New dog - Pet insurance?

Drake5

Drake5

Drake5

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Joined
12 Dec 2005
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We're having a new dog (Golden lab) from a puppy.

Pet insurance is something I honestly don't understand. Where is the cheapest place to look for/compare pet insurance?

I'm not quite sure how it works - If my dog needs treatment at some point, do I pay the vet costs up front and then get it refunded via my policy?

Thanks
 
go onto money supermarket and shop round, also try another comparison site, confused etc...

There are different policy types, some have limits per year, some don't, some will only cover one injury/illness once and that's it...

Yes, you pay upfront then claim back...

get some pics up!!
 
As above, make sure you get some sort of cover though, vet bills are very expensive even for minor things!

Just have a look at the different levels of cover offered by different companies, I think I'm with Argos at the moment and it's pretty reasonable.
 
Maybe not cheapest but More Than are excellent, had a few claims all paid very quickliy including one of £4k
 
I got asda pet insurance. You can go on comparison websites like everything else.
One thing i didnt realize and the vet told me, unless she was just trying to sell me something, is that you can get life insurance for them, so if they do get an illness it doesn't go up the following year its just one price every month for their life.
 
The most important thing is to look at logevity. Most animals suffer increasingly expensive bills as they get older, some just quote bonkers premiums or actually refuse to cover.

As far as paying goes, a lot of vets will self bill the insurers, but some insist on getting payment from you and making you claim.
I would actually ask the vet you planning on using, who they find good, who they have issues with etc.
They may try to sell you a policy as some do this, but if they don't they will give you some decent advice I am sure.
 
Thanks for the all the tips guys, there's just so many out there I really don't know how to find the best deal.

I have a friend who uses Pet Plan and says they are very good, how does this sound in terms of pricing?

Oh and a picture of the little man (poor quality) for good measure :)




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Basically expect it to start cheap and end up expensive. Its just the same as BUPA for humans.

Its nice and cheap and affordable when your under 40, in generally good health and made no claims, hit 60, make a few claims and whoosh your premiums will go up faster than the national debt under labour ;)

Critics argue that pet insurance has pushed the bills up due to vets thinking its easy money.

Only other option some recommend is putting say £30 into an interest account each month and just letting it build and using that to fund any serious issues, its a risk of course.

Be very careful on small print, some I have heard exclude genetic problems specific to breeds, so you think your covered until you claim then its small print ftl. Its not usually hard to check the common issues/complaints by breed (google/vet)
 
Tom_D said:
When an excess is required for treatment, do you actually get that amount payed back?
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No.

Petplan are sometimes extortionate, for a Husky (which is a very healthy breed) they wanted over £70 per month which would come to far more than one would ever pay in vet bills over the dogs life.
 
We're with Sainsbury’s for the dog, have claimed 5 figures with no problems, and currently receive more in prescriptions than we pay in premiums. Bet they don't like us.
 
I've heard some terrible reviews of PetPlan tbh.

I'm with Argos Pet Insurance - weird I know but they're really good and we've claimed from them a couple of times for our cat, never had any issues.
 
vicisthebest said:
I've heard some terrible reviews of PetPlan tbh.

I'm with Argos Pet Insurance - weird I know but they're really good and we've claimed from them a couple of times for our cat, never had any issues.
Click to expand...

Both our dogs are with Argos. It was pretty much the cheapest around and they had some good reviews. I've claimed 3 times in the past year with no problems... Each claim being a simple case of complete and send the claim form and receive a cheque in the post minus the excess.

I've no idea how good the Pet Plan policies are, though from what i remember they were around double the price of many other insurers whilst offering the same cover. The only bonus seems to be that you don't have to put out the vet fees in the first place (they pay the vets direct).
 
We have just taken out insurance on my Lab. We went with Tesco and find them very reasonable. £6.10 per month premium with £2,500 fees per condition per year. We find this adequate for our needs. We didnt go for the other stuff such as payments for advertising if he went astray or holiday cancellation etc.

Edit: I have used Petplan before and find them very picky on conditions. They wouldnt pay out for our cats once as they said a cold is the same as something they had got and they have been treated for the cold. Had the vets helping us out. This went on for a few months, in the end we gave up. PetPlan do rip you off I feel.
 
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