is it worth having pet insurance?
May 29th, 2010
We have an 8 week puppy, and they are not sure that pet insurance or not, can someone please tell me, this is not the article was written on!
Shared by pet cat insurance
We have an 8 week puppy, and they are not sure that pet insurance or not, can someone please tell me, this is not the article was written on!
Shared by pet cat insurance
I would say a qualified yes – it is worth it if you find the right insurance (and I have no recommendation there). Find out if they will cover genetic problems, though, like hip dysplasia.
I talked to other people about this though and they say no. They say put the money you would put in insurance aside in a pet fund and keep it your self. These are mainly people that did not get the coverage from the insurance they were promised.
does this pay you money if your pet dies?
is it health insurance that pays for vet bills?
or is it insurance that pays to repair your house/yard if the pet damages it?
or does it pay if someone is injured by your pet?
anyway it depends. you can bury them in your backyard so you have no expenses if they die.
vet bills can be expensive, but you can always decide not to have the work done.
if you think your dog is likely to injure someone or another dog, then you should do something about it besides insurance.
i don’t know about the other one, paying for your property or someone else’s if the pet damages it…
I have houserabbits, and would not be without pet insurance. The premiums are higher than for a dog or cat, but given that they recently paid out over £500 for treatment for one that got sick it was well worth it. Even adding up the cost of the premiums over the year it came to £140, so I more than got my money back on that one. Vet care is VERY expensive, do it!
If you are talking about health insurance, yes it is worth it. We have a kitten and a dog on it. we pay 40 dollars a month for it and we end up saving a lot. My kittens vet bill every month is about a hundred after her shots and tests. The insurance covers her being spayed and de-clawed. My dog was spayed also. The insurance plan is the wellness plan and it has saved us a great deal of money on out pets in the long run. If that is the kind of insurance you are talking about i suggest getting it, especially if you have a puppy, because he will need lots of shots and stuff.
I don’t think it is worth it, it depends on what they cover and how much it costs.
If it included regular shots and regular vet visits, and all emergency calls then yes.
It also depends on the kind of dog you have, are they prone to certains illnesses or deformitys? Ill the insurance cover that. a lot of factors would decide if it is worth it to you
Oh yes, Pets are like babies.
If you don’t take care of them, its going to cost you.
So its more like a back-up plan.
yes cos if the doggie or cat gets sick and the fact it young it will be well worth it otherwise u might get hit with a 1000 pound bill straight up
yeah
directline £8 a month i think
Yes! It is well worth it, especially with a very young animal. Some policies will even cover routine medical expenses such as vaccines. Emergency veterinary care is very expensive. I am a veterinary assistant and I’ve seen ER visits range in price from 45$ to 5000$.
If you have insurance you will never be placed in the terrible position of having to choose between your pet’s life and indebting yourself.
It also depends how many pets you have. We decided just to save the money because we have 6 pets and a lot of things aren’t covered. Now we are mildly regretting it as we have had 2 pets sick in the last month. Check it out and read the fine lines!
Oh, I don’t know…I can honestly say I have never purchased it. My dog is 6 and she has never been to the vet. It seems, in my case, to be a waste. However, my neighbor just dropped about $3,500.00 in vet bills for a broken leg on his 11 month old puppy. So….who is to say….
It can depend where you live. If you live near a main road and there is a real risk of an accident then yes, it also depends on the breed and value you put on your pet.
oh, very much so. some offer cover only for accidents or for surgery or hospitaisation, w/c incur the biggest expense if needed. you will not know when an accident could happen or what congenital illnesses your dog will suffer from, etc, etc. when the crunch comes, you would not want to have second thoughts about whether you’ll let your puppy have a life saving treatment or not because of the cost. i’ve got one and thank goodness i did. my dog had an accident and immediately after, he had to have an operation on his foot. fees came to 1300 euros all in all, and that w/in one month.
yes, cause like most issurance ,paying more for something that may or may not happen, is excellent when it does.
Yes.
yes, my mum had to pay hundrens of pounds when her beloved terrier was knocked down by a bus.
Yes its worth. You save alot of money in the long run.
i pay 24 quid a month to insure my cat and dog.if it was,nt for the insurance, i would have been over 2000 quid out of pocket by now in the last 2 years.so my answer is yes.
Without a doubt, YES! We got our German Shepherd puppy at 6 weeks, and insured him at 8 weeks with M&S for only £10 per month, with a £60 excess, which includes life cover (which means they agree to cover him for any illness for life…whereas some companies limit the amount of time they’ll cover one illness). When he was 16 weeks old, I noticed he’d gone off his food…after a few days, he had chronic diahorrea, and was nearly collapsing, so off to the vets he went. He had to stay in overnight on a drip, and have blood tests…that cost £200 alone. The illness progressively got worse, and more tests had to be carried out…along with more dietary food prescribed, until after two months of him being ill, he was finally diagnosed with Pancreatic Insufficency, which is basically a disorder, where his pancreas can’t break down food’s properly, and it leaves him underweight, and with diahorrea if untreated. He was prescribed some meds for the condition for 6 weeks, and then he’ll have blood’s again to be re-checked…he’s nearly coming to the end of the 6 weeks now, and we submitted our claim form a few weeks ago for a total of £900…of which they are paying it all, minus the £60 excess. If after the next blood’s, he still has the condition, he will be on medication for life…which costs about £60 every 6 weeks…so £10 per week, for the rest of his life…it add’s up to a fair bit!
We can all think “it won’t happen to us”, but for the sake of approx £10 per month, is it really worth it? If you can’t afford the £10, then you shouldn’t have got a dog…and even if you think you might be able to afford the treatment should he get ill…why bother, when you can be insured and get it all paid for you?? When you’re in the vet’s when your dog is ill, or has been injured, your mind should be wholeheartedly on your dog, NOT, on how much it’s all going to cost…so save yourself the worry, get insured!!
P.S – M&S are *very* good, I’ve heard nothing but good reports from them, and they’ve handled my claim brilliantly. They insure puppies from 8 weeks, so go and get a quote!!
http://www.marksandspencer.com
O YES and do it soon
Without a doubt…………….we pay £28 a month for unlimited insurance which covers everything apart from spaying, neutering, shots, worming & de-fleaing, the things every dog needs. We started the insurance when our Alaskan Malamute was 10 weeks old (he is now 11 months) & only last month he became really ill to the point that the vets were checking for lupus, liver cancer & the like, they thought there was a good chance we were going to lose him. The vets sent biopsies away to check for the lupus & cancer & they also sent for allergy tests (which alone cost £400).
The results were he had some allergies & his immune system was attacking itself. He is now on the mend because we could get all of the tests done straight away without having to think about the cost, because of the insurance.
The insurance company have just paid a vets bill to the tune of approx £1500 & the treatment is still on going. The insurance will keep on paying until he is well again. We haven’t even paid £250 worth of premiums to the insurance yet.
You might be very lucky & never need to use it, but it is worth having “just in case”.
Alaskan Malamutes are supposed to be quite hardy dogs but you can always get the exception to the rule with any dog just like we have.
Look around though, make sure you get the best deal for you & your dog. Some companies only cover up to a certain amount for each illness throughout the dogs entire life while others cover for a certain amount each year or you can get unlimited which although it is more expensive if you have a large dog as we have anything you need is going to cost more than for a smaller dog just because of its size.
YES it is worth it my dog had both hips replaced and without insurance it would have cost £4000 when all the care he received was added up. As it was it only cost me £80 excess the insurance covered the rest….
If you have lots of pets, its not worth it. If you have 1 pet, then, yes, its worth it.
My aunt has a Yorkshire terrier, that has had at least £5,000 spent on it at the vet’s, and the dog is only about 18months old.. She pays about £10 per month. You do the maths! Use Petplan, though. They aren’t the cheapest, but see the animal through any illness, however long it lasts. Many just insure for the rest of the year, so any illness that goes on, won’t be covered after the initial year’s policy has expired. they don’t mention that, do they?
Well you need to find a good ins. make sure you read everything. You need to find out what they wont pay for the breed of the animal. In general if you do a lot of research you may find one that is worth the while and a lot of them are not. Yes they are worth it if something happens and hopfully you will never have any problems and your money went to waste. Just do a lot of research!!!
definatly yes. I spent £1000 on diabetes in 2 years for one dog. And £1000 trying to and failing to control cushings disease, for another.
Apart from this, you have a public liability in them, so if your dog bites someone or causes a road accident you are covered, rather than getting sued.
Petplan is the best on the market, heard that marks and spencers are pretty good too. but if you take one out be sure its for life policy and not just like £500 per condition.
i totally advice you to get pet insurance it only cost about 10 pound a month and just think if anything ever happened to the dog you would be insured some operations cost hundreds and if anything happened and the dog got lost you could put a ad in the paper and the insurance covers this and hopefully this doesnt happen but if the dog died you would be insured for that too so yes its well worth getting the dog insured
yes cause dogs or cats or any type of animals love to get into trouble and eat anything or everything and pumping a stomache of an animal or vet bills can get much more expensive then the insurance it sell most insurance cost 10-15 bucks a month worth the investment
I feel pet insurance is worth it as long as it covers your pet for the unexpected, like swallowing a stone for example. Vet bills can be very humbling when you realise the cost of your pet’s health.
it depends on not only the insurance company itself, but the vets policy on insurance. i used to work at a vet and our policy was not to directly accept insurance. the owner of the practice didnt want the “hassle” of dealing direcly with the insurance company so the clients had to pay us upfront and be reimbursed by the insurance company. many vets file insurance claims for you, just like a human doctor. the insurance company most of our clients dealt with was GREAT on paper, not so great when it came down to the nitty gritty of paying claims. we had a suddenly lame dog that needed lots of labs, referrals,xrays etc. and because there was no definite diagnosis, the insurance company wouldnt pay. it was a really weird case and the owners assumption was “i have insurance to help with these bills” and never got that “help”. also look into what is considered a pre-existing condition (something as simple as an ear infection could fall into this category) and find out what hereditary issues are excluded as well. there are probably some great companies out there but PLEASE do your homework. you might be better off putting money away in a savings account for your pets health needs.
After losing a dog to cancer *after* his being hit by a car and surviving, I can’t help but think that it is! It also depends on the company you’re with, because some U.S. companies reimburse more than others.
We love our policy with pets best, and they do cover pre-existing and hereditary conditions to some extent. I don’t think it’s a lot, but it’s more than the others.
You’re wise to buy pet insurance *before* something comes up and it’s considered pre-existing. Once a vet diagnoses it (or says that it was there before the insurance was purchased), it’s in that pre-existing category and won’t be paid at the higher rate. We bought pet insurance for our pup, and I’m so glad we did!
Yes its a good idea to have pet insurance you never know what can happen he might have an allergy and that cost quite a bit and you dont know if he might get hert. What breed?
Hi there,
Yes definitely, I have owned two german shepherd dogs, had they both had Petplan insurance, my first GSD had a big spleen operation at 6 years old and my vet went to petplan for the money, I just paid the excess.
And my second German Shepherd Dog who I had the awful task of deciding to have her put to sleep through her cancer had just come back, 3 months earlier she had an xray and they discovered stomach cancer and operated on her (she was 12 years old) and found not only a tumour but a cyst and a bladder infection. All I paid was £118 and the total bill that the vets claimed for was £2609.00.
So yes, yes, yes pet insurance is worth every penny you spend on your dog, cos you never know when they are going to fall ill, and to know you can get your money back from the pet insurance is good, anything major and they claim from the pet insurance direct without you paying anything at all.
It is definitely worth having Pet Insurance.
Vets fees can cost you thousands of pounds if your puppy has a serious accident and whilst, fingers crossed, you hope it will never happen dogs get attacked or knocked down by a car on a regular basis.
Always check to see what you are covered for as some only pay up to a certain amount and exclude known conditions that are common with certain breeds.
I would look at The Broker Portals list of recommended Pet Dog Insurers. Most will offer quotes online, allow you to pay monthly and detail exactly what you are covered for.
when something go’s wrong with your dog and the vet gives you one massive bill then you will know weather or not it was worth getting it insured. yes
i have had insurance for 11 years not used it once,but every year the premium goes up.