Choosing not to insure
Discussion
We have a 13 yeard old bearded collie.
He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
I haven't insured my cats, the rationale being that I'd rather spend the money on the best food and try and keep them healthy that way. I'm amazed at the number of people who'll happily drop £20 - £30 a month on pet insurance and then feed it the cheapest s
ttiest food.
If either breaks a leg, they're losing it. If anything else, I'll have to think about it. I personally don't see the point in putting animals through repeated surgeries / gruelling treatments such as chemotherapy just to buy a few more months of 'life'.
ttiest food.If either breaks a leg, they're losing it. If anything else, I'll have to think about it. I personally don't see the point in putting animals through repeated surgeries / gruelling treatments such as chemotherapy just to buy a few more months of 'life'.
PugwasHDJ80 said:
We have a 13 yeard old bearded collie.
He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
Having had 4 Beardies aged 13 or over who all died within a year, I suggest you keep the insurance and love the dog for the next few months. They are very likely to be the last. Sad but true.15 is rare.He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
We have stopped the insurance on our Collie this year. He's 5, and we've claimed a few times after he broke a tooth (and our vet cocked up the diagnosis hence it needing 3x more treatment, but that's another story).
The premiums started at about £30 a month, and had made their way up to just shy of £50. This year the renewal wanted almost £70 a month. I can see where they're coming from, his driving is atrocious after all.
So we've told them to stick it, and are putting that much aside each month instead and will do without.
We are a little more careful, but not much. He's definitely not playing with sticks any more, not that he was too bothered anyway; and there'll be no more indoor agility classes. I'm already super careful about what he eats as our last dog died of poisoning. Other than that I don't really see much risk.
Would I have made the same decision with an inherently unhealthy breed? Probably not.
The premiums started at about £30 a month, and had made their way up to just shy of £50. This year the renewal wanted almost £70 a month. I can see where they're coming from, his driving is atrocious after all.
So we've told them to stick it, and are putting that much aside each month instead and will do without.
We are a little more careful, but not much. He's definitely not playing with sticks any more, not that he was too bothered anyway; and there'll be no more indoor agility classes. I'm already super careful about what he eats as our last dog died of poisoning. Other than that I don't really see much risk.
Would I have made the same decision with an inherently unhealthy breed? Probably not.
GetCarter said:
PugwasHDJ80 said:
We have a 13 yeard old bearded collie.
He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
Having had 4 Beardies aged 13 or over who all died within a year, I suggest you keep the insurance and love the dog for the next few months. They are very likely to be the last. Sad but true.15 is rare.He's in generally good health- just starting to grow up now (although people still think he's a puppy occasionally).
We currently spend £35/mnth on insurance, and just had the renewal through- gone up to £42, we now have a £150 excess and pick up 1/3 of any claim over the excess.
I'm seriously considering whether its worth still paying- if he's ill in 12m time the claim would have to be £750 before it starts to save us any money.
Clearly the major concern is something really serious like cancer- but honestly i'm not sure i could put him through cancer treatment at his age, it would seem unnecessarily cruel.
His mother died at 17 and father at 16 so I figured we had a few years here....... Hope so as we love him to bits, despite all the weirdness
Super hard to know, the rule with insurance is basically 'never insure something you can afford not to' else you just make their profits for no real gain.
We're 18 months in to being dog owners in our right, and have not insured our now 8yo collie lurcher.
Insurance seemed a nightmare of mixed reviews, fairly high premiums and substantial excess. So we're doing the self insured thing where just have a reasonable pot of money to one side and hope we don't get a big vet bill at the same time as the roof blows off. Time will tell if this plays out ok, but while costly steroid treatments and the like can burn cash if a dog has an underlying condition we're hopeful past that.
Daniel
We're 18 months in to being dog owners in our right, and have not insured our now 8yo collie lurcher.
Insurance seemed a nightmare of mixed reviews, fairly high premiums and substantial excess. So we're doing the self insured thing where just have a reasonable pot of money to one side and hope we don't get a big vet bill at the same time as the roof blows off. Time will tell if this plays out ok, but while costly steroid treatments and the like can burn cash if a dog has an underlying condition we're hopeful past that.
Daniel
The question you have to ask yourself is if something happens to your pet and it needs expensive treatment can you afford to pay it.
We have had our dog for 18 months now and thankfully she has not had anything serious wrong with her, the most expensive vet bill to date was £175, her sister though had to have a major operation costing £6500. We have both been paying around £30 a month.
I know I would rather pay £30 a month and have the peace of mind that any major problems will be covered and we wont have to think about can we afford it.
We have had our dog for 18 months now and thankfully she has not had anything serious wrong with her, the most expensive vet bill to date was £175, her sister though had to have a major operation costing £6500. We have both been paying around £30 a month.
I know I would rather pay £30 a month and have the peace of mind that any major problems will be covered and we wont have to think about can we afford it.
I've had my dog 2 years now. I don't insure. Reasonable insurance is £30 and that still has a £100 excess and a number of caveats.
I'm currently £700ish in the black. If he got run over tomorrow then it would be expensive but I'm prepared to take that risk.
1 £5000+ bill in his lifetime and I'll be around breakeven, 2 or more then it won't have paid off but it's not something I worry about.
I'm currently £700ish in the black. If he got run over tomorrow then it would be expensive but I'm prepared to take that risk.
1 £5000+ bill in his lifetime and I'll be around breakeven, 2 or more then it won't have paid off but it's not something I worry about.
ChocolateFrog said:
As a counter I briefly dated a Vet who insured both her dogs at around £50 a month, which I thought was a bit weird.
She'd effectively give them both a whole body check over every 3 months or so and charge it to the insurance co though, not sure on the legalities of that one.
Nor me - can't work out on what basis a claim would be paid either. I've had insurance with various companies on various dogs over the years and have never known them to pay out for general healthchecks, only for injuries or illnesses.She'd effectively give them both a whole body check over every 3 months or so and charge it to the insurance co though, not sure on the legalities of that one.
In response to the original topic, for me, there is no consistency in whether or not I insure my dogs. I have insured some, others I have not. Of the four dogs we currently have, two are insured. They both have ongoing medical conditions, so I guess we are lucky we chose to insure them.
Seventy said:
Not saying do or don’t but Dexter has just cost me £7500. 
This is the reason for insurance surely?Its really easy to hit 4 figures for a vets bill and as soon as you start adding in mri scans and surgery it goes up exponentially.
It may not make sense to insure for a couple of low hundreds bills a year but I'd rather spend £30 a month just in case that sort of bill arrived. I've been there and had to foot half the bill as we maxed out the insurance. I'd rather we hadn't have to but its that or put them down.
If you don't mind spending several thousand and it won't affect your daily life then fine but otherwise insure surely?
With those numbers you're quoting I wouldn't insure.
At his age I don't think its hugely likely he's likely to get any massive vet bills. At that age its more likely he just gets sicks and dies.
I'm not a vet but I do work in a dog shelter.
I guess it comes down to if the absolute worst happens (hit by a car, some weird medical issue) can you afford to pay it yourself, or would you be willing to say okay he had a good run, just pay £50 and put him to sleep?
At his age I don't think its hugely likely he's likely to get any massive vet bills. At that age its more likely he just gets sicks and dies.
I'm not a vet but I do work in a dog shelter.
I guess it comes down to if the absolute worst happens (hit by a car, some weird medical issue) can you afford to pay it yourself, or would you be willing to say okay he had a good run, just pay £50 and put him to sleep?
I guess we are in the last year of dog insurance. 4 year old, started out 30 odd per month, it's now 60. They refuse to discuss reasonably why it's gone up, even their call centre agent commented that the rises were unusual. We have had one claim of about 1000 and a couple for otitis after swimming where it just edged over the excess.
Their excuses, Govt IPT, postcode, age of animal just don't stack up when looked at objectively and independently. The vet has said they can't see why it's so high, so the conclusion is that it's the old story of price gouging at renewal time. The regulator is looking into this for e.g. car insurance, but for pet insurance and health insurance they have the moving your business to another provider tied up due to pre existing illnesses clauses.
So we are doing the insurance this year, probably the finalyear, also opening up a regular saver account in the bank that pays interest, sticking the max 250 a month in for a year, and then seeing where we go at renewal time having built up a few thousand reserve ring fenced for the mutt. Let's face it, when the time comes, if we've never had a big bill in x years our finances are such that we're not going to say, damn we saved just too much money, and if in 3 years we've got 9k stashed away, that's more than the insurance would pay out anyway.
As a rider, due to the attitude of the insurer, they have ensured I'll never buy a policy or anything from any of their group companies. Well done.
Their excuses, Govt IPT, postcode, age of animal just don't stack up when looked at objectively and independently. The vet has said they can't see why it's so high, so the conclusion is that it's the old story of price gouging at renewal time. The regulator is looking into this for e.g. car insurance, but for pet insurance and health insurance they have the moving your business to another provider tied up due to pre existing illnesses clauses.
So we are doing the insurance this year, probably the finalyear, also opening up a regular saver account in the bank that pays interest, sticking the max 250 a month in for a year, and then seeing where we go at renewal time having built up a few thousand reserve ring fenced for the mutt. Let's face it, when the time comes, if we've never had a big bill in x years our finances are such that we're not going to say, damn we saved just too much money, and if in 3 years we've got 9k stashed away, that's more than the insurance would pay out anyway.
As a rider, due to the attitude of the insurer, they have ensured I'll never buy a policy or anything from any of their group companies. Well done.
I didn't insure my working cocker, he cost me a good few thousand over the years but I reckon I probably came out about evens with him.
Both current dogs are insured as well as both cats, can't face the thought of another large Vets bill & God help one of them needed expensive on going treatment for something.
Both current dogs are insured as well as both cats, can't face the thought of another large Vets bill & God help one of them needed expensive on going treatment for something.
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