Thinking of not renewing our cat insurance

[Steve vRS]

Our cat is a 15 year old, neutered moggie. We live on a very quiet road and she doesn't go far outside- a lap of the house in the morning and again in the evening. There is a farmers field to the side of the house and a couple of other cats on the close.

She is chipped and her vaccinations are up to date. I've paid for insurance now for 15 years but today, I realised that I'm paying £12 a month for her.

I've done a price search for a better deal and they all seem to have large excesses - £75 then 15% of the cost of treatment.

This may sound callous, but given her age, any serious illness or injury that puts her in pain is likely to result in euthanasia so is it worth continuing with the insurance?

Steve

[bexVN]

She could end up with kidney troubles, good treatment will give her a qol for a couple years potentially but will cost (and £75 is not a large excess though I agree the % is a bit of a Kicker)

Thyroid, arthritis two other common old age treatments both of which can get good treatment continuing a good qol.

Insurance is a gamble we pay hundreds of pounds a yr on house and car insurances iyet hope we never need them. I class pet insurance in the same league (it is actually used a lot more than the others.

Just don't cancel purely on her age, she could have 3-4yrs of good life even.if a few ailments start to creep in.

[Roo]

We've had £thousands back from pet insurance over the years.

Wouldn't ever not have it anymore.

[The Mad Monk]

Roo said:

We've had £thousands back from pet insurance over the years.

Wouldn't ever not have it anymore.

Only because you paid out thousands, plus the cost of the insurance!

[CVP]

With our old cat we paid out for 8 years and didn't make any claims. With our two new cats we have set up a new bank account and put the equivalent of their premiums in each month. The fund is building up quite nicely and will hopefully not be required but if it is it will be somewhat of a buffer to the bill.

[Roo]

The Mad Monk said:

Roo said:

We've had £thousands back from pet insurance over the years.

Wouldn't ever not have it anymore.

Only because you paid out thousands, plus the cost of the insurance!

We've had several thousand back in paid claims over, and above, the premiums we've paid.

Without insurance we'd have had to pay all the bills ourselves. One diabetic cat costs a fortune over a few years.

[Wacky Racer]

Steve vRS said:

Our cat is a 15 year old, neutered moggie. We live on a very quiet road and she doesn't go far outside- a lap of the house in the morning and again in the evening. There is a farmers field to the side of the house and a couple of other cats on the close.

She is chipped and her vaccinations are up to date. I've paid for insurance now for 15 years but today, I realised that I'm paying £12 a month for her.

I've done a price search for a better deal and they all seem to have large excesses - £75 then 15% of the cost of treatment.

This may sound callous, but given her age, any serious illness or injury that puts her in pain is likely to result in euthanasia so is it worth continuing with the insurance?

Steve

One of our Moggies had to be put down two weeks ago..(15 years old.....about 80 in human years), she was in good health until a few weeks ago....

Never paid a penny in insurance, but always checked over every six months, jabs etc, perhaps we were very lucky.

[Brother D]

Roo said:

The Mad Monk said:

Roo said:

We've had £thousands back from pet insurance over the years.

Wouldn't ever not have it anymore.

Only because you paid out thousands, plus the cost of the insurance!

We've had several thousand back in paid claims over, and above, the premiums we've paid.

Without insurance we'd have had to pay all the bills ourselves. One diabetic cat costs a fortune over a few years.

We didn't have insurance and both our little pups both caught canine influenza, unfortunately it developed into pneumonia with one of them, and her vet bill came in at $2.5k as it involved a lot of work/overnight stays etc (frankly was a pretty reasonable cost).

We have it now, and wouldn't dream of cancelling it as they got older.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

As with any form of insurance, whether you choose to have it depends on: the likelihood of needing to claim; the potential size of the claim and whether you could afford to pay it yourself; and of course the premiums.

Never forget that the insurer is making a profit overall, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. So on the balance of probability, you WILL be losing money and they WILL be making money. That is why it's foolish to purchase insurance to cover something that you could afford to pay out yourself.

Pet insurance is ideal for people who can afford the premiums but wouldn't be able to afford to pay a couple of grand for treatment if they're unlucky. But if you COULD easily afford to pay for treatment, you're better off not paying the premiums because the odds are that you'll end up better off. It's one of those ironies that richer people can afford to take the gamble, and will tend to end up richer as a result.

Ultimately, if your pet needs treatment that you simply can't afford then there's nothing wrong with euthanasia from a moral point of view.

So the decision boils down to a simple question:

• Can I afford to pay for the treatments my pet might need, or am I comfortable with euthanasia in the event that I can't afford what's needed?

If the answer is yes, then you don't need insurance.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Saturday 16th May 07:38

[shep1001]

£12/month is nothing. I pay that already for Moglet and he is only two. So you would save £144/yr by cancelling it which would not go very far if you needed to have even the most trivial of treatments short term or otherwise. On my previous cat Pogull I only got back what I put in for 14 years. He got ill and before we even got to the treatment stage Tesco were in the hole for £1600 so it was well worth it.