I have just received my renewal for my pomx insurance and have been  looking around. Petplan can give me a better price by £6 pm it has increased by 10 this year but regarding past conditions Mia had a umbilical hernia op that was particularly nasty as they thought she had mammary tumour. It was biopsied and all clear. so just large op for the hernia
My  question is petplan will exclude the hernia but cover any other type of hernia should one happen how often have people seen hernias of the same typ ereapper or do you people think I am safe to take a chance ? I have still to ask them about the ?mammary tumour
I almost feel its not worth the risk for £6.00pm
any thoughts please

BUMP

Anyone?  I can't advise as I don't insure.

For such a small difference in price I'd stay where you are, you know what cover you're getting esp if you've not had any problems with said current insurers. You move and you loose a lot of cover.

Ask pet plan to contact your vet they should be able to get your records and can give you what your exclusions would be - I did this with a rehome I took on a few years ago - that way you can decide wether to go ahead with the policy or not and not get caught out.

thanks people I have decided to stay where I am. Better the devil you know !:)
Thanks jean for the bump

I have taken two of my dogs away from John Lewis recently as they have inflated the premiums hugely. My cavalier is only 3, has never needed a claim in her life and yet the premiums have gone up by 50% so they have lost my custom.  I have gone with Pet Plan as, even if they put on an exclusion for a pre-existing condition, they remove it after 2 years if the problem has not recurred. I am also told that their premiums only rise by the rate of inflation every year. I hope this is correct as I insure 4 dogs and am not growing money on trees ( even though I try!)

I am currently paying £180 a month for 5 dogs. I have only claimed on 2 of them and although it hasn't gone up by a huge amount the premiums themselves have risen steadily from £19 to £36. over the year thats alot of money.

Check out Vetsmedicover. They do 4 levels of insurance, the top three are lifetime cover. The top level of cover gives £10000 per year of treatment & costs £32.50 per month. The next level gives £6000 per year of treatment & costs £26 per month. They have set prices for all dogs (some breeds are not accepted) & once your dog is insured with them the premiums stay on their set prices (increasing only with inflation) & do not increase each year due to age of dog or any claims made.

I use Animal Friends and been every please with them. If you have to claim they are very quick at paying up.

I pay £16 for one and £18 for the other and have made claims on them so still very reasonable. It is £4000 for as many different claim as necessary in a year and the excess is £69 there is a slightly dearer one with life time cover.

Animal Friends can however be absolute sods for generalising pre-existing conditions - fair enough if it's something like HD to not cover the other hip as the pain can cause problems on the other side through compensation for the pain.  But with Remy, they have excluded all cysts, growths and tumours because he has numerous confirmed fatty lumps and a permanent folliculitis bump on his head; and his heart, because it was tested once!

The excess once they hit 8yrs old is also 35% on top of the fixed (£69 or £99 depending on the age when you join) - and believe me, that stings like hell when the dog starts getting older and needs more treatment as so many do.  Aside from the problems I've had with them with Remy they have been good but purely on that excess, I won't be having dogs with them again - it's just too expensive.  I know many companies add a percentage when the dog gets older but 35% is too high IMO.  I was "lucky" enough th

If I could afford to everyone would be with Petplan.  I recommend Aviva as well - they won't insure a dog over 8 but the excess stays at £75 as far as I'm aware, and they are very helpful and quick with claims.  Good prices too.

I am with vetsmedicover and although they cover a hell of a lot (dental, alternative therapies etc.), their excess is £95. They don't argue and pay out quickly but I think I am penalised by my choice of breed. When I renewed 2 years ago, the insurers said GSDs are now classed in a different category which results in higher premiums. As a responsible dog owner I don't think this is fair.

The excess with Vetsmedicover on my renewals this year is only £80. They have changed their policies this year so you may find on renewal that your excess goes down. They will also now include cover for previous medical conditions (if changing from a different insurer) providing the dog has not had any symptoms for at least two years.

> They don't argue and pay out quickly but I think I am penalised by my choice of breed. When I renewed 2 years ago, the insurers said GSDs are now classed in a different category which results in higher premiums.

I had exactly the same problem with my Dobermann. When I took out the policy she was in with the "normal" dogs and as such the premiums were reasonable. I think they changed underwriters and it was they that decided Dobes were now in the higher category which doubled my premium. Hattie is now the only one of my dogs uninsured. :(

Zuma is with what was Axa (they have now passed 'the book' to a firm called NCI), renewal is in Oct so don't know if/what premium increase will be then.
I got a bunch of quotes last year and found that Petplan wouldn't do lifetime but only a one year limit for illness injury etc, I rang them to find out why and was told.............
He is a GSD and he is 6 years old

Sadly I think insurance is the biggest scam going. You pay for a policy to cover costs (regardless what it is for). You then need to pay to access the policy. The company then decides whether you should be compensated and then decide whether you can ever be covered again! And muggins keeps paying the premium! At the current rate, I have paid £2, 736 for my boy who will be 6 on tuesday. In total I have made a claim for £400 (when the vet (wrongly) diagnosed completely ruptured cruciate ligament, needing corrective surgery and hip replacement both sides in the long run!) and paid £95 excess. Any minor issues always come in less than the excess. I complain but I also know that sod's law, if I cancel, something huge will happen and I'll end up kicking myself!

I know lots of people who don't insure, put premium in savings account and have a dedicated credit card if the worst happens. One breeder even went so far as to claim, "no GSD op costs more than 6, 000 and I can cover that with savings, credit card and friends if desperate". But no one has ever answered this question...

Yes you can cover vet bills in this way, but what if for whatever reason, your dog mauled another dog, child/adult, caused a road traffic accident etc and you were sued for damages?

We all think our dogs would never do it but these thing do, and have happened. I know I couldn't pay damages in thousands or even hundreds of thousands...

Muggins here will keep paying the higher premium to keep a GSD

> "no GSD op costs more than 6, 000 and I can cover that with savings, credit card and friends if desperate".

Blimey.  And what if a dog needs more than one op?  Or ongoing hospitalisation at a specialist's?  Or if more than one dog needs ops or investigations?  That's the position I've been in for over a year - one dog needed x-rays, which showed HD and arthritis; 4 months of hydro later no change, so she needed an MRI which found a slipped disc; she then had acupuncture and physio.  Two months after her MRI, another dog popped a disc on a walk and went straight to acupuncture and physio (his was obvious so no MRI).  Four months after that, another dog went down an almost identical path to the first - x-rays, no improvement, MRI and CT finding a slipped disc.  She has spondylosis too.

Now none of these dogs has had surgery, so the total for all that came to around £4,500; if any had been a candidate for surgery then I'd have been looking at an extra £1500 minimum per dog.  And as they aren't, rehab is ongoing for the two MRId dogs (Remy died on Tuesday) so the costs continue to rise.

And yes, there is also the concern of public liability.

Oh, and this:

>  I complain but I also know that sod's law, if I cancel, something huge will happen and I'll end up kicking myself!

Is so true!  I was going to cancel Remy's policy on a Monday, totally forgot about it and he popped his disc on the Tuesday.  Talk about relieved!!

I think you get 3rd party liability cover as part of your membership of The Dog's Trust. I've gone the route of joining that, but also putting the premiums I used to pay into a savings account.

I don't know how bad dog insurance companies are about putting exclusions onto policies after a claim. Last year I had to claim £10k on a horse policy due to a lameness issue (thank goodness I was insured), but they then excluded all 4 limbs for the next year.

It's such a minefield!

I think the problem really is to do with the variants covered by tne companies, what they exclude and how long for. £10, 000 per illness sounds a lot but what if the dog has a chronic problem such as diabetes or epilepsy that starts at 2yrs of age and the dog lives to 13? The money soon dries up and people start to struggle. I know of 2 cases were dogs were put to sleep because owner couldn't afford medication and for reasons known only to them, couldn't rehome or surrender.

Then there are limits to spend per year. so you are covered up to that amount but then need to dig deep until policy renewal. Its a minefield and no wonder why people struggle. Comparisons are practically impossible because everyone offers something different or to a different level. And god forbid your vet words the problem/treatment incorrectly, they might not pay out and exclude or penalise for the rest of the poor animal's life. "Sorry, your dog pulled a muscle in that hind leg when he was 6 months old which definitely led to hip dysplasia when he reached 8yrs old....so no, you're not covered"...

Nikita,

So sorry to hear about remy.

I didn't get a pup from that lady in the end.

Nikita,

So sorry to hear about remy.

I didn't get a pup from that lady in the end.

So sorry to hear that your Remy has gone.

Check out Vetsmedicover. They do 4 levels of insurance, the top three are lifetime cover. The top level of cover gives £10000 per year of treatment & costs £32.50 per month. The next level gives £6000 per year of treatment & costs £26 per month. They have set prices for all dogs (some breeds are not accepted) & once your dog is insured with them the premiums stay on their set prices (increasing only with inflation) & do not increase each year due to age of dog or any claims made.

I now need to edit this information as it is no longer correct. Vetsmedicover have changed their policy regarding no increases in premiums due to claims or age, so now they are pretty much like every other pet insurance company. Premiums will increase from age 7 & also if the dog has any claims

With vetsmedicover my new renewal came in at £72.80 per dog for 3 of them as other 2 will be due in may. This is a huge jump from £35 odd each. Rang more than and they seem more reasonable. Their 8000 policy covers all 3 dogs for £95! Vetsmedicover have changed underwriters 3 times in the last 3 years and are fast losing my loyalty. Policy has lapsed today so will most likely switch. Can't understand how they work it out as 2 dogs will be 7 this year and the other one 4...

If you have no claims that will cause an exclusion or on-going conditions, then it pays to shop around each year, you get nothing with Insurance companies for loyalty

Happy with more than! As I already had two cats insured when I added my puppy I had 20% discount. More pets on with them you get discount. Had one claim only all handled smoothly no fuss.