Hi can anyone reccommend good pet insurance, I'm not too worried about the monthly fees, my main concern is the excesses I have been ringing around and there seems to be so much difference in prices.
My main concern is that should anything happen to my baby that even though she is insured I may still not be able to suddenly stump up the readies! Does anyone know who has got the smallest excess?
I thought I heard of someone who doesn't have to pay anything after the first 20pound, but not sure if it was someone over exagerating!!
Like I said I'm really not worried about the monthly premiums, I just want peace of mind!!!
Many Thanks.

P.S. If anyone has had any problems with pet insurance please let me know so that I can possibly avoid the same thing!!!

Thanks,
Kayley.
xxxxxx

Hi Kayley

We've got Petplan for our two boys. The premiums are quite expensive, but it is for life cover and unlimited vet fees

I've never had to make a claim but our vets say Petplan are very good at settling up. At one point we thought we might have to make a claim and the vet said they would be happy to have the claim made out to the surgery and then they would bill us for the excess (£60) and any other charges not refunded by Petplan. Alternatively, the vet said we could just settle the bill in full and have the refund from Petplan made out to ourselves, the choice was ours. In the event, the treatment total was just over the excess so we just paid it all rather than make a claim and risk the premiums going up too much next year!!

I suppose it depends on the relationship you have with your vet. If yours would be quite happy to wait to get the money back themselves from the insurance company that would give you a bit longer to come up with the excess. Maybe you could talk to your vets and ask them what they do in the case of pets covered by insurance and whether there is an insurance company your vets find particularly good.

Lesley

Hi

I've been with tesco for nearly 3 years and they've been great so far!

Hiya, I've got a policy with Petplan and they have settled everything for Oscar's HD very quickly - no questions. They seem to be more expensive than other insurers but I think I'm right in saying that they are the only company that will continue to cover your dog for a diagnosed condition every year as long as you renew your policy. Oscar will have HD for life and may need expensive treatments later on which will be covered by Petplan (less excess of £60per condition, per year) He would not have been covered after the first year with other insurers(I think!)
Good luck :-)

I with KC insurance continued since Mr B was a mere sausage. His breeder said they were excellent to deal with £20 a month, but with a boxer I think we will be on first name terms with the vet by the time he is 7 months old.

hi emma, its been a while,hows bradley?
just got a new computer and just hooked up again,changed the screen name of course(used to be madaboutboxers,bring back memories?)

we too are with the kennel club and been with them since we bought Bruce,nearly 2 years ago and we can honestly say we've had no problems whatsoever.
we have 2 outgoing,boystrous boxers and so always up to tricks and in the wars,so to speak,both for as emma says £20 a month and covers almost anything.

good to see old names,
Gary and Louise

again i would have to say petplan, we have made numerous claims over the years the most expensive of which was a very costly skin problem which needed referral to the royal vet college you can imagine the cost. but they always covered all of mollys problems and very promplty too, as everyone says they are not the cheepest but probably the best. one waord of waring i was reading very negative views on CD board last week on a company called e&l insurance so better stay clear

After spending a weekend on the net comparing pet insurance I found "More Than" to be the best. Lifetime cover and £6000 of vet fees per illness or accident. I pay £21 for 2 Cavaliers.

Yes, I agree, More Than seems to be the best deal. £11.49pm for lab pup, with 2 months free! '' Up to £6000 worth of cover for each and every injury or illness. This covers the cost of consultations, x-rays, surgery, medication - even alternative therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy. What's more, your pet's covered for as long as they need treatment (many other policies limit you to just the first 12 months of treatment)''

Check the excess carefully on More Than.
A friend of mine is insured with them and her dog has an ongoing problem, their excess is £40 or 15% on the bill whichever is greater. As she has to buy drugs & have check ups every month this is amounting to quite a lot of money she personally has to find now.
Personally I use direct line, costs me £34 a month for all three of my dogs and they pay the bill direct to my vet so all I have to find is the £45 excess.

Ingrid

Another vote for Petplan from me. I did a lot of phoning around getting quotes for my pup not so long ago. There are so many companies offering pet insurance for a similar price now it's very difficult to sift through all the small print to see exactly what you get for your money.
"More than" and even "Marks & Spencer" seemed to offer pretty reasonable cover for a decent price. Petplan is quite a lot more expensive than the rest but the level of cover is second to none. For a start the higher premium has unlimited vet fees cover for the life of the condition. Some policies cover an illness "for life" but only up to a certain amount eg. £6000 - £6000 may sound like a lot but costs do build up over the years. Another advantage is that Petplan have a reputation for fairness and settling claims quickly - often dealing directly with your vet for larger claims and leaving you with just the excess to pay. Some companies offer very low cost policies but are notorious for refusing to pay out on claims (E & L). If my pet was ill, the last thing I would want to do is have to worry about arguing with my insurance company over whether they were going to pay up on a claim or not. Several vets that I have spoken to have had good things to say about Petplan and most of my frineds' dogs are insured with Petplan.

At the end of the day it is what you are prepared to pay for the level of cover you feel you need. For the money they charge, More than and Marks & Spencer offer a very good level of cover. But if the monthly cost is not too much of a concern for you I'd go for Petplans higher level of cover and excellent reputation.

"More Than" In my opinion after phoning around everywhere is the best price wise.
They offer Lifetime cover and £6000 of vet fees per illness or accident. I pay £9.49 per month for my Black Lab Pup......Dont think it will increase as she grows do you??? :)

Well I used to be with Pinnacle and was very disappointed with them - I ended up paying an excess three times for various excuses (one was that you pay an excess per calendar year regardless of if it's a continuation claim). They also made no mention of the fact that the excess went up to 25% of the condition when your dog reaches 8. I always found Dog Breeders to be excellent but sadly they were taken over a few years ago.

I have insured Keeper with Pet Plan (because I had to do it quick, the day before he was 5!) but on reading the policy, I'm alarmed at their excesses. As he is a "select" breed, we have a chunky excess which goes onto 20% plus the standard excess when he reaches 7 which I feel is a bit steep. I've never heard any bad reports about Pet Plan though, I just don't like the excesses.

I did enquire with Direct Line and their excess is static throughout the dogs' life so I think I may transfer to them. I have my house insurance with them and they are very quick at settling claims, also have a friend that has two Rottweiler's insured with them and she is very happy with the cover.

My quote for a lab pup (8 weeks old) was £11.49pm. How come yours was £9.49pm? Surely post code can't make that difference. Had another thought, is it a bitch or a dog?

Youd be surprised the difference postcode can make!!! Im in London and petplans best plan would cost me £40 a month, now if I lived in the cheapest 'zone' I would only be paying £20 I believe it is!!
Its crazy, also, for some strange, unknown reason, East London is in a cheaper zone than North London.

Petplan everytime. I've had a look and some others seem okay. The 'More Than' sounds good - but topping out at £6,000 per illness may sound a lot of money, but there are some illnesses and treatments that can go on for even greater than that. With Petplan we have either (can't remember exactly) 4,000 or 6,000 per illness per year! So every year we are back up to the maximum allowed again for that year.

If a young dog came down with some sort of illness (like diabetes or heart disease) where treatement would be over the rest of it's lifetime I have no doubt that 6,000 could dwindle fast. My husband's aunts dog is on £150 worth of medication a month (that's without any other treatments). This has been going on for 5 years and will probably for another 5. She didn't opt for insurance and is now regretting it, but even at that the 6,000 cover probably would not have covered all the costs for her condition.

Wendy

Fair point but it's still the best deal I was offered in comparison to other pet insurers :)

thanks for everyones advice, will be looking into petplan a bit further!!!!
Many thanks!!

Kayley and Kassie!!
xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx

P.s. i take it that Petplan doesn't have the percentage excess then???

Petplan does have a percentage excess when your dog gets older. It's fairly hefty (and at 7) for the select breeds, not sure about the others.

Hi Kayley,

I just want to add another positive note about PetPlan. My Cairn broke her leg when she was five months old. Pet Plan was brilliant. Paid for everything from initial visit and X-rays with my vet, referral to a specialist, two ops, checkups, more x-rays, medication .. you name it and PetPlan paid with no quibble about anything. And, they paid very quickly too.

The vets I used say they prefer Petplan because they know their business, know what procedures costs, and do not hastle the vets either.

Stacey

Sorry - wasn't criticising. I was actually saying that More Than DOES sound good. It's just for my piece of mind I went with Pet Plan as I've seen first hand what kind of costs can be incurred. If I couldn't have PP I'd probably take the More Than one. Tesco's, Asda's and tons of others like that only cover a year of an illness no matter what the cost:( People really need to read the small print with any insurer to see what they are actually getting because on the front of the leaflets boy can they make it soudn good!

Wendy

Saga charge me £9.46 p/m for my 1yr old retriever. Thats their 'super cover' & its lifetime cover, as i understood it,I'm off to read the small print now though! Chez

after reading all of the posts about insurance i have just changed from e&l to pet plan although it is costing about £9 more a month i think it will be worth it for peace of mind,plus by doing it online i get the first month free!!! better remember and cancel my E&L policy tomorrow.

billybob i think your doing the right thing

i think so,for the sake of an extra few pounds a month i think it is better to have complete peace of mind plus,if anything did happen to my dog the last thing i would want to worry about would be chasing after insurance companys.

Pet Plan have paid out every claim I've made and I've had the cheque within 2 weeks (usually earlier) of sending the claim in. Never had a dispute.

I think you've definitely done the right thing:)

W

Walking around a game fair in the summer, I got talking to a fella about insurance and he told me that Petplan refused to pay out for an injury his dog sustained whilst out working.

He phoned around all the insurance companies and most of them said that they wouldn't insure a working gundog. He even tried NFU and they said the same!

Have any of you heard this?

i would consider E and L insurance. They poerate mainly via internet and are one of the cheapest but thorough insurers. Check them out on
www.eandl.co.uk

I discounted all mentioned here and went for Sainsburys - its less than half of what Pet Plan was - £12 compared to £27. Believe it offers life long cover. The excess is hefty at £50 + 15% but then it may also be the same later on with PetPlan. Had PP before and paid £12pm 13 yrs ago!

I also consider putting £25 a month into a high interest account and may yet do this - the excess is £50 (so useless for anything other than 'big deal' illness) and then 15% on top...

Anyone considered doing this - if there is no illness you might end up wiith £5000 cash in 12 years time...? Spent about £1000 lifelong on my previous OES... Odds look good...???

D

How much does it cover per illness and does it re-instate an amount every year or once that amount is up does it no longer cover that illness. All the supermarket ones I've seen (ie Asda and Tesco) cover a maximum of £2,000 per condition or for one year per condition whichever comes first.

Wendy

Sainsburys up to £6,000 per condition

Here’s a link to the small print you have to trawl through…

http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/assets/insurance/pdf/sainsburysbankpetinsurancepolicy.pdf

D

That's quite good then! Sounds similar to the More Than policy someone else was talking about:)

Wendy

In our experience, if you purchase a puppy from a reputable breeder and feed it a healthy natural diet you will probably never have the occasion to claim on your policy because the odd few times that you need the vet, the fees will be less than the excess.

If you take the money that you would have put into an insurance premium and put it into a savings account instead, you will be surprised how much money you accumalate over a few years, especially when you have 9 dogs!
You can then either leave the money in case of an emergency or take some out and spend it.

We gave up making insurance companies rich many years ago and now concentrate on keeping our dogs healthy and we can afford to have the occasional large bill and still be in profit compared to what we would have lost in insurance premiums.

Obviously we still insure for third party risks and this can be done very cheaply by joining Pro Dogs, which includes third party cover for all dogs owned by the member.

Insurance companies exist because they make more money than they return, I would rather look after my own interests.

Owning 9 dogs makes pet insurance not a feasible option.

For one or two dogs, even with the best of breeding and general health, pet insurance can easily pay for itself by covering just one injury as the result of an accident.

Taking out insurance is always a gamble. The insurance company knows the majority of its policy holders will either never claim, or, that their claims will be well under the premiums paid. The insured are buying peace of mind and hope that they to will never have to make a claim.

I never took out pet insurance until I got a puppy last December. I nearly talked myself out of it, since I can afford to pay for vet fees and I understand the odds. Assuming (and hoping) I never make another claim, it will be five years of premiums paid before PetPlan breaks even on the £220 apx. of premium I paid for Abby this year. Great breeding, very healthy .. but rolling off the sofa and landing on her leg incorrectly was all that was needed to make the premium well worth the expense.

Stacey

Have to say as I have said on another thread, E&L insurance are appalling........ They quibble about every last penny, and it took the threat of a solicitors letter to get them to pay up for my dogs treatment, which should have been straight forward. I was warned by my vet how bad they were as a company, but it was too late by then, I had already insured 4 dogs with them.
The other thing they do, if you pay by direct debit, is when you go to cancel the policies, they put on a cancellation fee, which usually works out more than you owe in monthly premiums.....
Definitely one to be avoided...
Gabrielle x

Must say I cancelled my E&L insurance after reading some of the threads on here. Now use Direct Line £10.something a month

Have to agree with Snomaes - I couldn't possibly afford to insure my dogs, I only have 4 now, used to have 7 - much better to save the money monthly ( not that I do!!), but I reckon even if I had a major disaster tomorrow, I'm still better off than if I'd been paying insurance premiums for years. Fortunately, I have a down to earth vet & a very healthy breed!
Meant to add, when I was a dog club sec. we were insured with E & L - never managed to get a penny from them!

Only the boy who is jointly owned by 3 friends and myself is insured, and based on where he lives (Herefordshire) the best policy was with Pinacle, his reneawal was just over £120 for a year. this is for a medium sized breed (Norwegian Elkhound).

there is no way I could pay out £120 for five dogs, as this would be £600 a year, and there is no way that I spend that much at the vets in claimable fees.

I do think it is important to be able to get the money from somewhere if the need arises, and a good line of credit does it for me. Of course I will have to pay the interest on the amount borrowed, but that encourages me to pay it bac ASAP, and still works out less on this number of dogs. Pet Plan I beleive gave a talk at one of our club events a few years ago, and the rep said himself that insuring more than two dogs was not cost effective wortking on average what you might expect to happen.