month and it keeps going up every year, but then he's a lot of dog.

He got bitten very badly by a snake and the vet bills ran into 4 figures so I was quite glad of the insurance.

[MisterTommyH]

PetPlan all the way.

When I had my dog it was the only place that would keep paying out after the first 12 months (provided that you kept the policy going without a break).

[L3nny]

I am with Argos. It's expensive £26 a month for a cat but she has to have £35 a month's worth of tablets and they only charged me the excess on the first month.

£360 wont get you very far if your dog needs an operation. They can easily run into thousands.

[dizzyblonde]

Did the Halifax not send you an alternative? I'll rephrase that, did the company the Halifax palm you onto send you info?
I've had several reminders for this weird company and I'm not overly keen on a company that like its sending you a credit plan and not insurance!

[Shellywoozle]

Yea dizzy they did but I figured I didn't want to go with their alternative, smacked off same insurance different.name.

[The Idle Biker]

Think ours is through Tesco's. They've been OK in terms of paying out communications etc. Animal medicine is horrendously expensive, I can't believe how much it costs.

[DJ123]

Can you not add him onto your bike or car policy? I'm sure some insurance has combined them!

i've got no expierence in pet insurance, googled and http://www.pet-insurance.co.uk/ came up

[SoulKiss]

Think ours is through Tesco's. They've been OK in terms of paying out communications etc. Animal medicine is horrendously expensive, I can't believe how much it costs.

Well, logically thinking, they must test it on humans...

[timwilky]

After a nasty episode with more than where they claimed a condition was pre existing (they covered him and because we took out a new policy with them rather than renewed the existing, they reneged) I would say do not touch more than with the proverbial barge pole.

My vet has their own scheme. Works out cheaper than any commercial offer. Worth checking if your vet does similar.

[davepreston]

my family use pet plan for everything from horse to dog and 360 thats more than i paid for my horse to be insured each year, i also have used E and L insurancse they were good hth gemma

* couldnt be bothered signing dave out lol*

[SoulKiss]

my family use pet plan for everything from horse to dog and 360 thats more than i paid for my horse to be insured each year, i also have used E and L insurancse they were good

That post is much more funny without those bits :p

[Dabber]

I use petplan for our 3 cats. They are a tad pricey, but one thing they do is pay for lifetime treatment. The cheaper companies have small print that will only pay for meds for 1 year, after that you are on your own.

Friend of ours was with Tesco,,they have lots of small print, and managed to get out of a few vets payments, so she left them and went pet plan.

Petplan do a sort of multi pet policy too. Our payments dropped a little once we insured our last cat :)

[Iansv II]

Just make sure you read the policies through to make sure you know exactly what you're getting, There are lots of clauses in some policies which make them almost useless in certain situations oh and beware of pre existing condition definitions.

I say this having worked within the industry for RSA not so long ago who underwrite M&S / MoreThan & Tesco Pet and have first hand experience of what goes on when people don't check what they're actually buying

[Sir Trev]

Probably best to take the £360 (quid a day) and put it in a savings account - and then every year add another £360 (or whatever you arre quoted for Pet Insurance) and build up a fund against anything happening.

If ithe fund ever came up short, don't forget there is the RSPCA and similar organisations/charities that can help.

For most people pet insurance is peace of mind but money down the drain. If you have a rainy day fund you can dip into then don't bother - put thirty to fifty quid a month into savings over the life of your pet and self insure. Yes you *may* have a sudden huge bill but it's not that likely.

My last dog had terrible bowel problems as a puppy a few months after we got her so insurance was not an option due to immediate sky high premiums and "existing conditions" loopholes. Despite being a frequent visitor to the vet for seeds stuck in paw, numerous tumour removals, teeth extractions and many many others we were still ahead when she quietly died on the kitchen floor at a ripe old age.

Pet insurance is not compulsory so consider it carefully.