Petprotect are asking £29.84 (the reduced rate, apparently the full premium is £35!) for a 3 1/2 yr old WSS who has no health issues...and then I have two more! They're off my list :)

I went on moneysupermarket.com and they don't offer AXA so maybe this is where I have been going wrong!

http://www.insureyourpet.co.uk/

My vet suggested this site.........seems to have most if not all firms on there

My vet suggested this site.........seems to have most if not all firms on there

I'm not sure if this website is correct, it shows Axa as NOT lifelong which is wrong ( unless I am not reading it correctly myself, if so I apologise)

'All reasonable costs for Treatment of Your Pet by a Vet for Illness, Condition or injury up to the Maximum Benefit of £7,000 per Period of Insurance,'

'Many insurers stop paying for your pet's treatment after a specified time. Not AXA. We will to continue to cover your cat or dog's long term conditions for as long as your pet is insured with us.'

from their own site info, the initial 'tick' list also has no for behaviour and they definatly cover that.

Just put it up as a way to get quick links to various sites.

Ive just checked for my CKCS bitch who is 4 this month and its £104 single payment or £8.72 a month and thats from AXA.
I am paying £25 with More Than at the moment for her...Im going to change!
It has everything that MT is offering me aswell but at a cheaper rate.

Well it did cover a C/Section on New Years Day at a cost of £875. Plus other treatments.

I do agree with insurance and I would encourage when people buy pups-especially for the first 12 months-then up to the buyer if they want to continue.

I have had insurance myself for several years but decided to go my own way.

> Don't know when you renew but......... Zuma 3½ yr GSD is with AXA on the top level, <br />1st year = £14ish, had claims about £1k total<br />2nd year = down slightly, no claims<br />3rd year (renewed in Oct 2010) = £23.......<br />OUCH

One was renewed Oct 2010 and went up in pennies (although the excess went up from £50 to £75), I've got 2 due for renewal this month, so will see how they come out and 2 due in April.

We pay £60 per month for our 11 month old Newfoundland with Petplan.  It is the lifetime cover with a limit of £6k per year,  but is still a lot of money, especially as it will only continue to increase.

> I have not had to use on any of my dogs-thank goodness, and it is sitting there with a few thousand in.
>
> I have taken out insurance in the past and yes I did use within 8 weeks of start of insurance cover-so that was a saving.
>
> It all depends on how good is one at saving.

Im afraid this money would be a drop in the ocean if you had a third part claim against you....the main reason why I insure my dogs.
We can afford to treat them but unable to pay out the millions the insurers offer.

I remember Dogs Trust offering public liability for their sponsors.  This was some years ago and I don't know if they still do.

You can get third party insurance by joining the Dogs Trust - £25 per year. A lot of house insurance policies cover third party claims as well.

> One was renewed Oct 2010 and went up in pennies (although the excess went up from £50 to £75), I've got 2 due for renewal this month, so will see how they come out and 2 due in April.

The excess is a bit of a nightmare.  I'm sure that M&S used to have a no excess option and it was fairly low before but aside from operations, most things are less than the current M&S £90 excess.

> most things are less than the current M&S £90 excess.

For a lot of people, insurance is only taken out to cover the bigger amounts. The odd £50 or so is just part of keeping the dog. Also, for the insurance company, processing lots of 'small' payments is very expensive and keeps their costs down if they don't have to pay out on these :)

Daisy

This isn't a reply to Daisy-just a question for anyone.Do Petplan hike their prices up every year or do they stay quite stable? A friend of mine has just gone with them as she says they don't-but I have heard differently-I wondered what other people think as they are (supposedly) one of the better insurance companies?

>I'm sure that M&S used to have a no excess option and it was fairly low before but aside from operations, most things are less than the current M&S £90 excess.

They did, then they stopped it, I think it coincided with them changing underwriters.  Bit of a con really because I had all my lot with them on the no excess then all of a sudden it changed and having already claimed I couldnt really change them all over to somewhere else, I changed some of them, but then after it went up to over £40 a month for one of my Setters I changed him over too ... and s#d any exclusions that are put on !

>> For a lot of people, insurance is only taken out to cover the bigger amounts. The odd £50 or so is just part of keeping the dog. Also, for the insurance company, processing lots of 'small' payments is very expensive and keeps their costs down if they don't have to pay out on these :-)

Daisy, I agree with you that the odd £90 (in the case of M&S) is part of dog ownership and I don't grudge it in any way but when the limit per condition is £1K with a £4K annual limit overall, it is taking the P***.  It is hardly worth having when the premiums are £35 a month when they don't pay out on large amounts either.  Just seems like a bit of a swizz.

> It is hardly worth having when the premiums are £35 a month when they don't pay out on large amounts either

I agree. Both my dogs were insured for some years, but we were paying £50 per month for the two, 6 years ago - 1 mongrel and 1 Aussie. Gave up paying and now self-insure. We've been lucky and would not have needed to claim in the past 6 years. Older dog may need a small op soon, but we've 'saved' £3600+ increases + interest so can't complain :)

If I get another dog in the future, I will still weigh up whether to insure or not :)

Daisy

We have ours insured with M&S for the 1st year with their standard cover but fine for us for 2 goldens. The 1yr old is  £13 pcm and 4yr old is £15 pcm also £90 excess.

Includes veterinary treatment fees up to:£4,000              limit any one illness or injury £1,000

>> If I get another dog in the future, I will still weigh up whether to insure or not :-)

I will continue to insure my dogs for another year as the anxiety about 'what if' niggles me too much.  Definitely not with M&S though.  For future dogs, like yourself I will make a decision based on the breed, the individual dog, my circumstances at the time etc.

once mine was 7 the insurance went up to £75 exess plus 20% of any bills, is this normal?

My dog is insured with M&S and I have been considering putting the money by instead as the premium has just risen to £39 a month for a 5 year old Golden Retriever. But today I got a phone call from a friend to tell me that Charlie, her Red Setter, was rushed to the emergency veterinary hospital last night with bloat and, so far, their bill is £2085 - am now totally unsure as to which is the best way to go.

TinaS -Yes, in my experience. That's when they are classed as old/veteran (and the point where I stopped my Rottie's insurance as it doubled with no claims).

> was rushed to the emergency veterinary hospital last night with bloat and, so far, their bill is £2085 -

How is he doing?
That is another consideration to think about in some breeds of dogs.

We have ours insured with M&S for the 1st year with their standard cover but fine for us for 2 goldens. The 1yr old is  £13 pcm and 4yr old is £15 pcm also £90 excess.

Includes veterinary treatment fees up to:£4,000              limit any one illness or injury £1,000

Limit £1000 is not very much per illness and also (hopefully ) a dog will not have 4 illnesses a year so this is a bit of a con as there is a good chance that you will use no more than the max of £1000 ( and have to find any extra yourself) so the remaining £3000 will be wasted. Surely it would be better to allow £4000 per year per animal whether 1 illness or more

Bloat is the reason I keep my dogs insured, I had been contemplating cancelling Fagans insurance but decided to switch from m&s to a cheaper one, luckily I did, 15 days into his new policy he suffered Bloat and after that complications of fluid on the lungs so it was a pretty hefty bill !!

Quite agree about third party claims.

I do think insurance is a safe guard for people-that is why the service is there.

>> was rushed to the emergency veterinary hospital last night with bloat and, so far, their bill is £2085 -
> How is he doing?
>

He has survived the night but it's still touch and go.

To Sillysue,
We had a very similar insurance with tesco 2yrs ago and claimed for 2 illnesses in our other dog now sadly no longer with us,and it worked fine for us then,and if we needed to pay extra out of pockets then so be it as we said we would do 2yrs ago but it didnt come to that luckly.
This is cover is better than no cover and is not costing a fortune.
I do think M&S excess is very high....but I wouldnt bother to claim under a £100 any way.

I probably wouldn't bother to claim for anything under £100 but I think insurance companies are using previous histories as a reason not to pay up.

cheekychow if you haven't already found cover have a look at Homebase.  I have dogs on M&S too and cannot change them due to pre exisitng conditions but I wasn't comfortable putting the pup on such expensive insurance.  Homebase offered equivalent cover (better £ benefits in some cases) for quite a lot less.

I calculated that once you reach 3 dogs then self insurance starts to look attractive!!  I may re assess mine when the pup is a bit older...

Goldie,
Hi there,
As mentioned on page 1 I moved to Axa earlier this year for similar prices to the prices mentioned by you,  except the dogs are insured for £7000 each per year with no rules to how much per illness, just per dog for life with £75 excess, thats why I mentioned the £1000 per illness seemed a bit of a take on compared to Axa

Thanks for that dogs a babe, I will check them out.  Axa is looking the most promising so far.

I cancelled M&S today and my next dilemma is whether to pay double premiums for a month and have my boy covered with both companies incase anything happens in the next month since he wouldn't be covered for the first 2 weeks of the new policy.  Or whether to take a chance and keep fingers xed that nothing happens.

Hi sillysue,
Yes I see where you are coming from and I will look at that when renewal comes round.
Thanks.

>I cancelled M&S today and my next dilemma is whether to pay double premiums for a month and have my boy covered with both companies incase anything happens in the next month since he wouldn't be covered for the first 2 weeks of the new policy.  Or whether to take a chance and keep fingers xed that nothing happens.

I would cross them over, I arranged for my M&S policy to stop when my new one reached day 14.  On day 15 my dog suffered bloat .... now had that been two days earlier and I hadnt kept the cover on then that would have a been a huge bill and an exclusion on the new policy !

Vets bills/insurance is now one of the things I consider when I'm thinking about getting another dog - which I am at the moment as I had to have our oldest put to sleep for advanced cancer just before Christmas.    I like Rottweilers and some of the giant breeds for example but the cost of insuring them is just too much - maybe when the kids are grown up we'll be able to afford one ! 

Well Claire, you have single handedly convinced me to overlap the insurance!

derbyMerc, go for a rott - you know you want to!  I have been quoted £20pcm for my rott boy which is very reasonable and now cheaper than my staffy.  go on, give a rott a home.

> derbyMerc, go for a rott - you know you want to!

Ditto ;-).....That is actually a good price if that covers all conditions for the life of the dog..

>> Ditto ;-).....That is actually a good price if that covers all conditions for the life of the dog..

yup, £20.80 with axa for £7K pa for life not restricted to any amount per condition.

DerbyMerc, I was speaking to a friend tonight who said 2 young rotts has been handed into the local kennels today. Go on.....