Pet insurance advice

[Crackle]

I'm calling upon the good people of CC to point me in the direction of decent pet insurance. The cost of vet fees making not having it virtually prohibitive these days if you don't have a few grand lying spare.

Mine has lapsed, well not mine, the dog's and I need new stuff. I was looking at life policies but the exclusions and individual limits make my head hurt. I seem to have been through most of them and am no nearer to choosing. So looking for some advice on ones which don't have lots of exclusions, good life limits and of course a good monthly cost and I know it varies by pet and area and age and stuff but some pointers would be good?

 

[fossyant]

Pet plan. Not cheap but good cover

 

[cosmicbike]

Pet plan. Not cheap but good cover

+1 for that. Both our dogs are with them. Not the cheapest, but life cover makes a difference in the long run.

 

[Crackle]

Pet plan. Not cheap but good cover

One of the first I got a quote from and now looking better and better as I get quotes from others. 4k a year cover. That should be enough right. If say he does a cruciate ligament, anyone know if that would be enough?

 

[Crackle]

[QUOTE 3794101, member: 9609"]ours has both his cruciates done - £1,400 each[/QUOTE]
Phew! That's not so bad. Well, when I say not so bad.....

 

[Shadow]

Have you looked here? www.thepetforums.com It would make Shaun happy, at least!
Maybe more helpfully, I'll ask Mrs S later.

 

[wormo]

+1 Pet plan

 

[nickyboy]

Get a goldfish instead

 

[User269]

Having had dogs since 1983, we long since realised that insurance doesn't pay. Each of our dogs has needed one or two surgical interventions costing 2-3 hundred pounds, and this has cropped up about once every 5 years. Even allowing for regular checkups, jabs, etc. there is no way that insurance is worthwhile; a years insurance alone would cost about as much as we pay out every 5 years or so.

 

[Crackle]

Our vet practice has their own insurance policy. The vet recommended PetPlan to me instead.

As others have said, not cheap but the cover is good. Make sure you get 'whole life' cover in the first instance (another recommendation from our vet).

My vet has Petplan leaflets everywhere, so it's beginning to look like the favourite.

I did get a cheaper quote from paws and Claws but it has a lot of individual limits, like 1000 for an MRi scan, 1500 for a cruciate ligament. 6quid a month cheaper than Petplan but I've never heard of them. Anyone insured via them?

 

[Crackle]

Having had dogs since 1983, we long since realised that insurance doesn't pay. Each of our dogs has needed one or two surgical interventions costing 2-3 hundred pounds, and this has cropped up about once every 5 years. Even allowing for regular checkups, jabs, etc. there is no way that insurance is worthwhile; a years insurance alone would cost about as much as we pay out every 5 years or so.

I've heard this before but I wouldn't want to be faced with making a call on his life for the sake of money. At the same time I'm not going to prolong any suffering for the sake of me. Besides which, it's only a few more years before he's probably uninsurable.

 

[Mrs M]

Our Thomas is insured with Pet protect.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

To buck the trend we're with Tesco. Recommended by our vet yesrs ago. They offer good limits on treatment, low excess, have always been fast to pay up, never quibbled and allowed part payments and claims for longer running injuries and follow ups (severed tendons, burst arteries, major spinal issues) over years of service and many changes of dogs with various 1-off casualty issues too

They were a heck of a lot cheaper than pet plan and many others back in the day but prices across the board seem to be levelling out more and more but even when we look around Tesco still seem to offer us plenty £ for £.

Only gripe is that even as longstanding customers & insuring without claim our oldest dog for many many years, the renewal quote for him going past 14 this year skyrocketed and they weren't willing to shift on it - various other places quoted us same or worse & several wouldn't touch him.

 

[Crackle]

Tesco don't seem to do whole life insurance anymore and ain't cheap, not competitive with Petplan.

Just got a quote from Animal Friends (who the feck are they?)

4k a year per condition, no annual limit for conditions, 99 excess, 23 a month - seems to good to be true. Anyone?

 

[Crackle]

I think I may bite the bullet and go with Petplan. Reviews of the cheaper ones like Animal Friends and Paws and claws are all poor or mixed at best and underwritten by people in odd places like Gibraltar and South Africa. Petplan is 30quid for my dog.