Pet insurance

[missyburd]

There's a new Yorkie in the pack...well he's from Lancashire but we've decided to bring him up the proper way :-P

Meet Toby-Wan Kenobi, well just Toby really. Wanting to get him insured asap, anyone got any recommendations? Had a look on the ol' Martin Lewis site but personal recommendations can go a lot further.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t31.0-8/p370x247/10955081_10155185309310553_9143326339649756113_o.j pg

Any help will be much appreciated oh knowledgeable organs! :)

[garynortheast]

Petplan are who I am with. They've been very good so far and extremely helpful and informative on the phone. It seems that they are the company of choice with quite a number of vets too.


Lovely looking dog too, by the way. What make is he? :-)

[missyburd]

White German Shepherd. Very hairy. Very lovely too :)

Will look up Petplan, cheers Gary!

[Jayneflakes]

He is outrageously beautiful, good to know that he is in good hands.

I have spoken to Pets at Home about their insurance and it seemed reasonable, but I did not go for it in the end.

You see, I tend to get bored of my pets, so I just have them put to sleep after a while. Because of this, it is rare that they need a vet, well apart from a final Vet so to speak!* :smt077






















* For those of you who have met Alby and Jasper, you know how they are spoiled! Have you ever tried to get pet insurance for a disabled owl though? It would be easier to wring her neck and serve her up as lunch! :smt084

[Tomor]

We are with pet plan and have never had a problem paying up when one of our cats does something stupid, like eat a rat... makes him very ill. Who would have guessed?!?!?!

[Ch00]

I am with animal friends.

Very good paid for a claim very quickly with no hassle.

Good choice of options and they dont hike up the cost the following year.

http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/

[timwilky]

The vets we use here on the nice side of the hill, have their own scheme that worked out for us far better than conventional pet insurance. A monthly fee that covers for everything. No hassle of claiming etc.

Even covers worming tablets and annual shots etc. So check what your vet has.

Avoid more than. they refuse to pay even though they had paid out previously as suddenly it becomes an existing condition.

[Luckypants]

I am with animal friends.

Very good paid for a claim very quickly with no hassle.

Good choice of options and they dont hike up the cost the following year.

http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/

We are with Animal Friends too, they came highly recommended from the shelter we got our Staffie from, even though Petplan give a free month of cover when you adopt from them. Petplan were also recommended obviously.

I had Red and Rowan covered by Direct Line and they would have paid for the first year of each of their arthristis medicine, if I had realised they cover chronic conditions. By the time I realised it was too late as they had been on medication for over a year, I only found out by claiming for the tumour on Red's tail.

[ophic]

Also with PetPlan for our 3 dogs. 2 of our dogs have been quite poorly and huge sums of money have been paid out.

Having said that, it's been a fight from time to time. They've messed things up on several occasions and it doesn't seem malicious, just incompetent, but then they're unwilling to sort it out. It also depends who you get on the phone when you complain. Some are cocky and cause more problems than they solve, and others will sort things out straight away, including the extra problems caused by their colleague.

The "covered for life" policies keep getting more expensive the older the pet gets, which they don't tell you when you sign up. I'm now paying more than 3 times the amount I started on, 6 years later.

[Luckypants]

The "covered for life" policies keep getting more expensive the older the pet gets, which they don't tell you when you sign up. I'm now paying more than 3 times the amount I started on, 6 years later.I found that with direct line too. By the time you find this out the dog is too old to get cover elsewhere.

[appollo1]

Pet Plan for my animals. The vet bills for our Appollo (GSD)were in the thousands and Pet Plan were great right up yo the end. Now Alfie and the cat are with them. All paperwork done through vets.

[minimorecambe]

We are with Co-op for Tanner
Luckily we haven't had to claim but one of the trainers from our class is with them and didn't have a problem claiming when his Rotties cruciate needed doing.

Make sure you get the right cover.
If you get time limited then you are only covered for any condition that happens in that insurance period.
When you next insure you won't be covered for it anymore. So treatment could get expensive if it was a lifelong condition.

Unfortunately for us, Tanner is quite expensive to cover just because of his breed :-(
But if my aggressive Rottweiler does lick someone to death, at least we have £1,000,000 liability insurance!

[missyburd]

Cheers for the help guys. We're still researching, Petplan seems to tick the boxes but quite dear, but then you can't put a price on your pet really. Or we could get a cheaper policy and keep putting money away in case we have problems and need to fork out later on...

Thanks for the tips MM, the vet gave us plenty warning about the 12 month cover, definitely one to be avoided!

[Sir Trev]

...Or we could get a cheaper policy and keep putting money away in case we have problems and need to fork out later on...

Don't discount this option, or even going without insurance and simply putting money aside each month to your own fund. Our last dog developed gastric issues when only a few months old and we could not get any sensibly priced insurance so went the self-insured route. Even though we ended up forking out for several expensive tumour removal ops the fund never ran dry and we ended up with an existing pot when we started doing the same with our current dog. It's not for everyone as you don't get some of the other benefits like liability cover but do consider it.