Author Topic: Should we insure or put money away?  (Read 3933 times)

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Offline hblower

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Should we insure or put money away?
« on: April 16, 2016, 06:07:48 PM »
We have just got orins renewal docs through and it has gone up from £18 a lunar month to £26 a lunar month.  We have stayed with the same company for around 5 years - petinsurance.co.uk who are underwritten by E and L.  We have had 1 claim last year for grass seed in ear which cost around £1500 as he needed 3 ear flushes, meds, samples and anaesthetics.  We got back £850 from that partly due to excess of around 150 plus he was over 7 so they decrease what they pay.

he now has an exclusion on both ears and they will also only pay 1/2 for death, straying etc.

he has a standard policy not a lifetime one.  He is fit and healthy and will be 10 in October.

I don't know whether to put the money in an account, we have a credit card I could use if it was a big bill 3-4K but I was just thinking if it was 3-4K then would I rather claim and hence keep the insurance.

what to do?????

Offline ejp

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2016, 06:13:59 PM »
I put money away, having had a very poor experience when my 11 year old boy was ill. I didn't think it was worth it after that. I then set money aside for the other two, which I did need. It was the right choice for me, however I have the benefit of hindsight.

Offline Archie bean

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2016, 07:31:36 PM »
I do both. Archie has his own account and I save into it monthly. It covers the excess on any big claims (none yet!) and also pays for any small vet trips that either don't quite come up to the excess amount or that are only a small amount over and therefore not worth it. Plus it pays for the usual annual check up and wormer etc. I have the excess set a little higher than usual to keep the premiums down.

Offline MrsOmalley

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2016, 07:11:16 PM »
We decided many years ago when we had two dogs and four cats not to insure them and it worked out best for us.  We have not insured any pets since then, we have put funds to one side to cover any vet costs incurred by Bella and Millie.  When I tot up what we would have paid in insurance over the years and the relatively low vet bills we have had in the last thirty odd years there is no contest in my mind.  One of my cats had a thyroid and heart problem and the medication for that was quite costly every month but I doubt the insurance company would have covered it anyway.  It is personal choice and some people prefer to have insurance in place.

Offline Darwin

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2016, 09:07:19 PM »
It's a really difficult decision to make with one pet you might benefit from not going with insurance but with another you might not. You could very easily end up being in the position of having to PTS based on cost of treatment.

We're insured  and last months disc op and recovery has so far cost us £1500 on top of our insurance claim, plus I expect there will be at least another £750 in hydro / physio costs, which I hope I can claim back.

I just paid for Darwin's renewal, and somehow managed to up his cover level.  We're with John Lewis, in 2014 it was £330, last year £500 ( no claims either year) and this year £890 !!

Darwin is now 7yrs old, a conservative estimate of the cost of insuring him so far is £1900.   I've claimed an additional £1000 when he was ill at 13 week old.  So in total I've claimed back £4750.

Based on my costing we would have had to put aside in a doggy fund £800 a year to cover Darwin's vet bills, but that doesn't include flea/wormer and jabs.

I love the idea of a doggy bank account for the small bills etc, as some years we've had a couple of £50 or £75 vet visits and additionally it would be great to cover any dental costs.

 


Offline bizzylizzy

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2016, 10:04:13 PM »
That's interesting, thanks for the figures ! We're just in the process of deciding what to do....

Offline PennyB

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2016, 11:27:44 PM »
As am still paying back the £3000 I owe vets over Ollie (now dead) treatment I really wish he was insured still - his was the only pet I had who's insurance had lapsed - it really depends on how much spare cash you have + when I had Bosley's eye op it meant they claimed the 4 grand directly back from insurers as there is no way I could get this money in advance

E&L aren't good value anyway and are the worst insurer

With morethan I get everything back and the excess at the beginning of the year is 75 (if age under 10) then after that no matter what goes through I don't have to pay any excesses no matter what the illness/accident. Its expensive now she's 11 but still as I have no additional money then I'd rather pay than not - the other week I went for a heart scan which is £550 with the specialist and yes it wasn't urgent but I wanted a baseline so was comforting to know her murmur is nothing serious and needs no meds and the insurance company picked the bill up no questions asked (and a year on will do the same). Hers is now 600 a year but worth every penny + it means I don't need to worry and I can make sure I keep her as fit as possible (they also pay for dental treatment too even down to extractions or teeth cleaning).

In all the time I've had insurance have never worried if they will they pay out no matter what I put through particularly as I've always gone for companies that are good in the business
Friends of Hailey Park
Four Paws Animal Rescue (South Wales)

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Offline chrisp

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2016, 09:41:45 PM »
I personally insure.  Bills can mount up extremely quickly as I discovered when Mollie ate Ibuprofen tablets.  Mollie's cover is £12,000 if I remember rightly and I'd rather do that than have £12,000 of my savings or go on a credit card.


Offline BobnDot

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2016, 12:33:38 AM »
We do both for our two.

When we got Milly we took out insurance on her and also set up a savings account with monthly payments of £25 going into it from our current account.

Then Chaz came along and he was insured with the same insurers as Milly and an additional £25/month going into our doggie savings account.

Our insurance for both dogs (7k per condition lifetime policies) totals about £400 per year and their savings account now sits at nearly £2200.

Both dogs are also covered by our vet's scheme where they get a physical check up every six months, worming/heartworm/flea treatment (Advocate) plus their annual booster shots at a cost of £109 per year each.

This may seem a bit "belt and braces" but it gives us a nice feeling of security knowing that financial considerations will be unlikely to come into any decisions we may have to make regarding their veterinary care.

Bob.

Offline Cockertime Blues

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2016, 12:02:02 AM »
We don't insure because with 4 dogs aged between 6 and 15, the cost would be a nonsense.  We started a dog bank account several years ago with £5000 and add about £700 yearly, and hope for the best.  If someon has only 1 or 2 dogs and is on a low income, I think it's best to insure.

Offline elaine.e

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #10 on: May 14, 2016, 08:28:30 AM »
It's not an easy decision.

William is 12 and I pay £61 per month for lifetime cover with NFU. His excess has increased gradually since he was 8 and is now £200 per new condition. Because he has damaged discs, Dry Eye and cataracts there's no way I'll be cancelling his insurance. Every year I claim about £300 for ophthalmic checks, ointment for Dry Eye and acupuncture to help with his back. In the last 3.5 years I've claimed  £3,100 in total because he's also needed surgeries to remove a small cancer from his tongue, a fatty lump that was interfering with his waterworks, a lump on his gum, some eye surgery and some emergency out of hours dental surgery after he was attacked by another dog and left with a canine pointing out sideways. Looking back further I claimed around £2,000 in the year when he had a MRI scan to diagnose his damaged discs, followed by physiotherapy and various other things to help out. He's had the disc problem for 7 years and hasn't needed surgery. I'm hoping he never will, but I'm glad I have lifetime insurance just in case.

In complete contrast, 6 year old Louis has the same lifetime cover as William. His premiums are £21 per month with a £55 excess. I've never made a claim. He's so far been one of those dogs that rarely needs to go to the vet. I think he's had his anal glands emptied three times, had an ear infection once, conjunctivitis once and that's all. But I'm sticking with his insurance just in case anything major happens to him in the future.

Offline siam

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #11 on: May 14, 2016, 08:56:22 AM »
I have Alfie aged 6  insured with John Lewis. His premium is £52 per month. Unfortunately he has seasonal skin allergies which are exempt from cover as I didn’t realise that he didn’t have life cover with his first insurers so I also have to pay £32 for
6 -7mths of the year for Apoquel for him. I have a websaver account for him that has a standing order for £35 per month for smaller vet bills.

I didn’t take out insurance for our previous cocker until he was 7 years old. Following a trauma to one of his eyes he had to see an eye specialist and it made me realise how quickly and unexpectedly the more expensive treatment can arise so I insured him with Petplan after that. Latterly he had 5 major medical conditions, the main one being renal failure. What made me appreciate having insurance was that when he required tests and medication that were pretty expensive I could agree to them knowing I didn’t have to worry about the expense and at the end of the day I knew that everything that could be done, was done to help manage his conditions.

Offline Helen

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #12 on: May 14, 2016, 11:27:01 AM »
Jarv has had prostate issues which has led to infected anal glands this year - so  far we have spent £1200 on biopsies, ultrasounds, sedations, anal gland flushing and packing and he will need neutering in the next couple of months (he is nearly 11). 

The vet is putting the claims through and out of this amount we should get at least £900 back. 

That to me, plus the piece of mind, is better than putting money away.   We have had barely any claims thoughout his life but insurance is high because old dogs do get ill and need expensive treatments.  The piece of mind of knowing there is a good chunk of money per illness/condition is worth the extortionate premiums.
helen & jarvis x


Offline LinziS

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Re: Should we insure or put money away?
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2016, 02:52:20 PM »
It is a difficult decision. Both my dogs have always been insured from the start. As we all know premiums start low and increase over time due to many reasons and some insurers are better than others as well as cover offered. My Erin always had lifetime cover for around £10,000 per year and we moved her around insurance companies in the early years to keep the cost down. We had 1 claim when she knocked her teeth out many years ago and then nothing until October last year. In the space of approx 5 months we ran up a bill of over £5000 for meds and treatment without any success. She went to the bridge aged 10 yrs 5 weeks ago.if I did not have insurance i would have sold everything I could have and lived on beans and toast to pay her bill but having insurance just made our life a little easier. I think I got more from the insurance than I paid out over the years


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