Morning, we’ve just had or renewal through from Petplan for Rosie and they stuffed it up another 70 odd quid from last year to nearly £480!
This seems a little bit silly now, yes it’s a whole life plan, but it’s more than I pay for car insurance etc…
She is 4.5 years old, we have made no claims and no pre existing conditions.
I agree with others to shop around. My last quote for my 18 year old moggy was £1600. We did shop around but due to age couldn’t find a great deal better. We decided in the end to cease the insurance and put some money aside instead. She has a good and long life and we would be happy to spend on simple none invasive stuff but not anything that could justify over £2k expenditure per annum if you take into account excess on the policy.
To be honest thew whole pet insurance/vets market needs a investigation as they are clearly in each others pockets. Also we are also seeing especially in London near on monopoly of the market with smaller practices being bought up all the time.
private health insurance, unregulated and a growth industry with new treatments being added all the time that adds to the insurance bills. Vets love it, can hardly walk into a vets that doesn’t have a hydrotherapy pool and a whole host of other kit that wasn’t being used 5 years ago. Don’t even get me started on the rip off that is inoculations etc. Whole industry is a pointer to what happens when the private sector runs riot with a healthcare system.
we pay something like £10 a month for a ‘vet plan’ (on top of the insurance) this gives them flea and worming stuff, checkups and vaccinations and boosters every year.
Probably works out about evens with the actual cost but it makes budgeting easier and no big bill due when all 3 moggies need their checkup and shots all at the same time.
Pet insurance is a fucking scam - more loopholes than a crochet pattern - as Flappers says: put the premium aside into a savings account of some kind, so you have something in-hand in a few years time when you may need it.
The harder part of it is being realistic - vets are very much nobody’s friend: they are only interested in parting you with as much money as they can (there are exceptions, but they’re a minority), and even if your pet is a basket case they will encourage you to treat it, knowing you are profoundly emotionally attached. Try to be as well-informed as you can be, in the hope you won’t be misled when the time comes. Prolonging life is not always the kindest thing you can do for your pets.
I agree that the arrival of pet insurance has seen more ways of making money rather than necessarily providing better care for animals in a lot of cases.
It probably makes more sense when they’re young but once they approach older age and their life expectancy then the balance of what’s available vs quality of life starts to come into play.
With Mimi who isn’t insured, she was recently diagnosed with a nasal tumour which probably means her time left with us is about 3 months. We don’t want to spend that time subjecting her to radiotherapy and anaesthetics etc to try to eek out another month or two, and have opted to use steroids and anti inflammatory drugs to keep her active and then use the time left to enjoy stuff that dogs like instead, which in her case is getting out for a walk, chasing cats away and going for rides out in the car.
So in summary I agree with others, as they get older you might not want access to lots of expensive treatment options, you might want to just make your dog comfortable and focus on QoL which doesn’t require insurance/ high costs.
Our archie had his operation on the 10th of december for his ruptured crucial ligament on his rear knee , which involved part shin bone removal and a plate and wire to his knee to prevent knee slippage, cost five grand , had to look after him like a baby to prevent any further damage , and cage rest for six weeks , check up middle of january and further charges for x ray etc…so far all going well ,…we were insured thank god .
We had our renewal notice last week and the the cost has increased by £12 pm. A phone call claiming loyalty and good health of Barnaby along with evidence of a ’ vet plan ’ for worming, physical examination etc reduced this amount to £6 pm - half the original increase. Insurance for the four legged psychopath is far in excess of that which we pay for our life and car insurance. I chose the wrong career.
Well we ended up going with Direct Line after all that, Donna likes to feel safe and we dont have a fat pool of cash laying around unfortunately at present.
Think I’ll buy some public liability insurance for the dog and tell them to bollocks. Put some money aside for the occasional Cytopoint injection he has.