Just been talking to petplan following tadog's thread, no chance of upgrade as Soli as a handful of chronic issues but I wanted to check about euthanasia - not covered, nor cremation, purchase price, nothing at all.

Is this a common thing with policies on older pets' policies generally?  The bloke I talked to said that on all their policies, cover for euthanasia/death from illness/cremation was removed once the pet turns 8 because it becomes more likely.  I'm maybe being naive but I find that extremely unfair - as a pet ages they are more likely to cost more in vet bills anyway, so why take away cover for a cost that may well one day be absolutely necessary?  I've heard last year sometime about a woman whose dog needed to be PTS but she didn't have the money - the poor dog was kept going for a while because she couldn't get it done, the vets wouldn't do it without payment, RSPCA wouldn't help etc.  Is that not what insurance is there for?

I am worried about it with Soli - I don't have much money, yet when she goes to the bridge I will need to find the money for euthanasia and cremation, I'm looking at something like £160-200 that I'll need to find.

There are a lot of things which are just not covered by insurance, as far as I am aware no policies cover for euthanasia and cremation if one ever did exist the premium most be horrendous, prob best to just put a little aside every month for when the time comes, or have a card to cover for it. :-)

I would have thought them completely seperate things.

As with humans we have different types of insurance.   Health insurance and Life insurance.  Our health insurance does not cover death, funeral or cremations.

Life insurance is usually only paid out on death

Just had a quick look on the other two insurers I use.  Animal Friends covers death on all but its accident only policies, and Axa pays up to £100 on the death of the dog to cover euthanasia or cremation.  I've heard of other companies that will cover the purchase price so the owner can pay the death costs - Kennel Club being one, Tesco another.  That doesn't apply in Soli's case though, but looking at the subject by itself that would be helpful.

I can't get a card - my credit rating is shot to hell and will be for years.  And I have nothing left each month to set aside at the moment, I'm behind on rent and being helped by family just to pay the normal bills!  The only chance is that my vets will let me pay in installments - thankfully I don't think it'll be a problem with them.

I just find it irritating that Petplan have had Soli being paid for since she was 9 weeks old, and now she's approaching the end of her life they will only offer cover for death by injury, even though they are covering her terminal heart condition.  Just seems daft.

> Is that not what insurance is there for?
>
>

Nope Insurance is for 'unexpected' things, Euthanasia of an ageing Pet is inevitable.

To be honest if you cancelled the Insurance as you knew the end was near, before the next months premium the premium would cover Euthanasia and disposal (last one of mine was £50.

Ageing, yes.  But from a disease, not inevitable at all - just because a dog has turned 8 does not mean it is automatically going to get sick and die.  I know Soli has a known terminal condition, again, I'm talking generally here.

Edit: that's a good point about cancelling - I hadn't thought of that, thank you.  I'm in a fortunate position with Soli, in a way, in that she's been on the protect study - so her meds are free for life once she's off the study, so I wouldn't have to worry about paying for those.

Yes but death is inevitable and likely due to natural causes or otherwise (they pay out for the illness that may lead to it). 

It is not an unexpected expense, unless they die in their sleep, and then you still have the disposal.

> It is not an unexpected expense

No, nor an unpredicatable amount.  You can check with your vet at any point and find out what the current charges are.
If money is tight I would consider putting aside only the fees necessary to allow your pet to leave with dignity.  I am sure, if they could express it, no dog would wish their loving owner to go into debt for personalised disposal expenses.

I don't know of any policy that covers the cost of PTS or disposal; repayment of the purchase price is included in PetPlan's top (most expensive) policy.

From experience the cost of euthanasia and disposal is likely to far exceed £50. It does partly depend on the local authority's charge for disposal but the minimum where I am is £150. Not a nice thing when you are in a very sad place! It is a good idea to plan for this kind of thing in advance so that you dont have to fret about it should the worst happen.

Yes, a lot of policies do give you the purchase price of an animal upon death, I also have a policy like that, (if you have receipt to show cost, so that should always be kept) but that isn't to cover the cost of cremation, pts, it is so that you will hopefully buy another dog to keep the insurance company in business and continue to use them.

A vet could not use the policy for claiming pts and cremation, the owner will just get the purchase price a week or so later so you would still need to pay the initial costs out.

Insurance companies are not really there for us and our animals they are purely there to make money for themselves when an animal dies it is loss of business so they are not going to put anything into an animal once gone, they just hope we'll get another.

quite impressed at AXA. just had a look as i am changing one of my dogs from Petplan to another, think i may go with AXA. I noticed that they pay £100 towards cremation AND will pay £150.00 towards travel/accomodation cost if your vet refers you to another vet. WOW 

John Lewis pet insurance cover for quite a lot including euthanasia, behavioral consultations etc.

I have claimed once with no probs.

AXA paid up fully for Troy's euthanasia (he was 11), but didn't pay for his cremation.

John Lewis insurance is AXA.   going direct to AXA is slightly cheaper.

Didnt realise......I use that many different ones! I only pay £11 per month each for 3 of mine :-)

By going direct to AXA rather than thru JL I saved bout £3 a month. I now pay £8.30 with 7000.00 cover whereas before I payed Pet plan 23.00 for 4000.00 cover

Thanks for that info....have just changed a couple of mine over for 9.66 a month. :-)