Lady is insured by M&S. It's getting pretty expensive now! Last year £40 per month. This year £60 per month which is quite a hike. It's Premier Cover that re-charges every year so chronic conditions don't run out of funding. We'll keep it for another year but heck can't fund those sorts of price increases indefinitely. It would be almost worth just putting the premium aside each month into a dog fund account and draw it down if needed, but of course that wouldn't be able to cover any major expense for a year or two.
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance I know what you mean David , I had notification that Sams insurance is going up too and yet in two and a half years, we have never claimed a penny , was thinking down the same lines as you, putting money aside in a seperate account :
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance It is a difficult one. I pay £31.24 per month for Bess with Pet Plan, the insurance does cover chronic conditions. Luckily Bess has been healthy so far so there have been no claims. The worry is if anything really major crops up when bills can run into thousands. Do premiums rise with age even if there are no claims? We didn't have insurance for our last dog bought in the early eighties (I don't think it was as common then). When she got to about fifteen she started with heart failure; the tablets cost per month more than we had paid for the dog! Alice
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance we had only paid 3 months insurance when we claimed 1800 pound looks like ours as paid for its self
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance I dumped M&S as they were charging over £650.00 per year for Hattie & Charlie and we haven't claimed, it just kept going up and up. I have taken out lifetime cover with Pet Plan, any condition upto £7,000 for each dog and I got the first 2 months free, works out at £420.00 per year for both of them. Of course next year could be a whole different story. When I questioned M&S about the rise in premiums all they could say was "vet prices have gone up" but I haven't even been, there should be a no claims bonus as with car insurance, they just play on our emotions and have us over a barrel
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance no no no to no claims bonus there was something on watch dog think it was monday about pet insurance
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance [quote author=Alice link=topic=3285.msg35424#msg35424 date=1384434913] Do premiums rise with age even if there are no claims? Alice [/quote] Do they ever! Our two aging dogs were costing us more to insure than our cars... never claimed. Having just got a new pup, I seriously debated the monthly savings pot, got scared that if we had any sort of joint problem I'd be selling the children to pay for it...so gave in sulkily and she's insured. It's not the Premium cover though, David - if we have a problem, it seriously doesn't want to be a life long one!! Clare
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance I pay £55 a month for lifetime cover with a cap of £12,000 a year in vet's bills... it's pretty steep. I honestly think it makes more sense for me to save the money...but I don't. So I guess I value the peace of mind. If it hikes up next year though, I'll definitely have to think again.
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance [quote author=lynnelogan link=topic=3285.msg35438#msg35438 date=1384437122] no no no to no claims bonus there was something on watch dog think it was monday about pet insurance [/quote] Yes, yes, yes because it just seems unfair that if I don't claim anything for my dogs in a year that my premium increases to cover people that have claimed. Not fair really If I don't claim on my car insurance I get a no claims bonus and my insurance hasn't increased
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance I really hope I never have to claim either, but if I do I will certainly deserve the payout after all the years I have paid in and had to incur the ridiculous increase in premimums.
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance Not sure about the 'no claims' thing. At least with car insurance you can influence it to an extent, by being a careful driver. And lower premiums reward you for that. But whilst keeping a pet slim and fit does help, you don't have so much control over whether or not they fall ill. It is mostly down to luck. On the other hand, premiums are very steep with older pets, to reflect their rising risk, so maybe those with healthy pets should be rewarded by lower premiums.... Its complicated
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance i would say i was lucky i only paid for 3 month..... very unlucky my poor boy had to go through all the pain my premium will be sky hight when i have to renew it,....its worth paying it, we never know what is round the corner
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance I agree Pippa, if you keep your dog slim and fit you should be rewarded by lower premiums, it might encourage people not to over feed and exercise their dogs properly if they knew they could save money and no obsese animals too. Very complicated :-\ Lynne, I am sorry Jasper had to go through all that pain and such a young boy too :'(
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance Lady, of course, cost M&S about £4600 in total this year for her elbows, but I actually don't think that has had any impact on the premium. I think it's just a sliding scale as the dog gets older.
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance In spite of keeping Lilly "slim and fit" she still has hip dysplasia and takes NSAIDs. Maintaining her slimness and fitness may delay time to surgery, but there is a high chance she will need it. Giving her a high quality (fairly expensive) food and simple supplements equally may delay it. It doesn't change the fact that its there and there was nothing we could do to avoid it. Although we knew nothing about hip scores.......Or no going up stairs, jumping, sliding on floors........ So is that our fault? If we hadn't have chosen her, someone else would have her who maybe didn't care so much, or be able to foot the bills. Although the no claims concept sounds good, I don't think it applies on the whole because the incentive "to be a careful driver" is a bit wooly. Those folk who overfeed and under-exercise because they don't know any better may not know enough to even take out the insurance. I can see both sides of the story. We are careful with our money and wouldn't pass on a bargain But insurance is really like a pension. Its not your own money you are getting back. Although that maybe doesn't relate because your pension doesn't get more expensive as you near retirement :-\ . Otherwise, the answer is just to bank it in a savings plan and keep your fingers crossed its enough. I think previous comments suggest this might be good if you have more than one dog. And we are around £300 annually for Argos Platinum, lifetime cover £7000 a year (I think). Its almost a big a minefield as puppy food ;D
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance Jac, I know, I just get pretty wound up over Insurance in general and don't even get me started on pensions I know dog owners like you, Lynne, David and many more had no idea your poor dogs would end up needing or having surgery and I feel so sad for you all :'( I really hope I never need to claim and maybe I shouldn't bother insuring as I have 2 dogs, but I changed my mind this year as Hattie is 6 years old now and who knows what might be ahead and as Charlie is a complete nutter .... Hope I didn't upset anyone as I wouldn't want that :'(
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance Not upset me, Helen. Think you are probably preaching to the converted here, though I think its really important to shop around and probably use compare the meerkat websites to explore the best deals for you. It comes down to working out how much you can afford. Unfortunately its not like your car though in that its less easy to move as you get older and accumulate problems. I personally cannot get ANY health insurance to cover me for any back or hip problems EVER, not even paying higher premiums, and that was from my mid 20's when I started needing it (work-related). And that was on the basis of hip dysplasia too. At least dogs WILL be insured, albeit at a cost.
Re: The rising cost of pet insurance Really shopped around, spent hours on it and Pet Plan was the best for us. Sorry to hear about your back/hips Jac, its miserable Similar problems for me too, I have scoliosis, not badly thankfully but blinking painful , so I keep walking to keep me going. Yep I suppose at least dogs will be insured. What a crazy world we live in :
