CatieB Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 We are about to get a new puppy. I say insurance hubby says not. We have other animals insured and hubby points out we have never claimed. True, until we dont have insurance we wont need to!!! So baring in mind husbands reluctance can anyone recommend a company that are not too expensive but are decent. I obtained a quote from our current provider, John Lewis and thats a no no. They want twice as much as we currently pay when we have a pedigree alerady (Shih tzu) and are about to buy a cross! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandmashazzie Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 It is such a dilemma.But you only need to hear how much vets charge for course of antibiotics,I was charged £300 for 6 week course,or £80 for x ray to see how quickly it mounts up.I personally go for lifetime cover of condition but some cheaper policies exclude things when you go to renew.My poor lab has arthritis and his drugs each year are far more than our monthly fee and it has covered stuff like physio,water treadmill and acupuncture.Hopefully your wee dog will be fine but if he was in an accident could you put your hands on £1000 for surgery,medicines etc because I think thats what it's likely to cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Leia Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 We don't have any for our greyhound either, although have had occasion to wish we had! Spent almost £400 over the last couple of weeks for investigations including an ultrasound. He may need an op for undescended testicles, which could be about £1000. Then you watch Supervet and see folks paying out £10000ish figures for some surgeries and you stand thinking it might be a good idea after all. One thing we did find when we did investigate, though, was that there is a huge variation in cover between policies. One thing we were advised was to make sure that illnesses were covered for "whole life costs". Those that don't are cheaper, but will typically only pay out for one years (or less in some cases) treatment for a specific condition. The devil, as always, is in the detail... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bramble Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 We don't have any for our greyhound either, although have had occasion to wish we had! Spent almost £400 over the last couple of weeks for investigations including an ultrasound. He may need an op for undescended testicles, which could be about £1000. Then you watch Supervet and see folks paying out £10000ish figures for some surgeries and you stand thinking it might be a good idea after all.. It's interesting to note though that even if you are insured, I think it's unlikely that most policies would stump up £10k - I'm with PetPlan and off hand I think the limit is £4k per condition on mine, so I'd still have to find another £6,000 The other thing that annoys me intensely is that as Willow has got older, the premium has gone up, and up and up and up and up, I guess to a degree I expected that, but what I didn't expect was that with the increase in cost, the cover actually decreases. I think my excess has gone up from £100 to £125 and in addition I now have to pay 20% of the balance of treatment - I think that kicked in when Willow reached 10. Up to that age the excess is a flat figure of £100 or so. My premium is now over £40 a month, I think I'm not at all sure what I'd do if I had another dog. I'm not going to cancel Willow's cover (don't want to tempt fate ) but I'm not sure I'd insure another dog (although on balance I probably would. What I would say, annoying though it is, is don't accept the first price any company gives you - call them and tell them if they want your business they need to do better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coco Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 We are insured with animal friends for Finn and Ozzy who are both large Malamute cross dogs. It costs about £26.00 a month for both dogs. I was considering cancelling the policies but didn't get round to it. Lucky I didn't as Ozzy has food allergies and has recently been diagnsed with underactive thyroid. The allergy testing was about a £1000.00 and he will be on thyroxin for the ress of his life He will also have to have blood tests twice a year. We will have to pay a yearly excess but hopefully the insurance will pay the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluekarin Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 We don't have our cats insured, but Neela, our cocker spaniel is. Hubby was against it, until I did a bit of research and told him if she ran out in front of a car and caused an accident, we couldn't afford the legal fees etc. I have been thinking recently that it might be worth putting the money aside each month and hopefully have enough if she needed an operation I do like to idea of having insurance as a cushion for those sort of unforeseen things. She is with John Lewis too and I think it's the basic package, or maybe the middle one, and we pay about £17 a month, was almost £16 a month in her first year despite never claiming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavenders_Blue Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 I don't have insurance for Tango - I put a lump sum aside in a savings account when we first got her and then set up a standing order to add to it monthly. The most I've had to pay out for her so far is £200 ish so (for now!) I'm happy with my decision not to insure. Perhaps it's easy for me to say, having never had to make such a decision, but I am not sure whether I would particularly want to put a dog through any kind of treatment that is likely to cost £10,000 - I think insurance has encouraged us to administer all sorts of treatments that we would never have done pre-insurance. But like I say, maybe I would think differently if I was in a position to need to consider it. Hopefully I never will be. I do have third-party insurance through the Dogs Trust which is, I think, about £25 per year and well worth having in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clucker1 Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 OOer Catie B, so are we about to get new puppy and we have been doing the same thing, ploughing through various quotes. We found in the end for a decent life long insurance it is going to cost £30 per month with a £100 excess, so nearly £400 pa. Have decided to invest £500 in shares and use the money if we need to. LB that is really helpful info, thank you for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 We are also looking at the cost/cover of insurance for the dogs, as we have three of them. The younger two (at four years old) are still relatively cheap, but Kia has become expensive at the grand old age of eight (Elkhounds can live to 17/18, so she's barely middle-aged). Insurance for the two cats was ridiculously costly and would not cover anything related to Cleo's auto-immune, so I'm no longer even considering that. I tend to share Lavenders Blue's view about cost and benefit of some treatments. Of course I want the best for my furry darlings, but there are times when you have to consider who is really benefitting. We were thinking putting aside a monthly sum, but were worried about third party claims, so the Dogs Trust policy may be just the answer we were looking for . Not that any of ours are likely to attack anything if they got out, but they would be daft enough to sit in the middle of the road and watch the carnage, and would definitely knock a small child over if it had food ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatieB Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 Just to update this. After lots of searching I think I am going with co-op. They are reasonably cheap and don't appear to have hideous reviews. For life cover up to 5k a year the premium is £18 a month. Pet plan want £33 for similar cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bramble Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 The Dogs Trust Public Liability insurance is ACE! Willow comes to work with me everyday and her PetPlan insurance specifically excludes Public Liab cover for dogs at work I was a bit ticked off about that. I've got the Dogs Trust membership, which covers all dogs owned by you AND best for me, is that it covers dogs in work places (as long as they're not actually working dogs, if that makes sense). Excellent cover - bit of a no brainer really. Willow is not the type of dog to attack, but I guess someone could fall over her or something - for £25 per year, it's not worth not having! If you don't take your dog to work, lots of house insurance policies also give public liability cover for pets - might be worth looking at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...