Pet insurance. Is it worth it?

Tootle

I'm just wondering if people normally get it and any recommendations for good value insurance?

therewillbe

Yes.I have had sick dogs in the past and the bills were appx.e2.500/e3.500. Both these had cancer for the last 12/14 months of their lives .IT IS LIKE EVERYTHING IN LIFE,CAN YOU RISK IT?

morganafay

Maybe if you just have one or two dogs, but for me (I have 3 dogs, 5 cats, 3 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits) I could never afford it!

It would be worth it if your pet got some illness or needed an operation that would be very expensive, and you never know what will happen.

But insurance is just so expensive, I think they're taking advantage of people, because of how much they love their pets.

Tootle

Is there any insurance in particular you'd recommend? I was looking at the prices, and it's actually more than I thought. You'd imagine it should be around the price of a multi trip travel insurance!

littlelady

I would recommend it. We insured our dog with Allianz for 2 years, never made a claim yet the prices kept going up & was increasing again this year. This year we got a second dog & I was quoted €516 for 2 westies, so I went elsewhere. I am now with petinsure and got the 2 westies insured for €390 plus you can pay by the month at no extra cost.
I aslo saw somewhere that Argos are doing pet insurance now so might be worth a look.

Allgäuerin

We were with one of our Westies with petinsure. Didnt need to claim anything but they went up with the price this year so we got them now insured over 123.ie. Now BOTH (the other one wasnt insured before because he was to "old" with 14 years to get in) dogs are insured for 370,- euro a year!:D

PaulB91

i have my two older dogs insured with Allianz, as neither of them are pedigree they only cost 15 or so a month, i had claims for the both of them this year which came to €900 - so i say yes it's worth it

txt_mess

Definitely worth it have 3 dogs all covered managed to get them nuetered and the insurance part covered the cost and have had a few minor things with them that we didn't even worry it was straight in and get it dealt with.

I have yet to see a cheap vet bill the price seems to snowball and we have found what we spend in a year on premiums is well covered by the claims.

Check arounsd a lot of companies will give you major discounts or a year free when signing up so worth a shop , also check with your vet they usually have discounts available from the companies to encourage you to sign up.

kylith

I'm with 123.ie, and it's €160 for two mongrel terriers for a year, including public liability. It's definitely worth getting even just for peace of mind.

star-pants

I too would say that if you don't have too many animals and can afford it - get it.
My friend let her insurance lapse in Nov and then her CKC fell ill in Feb and ended up having to get an op and stay in the vets for a few days.

I have my two Lhasas insured with Alliantz and it has helped, as we'd to get them treated for fox mange before Christmas, the little one's had other things here n there.

The other thing that people have suggested before is putting a little money aside each week (wherever is safe lol) and then if you have need for it for vet bills etc, it'll be there. Some people find it's a bit easier this way if they have a few pets / couldn't really afford the insurance, and then the money is still there if you've not had to use it.

Molberts

Its got us out of a few sticky (expensive!) situations over the years - wouldn't be without it.

Allianz petplan costs me 42e per month for three dogs, you'd spend that on a takeaway so I think its well worth it

MsFifers

Its a risk not to have it in case there is a major health problem or accident. But at the same time, I reckon I've spent over the last 3 years of cat ownership approx 600 in insurance. This is the first year I'll claim anything as one cat broke a bone in her foot and treatment added up to 200 approx. There is an excess of 70 on the policy, so any minor problems/sniffles etc over the last few years I've had to pay myself anyway.

If I had just set up a standing order into a savings account I would have saved enough by now to cover the expenses.

I'm seriously considering cancelling the policy and just setting up a savings account for it.

I think I heard someone describing insurance as "paying for peace of mind" primarily. Most of the time there is no financial benefit to insurance - which is how they make their money!!!

PaulB91

I suppose it depends (reveiwing others experience) whether or not you could afford a bill of €1000 or more in one pop i.e. have savings or be able to borrow if you can than maybe you could put of insurance, especially if you have a number of animals.

As in my situation i have 4 dogs whom i can insure (and a 16 year old Cairn who's too old to be insured) so say €15 each per month, that's €720 a year, pop this into a savings account instead of insurance and if say i have something serious i have money there for it, but then saying that i had my lab/boxer insured for 2 years with not a claim, then i got the GSD and insured her, within a month of each other both needed small op's which would have cost me €900 if i'd have been saving the money i had used for insurance i would only have €400 available.

I'm going to contunue to insure my two older dogs (of about 5 years each) and once the pups are 2 to 3 years i will insure them, a lot of people say insurance is dead money but it does take the worry away

FYI I have paid for car insurance for over ten years without a claim - now that is dead money

PaulB91

actually just thinking there about our old family dogs, first one i remember was a border terrier, Candy, she got diabetes and needed daily insulin injections for the last two years of her live and a lab/collie whom broke a hip and got cancer in her last few years, both of whom where healthy and without need for serious vet treatments for the first ten years of their lives, (you can't insure a dog when it gets older than 8 i believe) now yes for those first ten years the money would have felt like being wasted, but believe me the insurance would have been welcome in the last few

border

-why insurance for pedigree dog is more expensive? Are they sick more often?

F.R.

border wrote: »

-why insurance for pedigree dog is more expensive? Are they sick more often?

Certain breeds have a propensity for certain diseases. GSD's and Rotties - Hip dysplasia, Westies and Shar Pei's - skin problems, short muzzled breeds such as Bulldog's suffer from breathing problems.

Overall pedigree dogs are more likely to visit a vet then a Heinz 57 because they are frequently inbred if a breeder considers that they have the best attributes of the breed as required by the Kennel Club.

kylith

PaulB91 wrote: »

you can't insure a dog when it gets older than 8 i believe

I think 123.ie do insure dogs over 8, but it costs a little more.

Allgäuerin

123.ie does as u can see in my post above that our westie with 14 years is insured with them!;)

LucyBliss

We have three terrier cross dogs and we insured them with petinsure.ie. It's thirty six euro a month for the three of them. After my grandmother's uninsured border collie came down with heart problems in 2007 and last six months on medication that added up, we decided pet insurance was the way to go with any future animals. Not that we were going to tell my grandmother that we were putting her beloved dog down just because of the price (that wouldn't have gone down well), but it was costly.

We insured the three we have now just in time because last year one of them came down with a severe case of throwing up. They were able to rule out anything serious with tests and an x-ray that were covered by the insurance. It turned out to be a food intolerance; we switched food and she's fine. But having lost two dogs to cancer during the 1990's, I was very happy to be able to do the tests that ruled out that disease.

quickbeam

I don't even have insurance for myself, so I'm not getting any for my pet. If needs be I'll manage to pay whatever is required (he's young yet so hopefully I won't need to for many years).