I am considering insuring my 7 month old pup. I have had insurance in the past on both of my then dogs and it came in very useful but they increased the premiums so considerably as the dogs aged that I couldn't really justify the expense. I also have a 9 year old who isn't insured as I cannot find insurance that will cover her as she is over 8 years of age, there were few who would but they wanted an arm and a leg.

So I am looking for a policy that will give good cover and for a reasonable cost. I know that this is quite difficult but can anyone recommend a particular company as I have been getting quotes from a price comparison site and to be honest, I am getting more and more confused!

4 of mine are insured with Direct Line. 2 with PP. I have made 2 substantial claims within 3 months with same dog with DL. They have been absolutely brilliant. No hassle with either claim. They paid referral vet directly. PP are also very good but their policy is more expensive.

I've always been a supporter of pet insurance but now I'm considering cancelling all my policies except for insuring puppies for the first year. I've just had a renewal for one dog and there's so many exclusions (i.e bilateral conditions not now covered) now despite no claims that it hardly seems worthwhile, maybe they should introduce a no claims policy? Between the insurance companies and the vets they are pricing themselves out of reach of a lot of people. There's no excuse for an insurance company to put up a policy from £38 to £60 per month with no claims, I pay a lot less to insure my home and car and if I raised my prices by that percentage in my business people just wouldn't pay it.
If you want some good advice on pet insurance contact VIP4U, a brokers who are very helpful.

Will this help you

http://www.reviewcentre.com/products366.html

Does anyone know of any insurance available for vet fees only?  I don't want the rest of what they put on an pet policy.

im with animal friends and have found them great. when ive had to call them the person on the phone has been very helpful and when I made a big claim they payed both me and the vet as I had payed over the excess befor she was ammitted so they payed me what I payed over the excess then payed the vet directly the rest, there happy to pay your or the vet depending on what u want to do.
I had to call them as my claim was over £1000 and your ment to call them first if its over that amount but we didn't know how much it was going to be and was more conserned with saving her life. They had no problem with it and told be to write out why i dint inform them and send it in with the claim and they would accept it.

I didn't notice an increase the next year after that claim but there has been an increase this year by about £60, it was £220 something for the first two years and this year its £290 something a year. still works out to be about $25 a month for a lifetime one and the claim I made means its payed for its self for the next 5 years. so I don't think its a bad price.

It's worth having third party in case your dog causes an accident/incident.
You might also want to think about a 'for life' policy so that the company can't pull out when you start costing them a lot.

Thank you every one, some very useful information.

I agree that the cost of a policy is prohibitive for so many and all of the exclusions are a nightmare. You have to be so careful and read the small print. I have had a quote from a company and it seems quite comprehensive. £12,000 vet fees in each year, for life policy, ongoing conditions and other extras but it seems quite expensive at £250 a year for a pup. Although I realise that postcode etc are all taken into account I don't know what I was expecting as it is 3 years since I last had insurance. I don't even pay this for my performance 4X4 car!

The trouble is, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am currently paying out a lot of money for my older girl and her vet fees are going to rocket in the next few months as she needs further investigations. I am still paying off a vet bill from 6 months ago, when I lost my other darling boy after lots of treatment. My vets are very good at letting me pay my account by monthly instalments but I am not comfortable doing this.

I suppose I could go for a cheaper policy but I am worried that this would be a waste of money if I needed to make a more expensive claim as it wouldn't cover it. But not being insured is risky. I used to put money by in an account each month to build up an amount in the event of the dogs needing treatment but I got caught out with that as it didn't cover 70% the fees when I needed to use it.

Minefield! Thanks again :-)

Maby you could pay monthly? That would make it about £20 something a month. if you want on going conditions it will cast more then a set limit/time one as they could end up paying out more, but for me I'd rather pay the extra while I can afford it and get more cover as I think the on going condition ones are worth it.
If the cost is a problem you could allways get a lower policy for now and hope nothing on going crops up untill you can better afford to switch to a higher one.

> but it seems quite expensive at £250 a year for a pup. Although I realise that postcode etc are all taken into account I don't know what I was expecting as it is 3 years >since I last had insurance. I don't even pay this for my performance 4X4 car!

Golly - that seems very cheap to me :) When we stopped insuring (about 8 years ago) we were paying nearly £50 per month for two medium size 'healthy' breeds :) One reason for the cost is that (it seems to me from comments on another thread) the chances of claiming are much higher than claiming on car insurance :)

I pay a fair bit each month but I am still overall 'in pocket' after a few previous claims.  Pups are often more expensive as they are apparently more likely to have an accident.

Be aware if you go with petplan they now have exclusions on taking your dog to work; I don't think they will insure.

>  I've just had a renewal for one dog and there's so many exclusions (i.e bilateral conditions not now covered) now despite no claims that it hardly seems worthwhile, maybe they should introduce a no claims policy?

One of mine is like this and I was going to ring them to cancel one day a couple of months ago.  I forgot, and the very next day he was diagnosed with a prolapsed disc, which is by some miracle covered!  Never been so glad to have a cr@p memory lol!

I think if I could afford to Insure I would have comprehensive for life policy for the first year.  By this time anything lifelong like HD, ED can have been screened for.

Then I would take out a cheaper  annual policy for the next few years, until the age when any oth5r issues are likely, but they will still do a for life policy (something like between 6 - 8 years).

In breeds where senior on-going conditions are rare I'd stay with the cheaper policies, but in some of the larger breeds, or those more likely to have issues, I'd go the whole hog, but of course you pay through the nose for the cover because of the higher risk.

With my own dogs apart from pimple on bum type things none have really needed anything until they were veterans (suspicious lumps and bumps, on younger veterans).

I would recommend John Lewis. Very good level of cover, reasonable excess and pay the vet pretty promptly. Things like Epilepsy can crop up at any age (classic onset is thought to be 3-6 years old) and I've had two dogs with it which paid the premiums many times over.

I have switched mine (except the oldie) from Tesco (£2500 per condition per year) to John Lewis (£7000 per condition with no time limit) after my eldest has nearly maxed out the amount on one condition. Didn't want to risk it with the others who are both breeds with more known health problems than my oldest. John Lewis are underwritten by Royal Sun and Alliance, who my vets have told me are very good to deal with. Hoping I never find out though! But the cost is very reasonable at approx £12 per month.
Really glad to hear a good review of them hear a it's always a worry when you do have to come to deal with them :)

I had another 3 dogs with Tesco - no claims but they still sent the premium through the roof the next year so I cancelled.

It's bizarre isn't it as Tescos are still by far the cheapest for me to use even after the premium went up as George is now 7. If I joined them as a new customer now the premiums are more a month so I must get a discount for still using them. The equivalent with John Lewis is £82 a month, petplan even more and at least with tesco there is no % contribution after a certain age.

I guess you just have to shop around :(

got my dogs insured with LV (Liverpool Victoria)  I've had to put claims in for my older dog, they have always been very good - prompt service with payments sent to me and in some cases direct to the vets.