Dogs insurance

We have had petplan insurance for our dog’s lifetime so far, and are just about to stop. She is 15 and the premium started to go up noticeably each year from when she was 10. Now we have worked out that we would be better off setting some money aside and stopping the insurance. It was a lifetime insurance but had exclusions and an ever increasing excess for each new condition and at the beginning of the year.

Never had pet insurance for any of ours (we once had 10 all together) and just ‘bit the bullet’ as and when one needed anything. A couple had operations - about £3K between them, but other than that they were pretty healthy bar the usual - ear infections, cut paws, kennel cough. As I understand it regular flea and worm treatments aren’t included nor annual vaccinations so that would be extra from the premiums. Perhaps we were lucky, but insurance would’ve cost thousands and not been used. I’m also a bit ‘concerned’ that some owners (and vets) will put their pets through any sort of treatment, if it’s covered by insurance - perhaps not always the best choice for the animal.

Try Animal Friends for a quote. We changed to them from John Lewis. Do have to pay excess now that she's older and first £100. I continue because I think that it's essential to have some public liability cover and that's included.

I'm with Animal Friends, and am happy with the quotes for my two rescued mutties.

One is much higher than the other - but he is 14 and a half (13 and a half when I got him) and missing a leg.
The other one I've had four years and his premiums have just gone up a fair bit now he's reached 8.

I haven't had to make a claim yet but it's worth paying the £42 a month between them, as I have no bullet to bite on if anything happened to them.

I would have gone with Petplan, which had been fine for my previous six dogs but the younger (but longer with me)'s passport said "cross breed", and I couldn't specify which were the breeds he contained, and they wouldn't allow "mongrel" because the passport said "crossbreed"- so I went elsewhere.

I stopped pet insurance when my old dogs were about 12 and premiums with NFU were horrendous and I had not claimed much. Big mistake, almost as soon as I had cancelled it both of them became unwell and I have massive vets bills. I will now just bite the bullet and keep insured for life til the very end! Now with Pet Plan and Kennel Club. There is always an excess to pay and as dogs get older a percentage of the vet fees.

I cancelled my lovely dog's insurance when she became chronically ill but took out third party public liability which I felt essential, with the Dog's Trust at £12 per annum. worth a look maybe.

I'm with Petplan. I always meant to leave and put the money aside instead, but never did.

My dog is now 13 and recently had to have a lot of expensive investigations and Petplan paid my claim very quickly.

I don't have pet insurance for my dog. I have some money in a savings account in case of a large vet bill.

I’m with Petplan. It’s expensive but my senior dog recently had bronchitis and was in intensive care. Petplan paid three quarters of the bill. Well worth it. The old boy needs to have the best I can afford.

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Little feller is costing £82 per month now, he getting on 12, trim and fit and its so much money that I really could do with now. BUT, I really would struggle to find £16000 and I do know someone who has faced that recently. Scary.

Ours is insured with Many Pets, and we recently had to make a claim and it was dealt with very speedily. I would say definitely go for lifetime cover and the highest amount you can afford. If your dog should need an operation, especially for something complicated, vet bills can very quickly rack up into the thousands (and I used to work in a vet surgery!). If you want to put money aside, that's all well and good, but remember that pet insurance will also include third party liability cover - should your dog cause an accident or injure someone, for instance. That could cost you more than just a few thousands.

I've had several dogs but never had pet insurance. One of my dogs is diabetic and the insulin costs 82 euros for about 17/18 days supplies. Then there's the cost of the syringes and occasional blood tests. I have cut back on those because she's doing OK.

Apart from Ruby the only illnesses that my other dogs have had were terminal and so they didn't cost a lot in vet fees, apart from spaying or neutering.

We had our previous dog fully insured until he was 10 at which point the premiums shot up, £1000 a year so we stopped insuring him apart from accident and public liability. Of course the inevitable happened, he became very ill, he was at death's door. Treatment cost approx. £6000 but wonderfully he made a full recovery. However, we worked out that had we saved the insurance premiums we would have been financially better off. So that is what we are doing now. We only have accident and public liability insurance for our new dog, which is relatively cheap through Dog's Trust. What we would expect to pay out in insurance premiums now goes into "the dog's jam jar fund ". Quite a nice sum is gradually building up, hopefully it will not be needed. So far he has been very healthy, long may that continue.

Years ago a friend of mine took out a credit card just for their new puppy’s expenses like boosters, kennel fees etc. She paid every statement in full and didn’t use it for anything else. At the same time she paid a monthly amount into an online instant access account rather than pay pet insurance.

When the dog was five it was hit by a car so she paid the vets bill in full using the credit card and paid the card from her savings account. Part of the treatment involved dental surgery so there wouldn’t have been cover for that anyway.

By the time the dog died of old age she had saved quite a bit as the credit card had mostly been used for the usual pet expenses which were easily covered from a current account but it was there as a safety net should the need arise.

I wish I’d thought of that when our dogs were young. I must have spent a fortune on pet insurance over the years.

I've only ever insured my pups for the first year after that I tend to have a handle on how accident prone they are. I have a credit card kept just for them, not used for flea treatment etc but any surgery etc should they need it, it has a 15k limit. Anything else comes out of my pocket. I have 3 Pugs who rarely if ever cost me anything. I've done this for years now the eldest Pug is now 11 and in rude health, I've had her since she was 2, the next is 9 and he's been here from 9 months and the youngest is 3. They're all rehomes and currently going strong, and the credit card is empty should it be needed. I just think we should all do what we can afford and makes us happy. There is no one size fits all.

My dog is just 2 years old and recently his insurance has gone up by 30%.