Insurance

Our insurance renewal documents have just come through. I do wish they'd marked the envelope 'sit down before opening'. For the 3 of them, it's gone from £1,247 to... wait for it... £2,038! That in large part is Nola, who has just turned 9. We were expecting her portion to have gone up but it's doubled!

So, we're looking at a couple of different options, one of which is self insuring for vets fees (putting some away each month ourselves) and taking out Dogs Trust membership for £25, which would then cover all 3 for up to £1 million 3rd party.

Has anyone else done/looked at doing this?

Wow that's a huge amount! I have Dogs Trust membership for Misty for the liability insurance plus I like supporting them. I have Homebase insurance for her which I pay £25.00 a month roughly although I think it's now changed to Argos insurance as Hombase did write to me recently about it changing.
My parents used to self insure our Lab. They put money aside each month and used that for her vet fees. It worked very well for them as she was not a sick dog and had no illnesses until she passed away at sixteen so they definitely saved a huge amount of money doing it this way and not paying out for insurance.

jeezo insurers seem to.play.on the fact our dogs get older and the amount triples after your dog turns 9. I was fazed with insurance as mia was ill at the time. the way to me  it should work younger dogs to get a higher premium than our golden oldies but I may be out of line saying so

just had tessas renewal notice from argos which has been £25 for the last 3 years and has shot up to £55. called them to find out why and there was no apology and no attempt to bring it down for a loyal customer. the reasons stated by the very abrupt person on the other end were tessas age (7) and the breed........then i put the phone down.

Wow! Who are you currently with? I'm with animal friends, who support charities and only pay £13 a month. That's after pet plan doubled my insurance in a year despite never claiming!

I can understand why they put up premiums for older dogs, but doubling it or more???

We're with MoreThan, Rach. In fairness, they have done very well for us over the years and, taking Bob's allergies and Harley's chemo into account, they have paid out more than we have paid. This latest hike is just silly, though.

After a lot of googling and discussing, we now have a plan. We are going to join the Dogs Trust, (not my favourite charity but they do help dogs too) and have their insurance for 3rd party. We are then going to take out basic accident only insurance with Animal Friends (yes, great ethics), £3 per dog per month which gives you £2,500 per year up to £15,000 in a lifetime cover for accidents. We'll then put the balance of what we are currently paying aside and self insure.

It came down to weighing up between possibly having to pay out a very large amount in one go (self insuring) vs the certainty of having to pay out a still quite large amount each year.

We didn't really have to think about it for very long!

not sure who we are with now as the missus sorted it the weekend but i do know that an identical policy to argos is £30. wouldnt mind if we had claimed but no claims in 3 years and then the policy doubles!!!!! its just crap. will look for cheaper policies every year now like we do with house,building.car,buisness ins

Gosh! That premium is outrageous!!

I'm with John Lewis and can't fault them for paying out huge claims twice, although I started off on £15 a month 5.5 years ago and now my monthly premium is £60 a month and goes up a lot each year!!

I have claimed twice for two cruciate surgeries 3 & 4 years ago and I know that premiums go up after claims, but my boy will be 7 this year so it is a worry about when they get older. I will have to check my policy as I am sure there is something about when they are 9 and over.

I feel like I am kinda stuck with JL though as if he has any problems with his legs due to the surgeries in the future, although he has been brilliant since the ops, then I won't be covered for pre-existing if I get insurance elsewhere.

I'll have to have a look into Dogs Trust insurance for when he is older then.

Blimey, we need insurance to cover the insurance these days!

Gosh, £60 a month for one dog, that's actually more that I was paying for Nola last year when she was 8! The £2k we were quoted was for 3 dogs, including a 9 year old.

I see your point about being stuck because of pre-existing condition, though. That's a tough one.

Yep, it is sadly

I just make sure I'm sitting down whenever the renewal forms come through each year!

How the hell is it costing that much?

For me, Ains, or for Lisa?

For me it's because of having 3 dogs, including a 9yr old, and having made a claim for her this year. I still don't see how that can double one dog's premium though.

For me it was for 2 claims within 12 months of each other. My premium literally quadrupled, but as Liz says, how does that work???

I guess it's how they get back the money (over a number of years if you keep paying) that they paid out on claims, which in my case in total came to nearly £7K!

Lis wrote:For me it was for 2 claims within 12 months of each other. My premium literally quadrupled, but as Liz says, how does that work???

I guess it's how they get back the money (over a number of years if you keep paying) that they paid out on claims, which in my case in total came to nearly £7K!

Jeez thats scandalous.

Wow that situation definitely doesn't sound fair and there's so much fine print in these policies that even if a company says they won't raise limits on you, a few expensive vet visits later and they seem to find a way to justify a raise in annual premiums. There are some pet insurance companies that I've looked briefly at who seem to be friendlier to older dogs and if memory serves me correctly the first one was healthy paws and also petplan but don't quote me on those. I found learning about what our breed faces in terms of health problems to be helpful because I could put a price tag (or at least an estimate) on potential future costs. I'll drop a couple of sites I learned from and got some accurate info about my staffy. Good luck making your decision.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-alvarez/pet-insurance-is-it-helpf_b_8919440.html
https://www.petinsuranceu.com/staffordshire-bull-terrier-pet-insurance/

Similar situation has happened to me, I'm with MoreThan and was paying £17.50 a month last year. This year's renewal price has just come in and it's shot up almost 50% to £31 a month!

I asked why, and they said 1) because he's a staffy, 2) because apparantly vet fees have gone up and 3) because they've changed his package from a £7k cover to £8k (which I cannot change back).

So I'm going to possibly move from MoreThan (if I get a cheaper quote elsewhere).

From experience, which companies would you say are good and which should I avoid?

Grrr! Your point no.1 as to why your insurance has gone up has infuriated me!!

If you have no pre-existing conditions/claims I would definitely look for a cheaper quote that MoreThan. As I mentioned previously, my hands are tied with John Lewis because I have claimed for two cruciate surgeries, so if there were any further problems relating to my boy's legs I very much doubt I would be able to claim if I moved insurance companies.

They really know how to get you don't they!!

Lis wrote:Grrr! Your point no.1 as to why your insurance has gone up has infuriated me!!

If you have no pre-existing conditions/claims I would definitely look for a cheaper quote that MoreThan. As I mentioned previously, my hands are tied with John Lewis because I have claimed for two cruciate surgeries, so if there were any further problems relating to my boy's legs I very much doubt I would be able to claim if I moved insurance companies.

They really know how to get you don't they!!

It infuriated me too, complete nonsense of a reason.

Zeus has Colitis which we've claimed on in the past. With it being Colitis that can flare up at any time, does that mean I'll have to stay with MoreThan?

Exactly! Ridiculous reason!!

If you have claimed for colitis in the past, I would guess that would definitely be classed as a pre-existing condition sadly. I might be worth checking with the insurance companies direct for confirmation if you choose to switch, but you know that most insurances will get out of paying out in any way if they can help it!