Just had my renewal through from Pet Plan for 2 dogs, a Beagle aged 7 and a Patterdale aged 7. It has gone up by £7.71 per month for them both which is not as bad as expected considering my Beagle has had so many claims including a double cruciate etc etc.
I still think that PP is the best insurance in this day and age - new total £62.29

After our first hound, who here in the UK we did have insurance for, once our numbers crept up insurance really wasn't on.   And our vets both here and overseas, were quite happy for us to 'stage pay' if we hit a bad patch.   Down to two however and back in the UK, I took some quotes but was horrified.   I wanted insurance fgs., not to buy the companies.   And one of my hounds isn't known to be 'unhealthy', at least.   So right now, and in a better financial position to weather any expensive patches, I don't carry insurance, for the hounds at any rate!

Is that figure per month?

What really finishes me with insurance is the 'average' vet visit comes in at under the excess most insurance carries.   So you'd end up paying th vet bill AND a monthly premium - what's the point?

I was quite pleased with this renewal. The price is for 2  seven year old dogs monthly (not each dog) so I felt it could have been a lot worse.
Only one dog actually lives with me due to the dominance problems with my Beagle, but I still pay the insurance for my other dog, she lives with my daughters 5 dogs in the main house, I am in the annex but same address.

I don't think £31 per month is bad considering the amount spent out on vets fees

I've always had insurance our first dog with Pet Plan and we stayed with this for our second too. We had our Labrador's ear canal widened after lots of reoccurring ear infections plus when my husband accidently sliced her nose with secateurs whilst gardening! He didn't see her sneak up and stick nose in the bush! Yes insurance paid out but we also had many trips under the excess.
What finished our relationship with pet plan after aged 9 years her premiums kept going up and a lot of we won't pay out after age 9 re death etc or for alternative medicine which we had had previously aged 8!
We swopped to first Asda with the cats then moved cats to More Than and added our boy at 9 weeks old. We have a 30% discount for multiple pets so it's a trade off a cat and dog seen treated and paid for by insurance and the one cat only seen for annual inoculations! 
It's stayed low in price increase and quick to pay out.
Our friends chose to put money away each month and use for vet bills good if you never dip in fund or have a £500 vet bill suddenly!

I'm happy with insuring my pets it gives me peace of mind re accidents and any illnesses. Plus the liability cover rather than claim on household insurance.

Our friends chose to put money away each month and use for vet bills good if you never dip in fund or have a £500 vet bill suddenly

£500 vet bill wow !!! . My dogs have been in the range of £5000 for double cruciate etc so I could never chance not being insured. £500 goes nowhere nowadays

Same here silly sue.  Savings plans won't work for us. Today's bill for my cat was 169 pounds which even considering the excess represents a return of 6 months premium. My bills last year were around 3k for one dog and 2k for the other for ongoing allergy treatment and testing including an mri. That was just last year

Is there anyone on here that does self save instead of insure? My partner's parents have a 1 year old shih tzu and a 2 year old cross shih tzu / Lhasa. They're paying a fortune each year for both dogs, despite neither of them having any vets visits yet (I know there's always time). They're quite wealthy anyway, but have been considering self saving just in case type of thing. We insure ours, but that is steadily creeping up each year. I can't help but think as well (rightly or wrongly) that vets can go a little mad once the pet is insured. We haven't had this with the dog, but with the cat it almost became sad how long they wanted to keep her alive for.

I save for my vets bills, and for the first time in 7 years spent £1500 in vets bills over 2 dogs. It was still less than premiums would have cost over the years. I have taken out insurance on my new pup incase of accidents or illness whilst at the young/stupid/vulnerable age but will probably cancel it after a few years depending on her health. I have notice vets ask if you have insurance - I often wonder if there are different prices or tests for those insured.

> I have notice vets ask if you have insurance - I often wonder if there are different prices or tests for those insured.

Absolutely!!    Whenever we change vets, it's the same and it makes me wonder whether they give a lesser treatment, or up their bill if they know the insurance company is paying!!

I think you are right on M, with what you are doing.

As for saving instead of insuring, well that was always my intention   But you know about 'intentions'.    Again we had vets who knew we'd pay them before putting food on the table when it came to our hounds and a line that needed minimal vet visits.    Plus the fact that most of our expenses weren't going to be covered in any case.

I've always insured my dogs. With the last one I'm almost certain that I got more back then I put in, but it doesn't always work that way. So far with this one I've not claimed a thing as nothing has gone wrong yet apart from a touch of conjunctivitis on one occasion.

> Is there anyone on here that does self save instead of insure?

Yep no way could I afford to Insure 6, with always at least half of them being veterans between 7 and 15 years.

As I have bred them all myself it certainly does mean that health is a big priority in my breeding program LOL

I was thinking about this last night. A friend of ours who had a GR claimed thousands through her insurance when her dog was battling cancer in her later years. In the end, the dog had her jaw partly removed, operation after operation etc. Could not eat properly, bark, or go after a ball. And it added around 3 months onto her life. Ive seen a few people, in my opinion, hang on to their dogs and cats quite selfishly at the end because they're insured so they can.

I used to insure with PP and had 8 years "no claims" with my GSD, when she developed anal furunculosis my next renewal went up by 250% and was over £400 a year and excluding the condition, the company seemed surprised when I said that was the reason for me leaving them. My other dogs were insured with Argos for 2 years, one had a traffic accident coming in at £1400 and the other never saw a vet, the premiums went up by 50%  on both dogs due to "my claims history" although only one dog had a claim. Now changed to Animal Friends and had a claim for investigation of a suspicious looking lump  and although it was benign they have excluded "anything of a similar nature" and will review next year. I do appreciate that a relatively small outlay can save a very large bill but for occasional low value claims the insurance companies do seem to go to over the top mode. A friend's horse had a bacterial skin infection confined to one small area and quickly resolved but her insurance co. excluded all the horses skin!

I used to insure with PP and had 8 years "no claims" with my GSD, when she developed anal furunculosis my next renewal went up by 250% and was over £400 a year and excluding the condition,

If you have lifetime cover any claims are not excluded next time, the problem is still covered but you have to pay the excess once each year as is normal with most insurers, a dog is covered for life for all problems as long as they were not pre existing. So I am not sure which policy you had with Pet Plan
My dog had over £5000 treatment last year alone and her premiums have only gone up by around £3.50 ish per month, which I assume is the normal increase for all policies as the dog ages.
PetPlan is the only company I would trust after having been let down badly by Axa

I am so relieved that I stuck with petplan after the 4 weeks free given by the breeder.My poor little pug puppy suffered so many allergy reactions,and developed a swollen gland,biopsy tests revealed a mast cell tumour. The vets bills over £3,000 for treatments and operations.Yes, I had to pay first £100, but all other costs paid direct to vet without any quibbles by petplan.
Vet happy to have direct payments as Petplan settlle claims quickly,so I didn't have worry of having to pay upfront and claim back myself.Premium only rose by £5 for coming year.

> My dog had over £5000 treatment last year alone and her premiums have only gone up by around £3.50 ish per month, which I assume is the normal increase for all policies as the dog ages.

I wish I was with Petplan if this is what you got. I had similar costs ( mammary cancer full strip so can't come back) and my insurance with my girl over doubled, I now pay £120 for her alone, a month! Thinking if I should cancel as I will also have to pay 30% of the bill... I pay less per month for 4 others of the same breed!
But I do have a poop luck and the second I cancel something expensive will happen!
Saying that, insurance has paid out over £10 000 on her and she has not been a sickly dog, just had an accident at 1.5 years and now the mammary cancer last year and an ear infection.

Tesco wanted wait for it....£226 a month for my 9 year old boxer!!!! He is lean, is offlead for over 1.5 hours a day usually running and is in no medication. He had a corneal ulcer last year and an arthritic flare up that was a one off. Total bill for both was about £1k. Even the woman on the renewals line was in shock at that premium.
He is on no medication, has had previous cruciate ops (aged 18m and 3 years) which seem not an uncommon thing, and has had an epulis removed. He's also never been a poorly dog.
She honestly couldn't tell me when that figure came from. His premiums were Very reasonable until the year he would have turned 9 in.
Needless to say I changed the policy from the lifetime one to a yearly one but every hiring I have ever claimed for before is still covered for life, which I thought was quite good.
I cannot justify over £2.5k a year in pet insurance premiums for one dog. All I can assume is they are trying to take back some of the outlay for his claims as mentioned above.

After the Axa fiasco when my oldie was left with no cover because NCI that took over the Axa policies decided to more than triple my monthly costs which I refused to pay. She had paid for lifetime cover for many many years with no claims, but in old age when she needed insurance for her heart they took it away and left her without cover. All my other dogs were with PP and that is the only company that I will use in the future.
Some others may look as though they offer fantastic rates for wonderful cover, but I would never trust them to either pull the plug if they don't make enough money or to double or even triple the fees to make more money.

PP has been around for so long and I think they are the safest bet as I really don't think £31 is bad for my dog. If I was putting money by then £31 would take ages to build up to something large enough to pay for a cruciate etc.

I now  prefer to use pet plan although I have two dogs with animal friends who I cam t  I've due to age and claims. So far af have been very good. Seeing what has happened to other companies it seems often tp be those that arnt specialist in pet insurance but do all manner of types of insurance which imo allows them to pick and choose which is most profitable Le and drip the others. I would choose a company like pet plan whose total business is pet insurance .

I now  prefer to use pet plan although I have two dogs with animal friends who I can t  move  due to age and claims. So far af have been very good. Seeing what has happened to other companies it seems often to be those that arnt specialist in pet insurance but do all manner of types of insurance which imo allows them to pick and choose which is most profitable  and drop the others. I would choose a company like pet plan whose total business is pet insurance .

> Tesco wanted wait for it....£226 a month for my 9 year old boxer!!!!

That is cheap in comparison to what M&S wanted for a 10 year old Golden Retriever. His renewal shot up to £150 per month, £100 excess and also had to pay 30% of any claim on top. I didn't renew his insurance but have put the money by and am hoping he continues to remain healthy. I still insure the younger dogs - one of which had a huge claim two days after his policy became valid - but their monthly payments are affordable and reasonable.

My GR is fit, lean, healthy and very, very active - not your typical ploddy dog at all. He has recently retired from agility but still likes to do the odd bit of training on club nights.

It was 226 a month not a year. Although the excess was £60 and no extra to pay on top. That's always been the part that made me hesitate with pet plan. For example you could be paying £1k a year in premiums then be faced with an excess AND 30% to pay if over a certain age. So a £3k claim would in fact have cost £1k in premiums, £70 or whatever excess and another £900 for the bit you have to contribute.
He's on a 12 month plan now but as I said everything previously claimed is still covered for life. I'll have to see what the quote is in November and weigh it up.

Whoops - I misread the per month bit. That is a huge amount

We have all ours with Direct Line Essential policy.  They pay out quickly, no quibbles, and we find the Essential policy is a good balance of getting something affordable as they get older, which also helps you out with the unexpected. 

I think you win some, you lose some - it's a gamble.  If you have a dog which needs a lot of medical care and is accident prone (one of ours is), then you can save a lot of money with insurance.  If you have a dog which hardly ever goes to the vets, then you'd probably be better off having your own saving plan.  But knowing which you have, is difficult, and I wouldn't feel comfortable with a savings plan unless I started out with a lump sum in it - and I would never feel it was large enough to go it alone.