I was wondering how much cover people have on their insurance? I know some people forego insurance and put the premium money into an account, but I'm not that brave and have always had cover. I've pretty much decided which company I'm going with and looking at lifetime cover, but I still undecided on how much cover to get. It's been a few years since I've had a dog and I'm sure vets are even more expensive now.
I can only give you an idea from our recent vet experience. X Ray £300 suspected elbow problem consultancy mri and possible surgery £3000 would just about cover it so I would advise 5 -7,000
It really depends upon how much cover you can afford to pay the premiums on. It is very easy for bills to mount very quickly if tests/x-rays/scans/drugs are required. Without knowing the policy levels I would think you would need somewhere around the £7000 level but do check the finer details of the policies for exclusions etc.
Thanks for your replies - we were trying to decide between £7K and £12K but there was a big jump in premium. I think we'll go with £7K.
Are you looking at petplan? (The levels of 7k and 12k sound familiar) I've got the 4k covered for life amount which has just been enough, we had 1 year of multiple xrays, ct scan and various ongoing treatment. I would go for 7k now but can't upgrade. Dont think I'd ever go for 12k.
Cover here is about 165€ for 3k€ max or 230€ for 6k€ max. With decent cover going to cost 3k€ over the dog's lifetime, we decided to take a gamble. If we have a problem costing 6k€ (unlikely), then it would "only" cost us 3k€ extra, over and above the 3k€ we would have paid in premiums. If we don't have any major problem, we are in profit by 3k€ I took the view that insurance is really only useful for major problems. The "own risk" (whatever that is in English, I don't remember) portion of the insurance is so high, that claiming for smaller vet bills of, say, 300€, means that they only pay out 140€ anyway. In summary, I think insurance is a good idea if you don't think you could get hold of 6k€ in a hurry to treat your dog. But if you have savings to tap in to in an emergency, then it's less of a worry. Insurance companies make money off those who have "less secure" personal financial situations. (I say that as a mild criticism of insurance companies, in no way am I criticising anyone for not having a spare 6k€ sitting around under the mattress).
Thanks for all your replies - yep we're going with PetPlan and taking £7K cover, which hopefully we will never need!
