Is Pet Insurance Worthwhile?

laic11

I have a 5 month old cavachon (cavalier king charles & bischon frise cross), and am between two minds about whether I should purchase pet insurance for her? The cheapest I can find seems to be approx. €10-per-month with petinsure.ie....has anyone any opinions on if it is worthwhile?

whippet

laic11 wrote: »

I have a 5 month old cavachon (cavalier king charles & bischon frise cross), and am between two minds about whether I should purchase pet insurance for her? The cheapest I can find seems to be approx. €10-per-month with petinsure.ie....has anyone any opinions on if it is worthwhile?

Ask yourself this very simple question.

Should your dog get ill, requiring acute medical treatment or an operation ... the estimated cost is in the region of €2000 .... can you afford to cover the cost to keep your pet alive or would you have a horrible decision to make?


It might sound terrible but the reality is that all pets can get sick, injured and require medical treatment .... and 1000's of families every year are left with a financial / moral dillema .... for the sake of a tenner a month (€2.50 a week) you won't have this decision to make !!

Maybe ask in the pets forum and you might come across people who have experience of making a claim

foggy_lad

whippet wrote: »

Ask yourself this very simple question.

Should your dog get ill, requiring acute medical treatment or an operation ... the estimated cost is in the region of €2000 .... can you afford to cover the cost to keep your pet alive or would you have a horrible decision to make?


It might sound terrible but the reality is that all pets can get sick, injured and require medical treatment .... and 1000's of families every year are left with a financial / moral dillema .... for the sake of a tenner a month (€2.50 a week) you won't have this decision to make !!

Maybe ask in the pets forum and you might come across people who have experience of making a claim

for most people the thoughts of spending that amount of money on vets bills for a dog or cat or rabbit is simply ridiculous. the most humane thing to do in such circumstances is to have the animal put to sleep which should cost €10-€15

pet insurance is just another wasteful indulgance borne of our recent boom. the party is over now though and all these little costs willl be let lapse!

CortezTheKiller

foggy_lad wrote: »

the most humane thing to do in such circumstances is to have the animal put to sleep which should cost €10-€15

Surely the most humane thing to do is to have the pet treated in such circumstances if possible.

I pay about a tenner a month and it's more for piece of mind knowing I wouldn't have to have a pet put down just because I couldn't afford a €2000 vets bill.

eeloe

Yes it is worth it!

Our Rottie was the picture of health(still is) for nearly 15 months, then he got a small bit of a limp, turns out he has a condition in his elbow that's causing him lots of pain!

The whole cost of seeing the vet and diagnosing the problem, was in or around 600, which we can claim back 90% due to pet insurance, if he needs an operation it would have been about 2-3 grand, now saying that, if he needed the operation, if i had to beg, borrow or steal the money, i would, but the peace of mind knowing that he is covered for the rest of his days is simply priceless

FR.Ted Crilly

Hi iv got a pug and as you may know they can have some health issues like your own doggie these problems are normally presented in the puppy stage (1 to 2 years) so we insured the little guy for the for the first year and never claimed anything. We still had a few visits to the vet nothing major and nothing we could claim on. Then insured him again for the second year, waste of time for our very healthy dog but it puts my partner at ease and she pays half so after the year is out im not doing it again;)

bongi69

You're all forgetting the 3rd party liability cover in most policies, its not only vets bills.

If your dog were to bite someone, they can potentially sue you for damages. If you don't have the cover, you pay from your own pocket/assets. The same situation can arise if your dog runs out onto a road and causes an accident.

In my case I can justify the cost, which is essentially a box of smokes a month, to have my dog covered if he did get ill.

keithclancy

laic11 wrote: »

I have a 5 month old cavachon (cavalier king charles & bischon frise cross), and am between two minds about whether I should purchase pet insurance for her? The cheapest I can find seems to be approx. €10-per-month with petinsure.ie....has anyone any opinions on if it is worthwhile?

We did .. Pets can be expensive.

People love their pets here in the Netherlands, they can travel on Public Transport and go into most shops/bars etc.

Our friend even brought her cat down to Belgium for some special radiotherapy for cancer.

You pay more here for a Full Bred dog than you do a Mongrel here, mainly because pure breeds are more suceptable to genetic defects.

whippet

foggy_lad wrote: »

for most people the thoughts of spending that amount of money on vets bills for a dog or cat or rabbit is simply ridiculous. the most humane thing to do in such circumstances is to have the animal put to sleep which should cost €10-€15

pet insurance is just another wasteful indulgance borne of our recent boom. the party is over now though and all these little costs willl be let lapse!

Most stupid post I've read hear in a long time .....obviously written by someone who has no experience of pet ownership or if they had wasn't / isnt a suitable owner

tommy21

whippet wrote: »

Most stupid post I've read hear in a long time .....obviously written by someone who has no experience of pet ownership or if they had wasn't / isnt a suitable owner

Nail on the head.

I also pay ten a month for our dog. Liability cover is as important as health cover. We have a cat as well (belonging to my sister). A few years ago neither were insured. The cat got knocked down and was a state when he found him, jaw was very badly displaced and he was seriously injured. My sister insisted on paying the vet to get him back to health at all costs, which came to 600-700€. Mad you say? While I would not pay that for the cat as he is not really my pet so I don't have as close a bond, I would in a heartbeat for my dog. But it woke me up to the fact that insurance is a must for my dog. We can't insure the cat now due to this, so just shows.

spank_inferno

yes... absolutely yes.

We had to make 2 claims for 2 animals in the recent past.
The total came to about €700.

Claiming was straight forward and timely.
The outlay is modest in comparison to the peace of mind.

And besides, if I was pinching pennies and it was insurance vs the crap on Sky movies every week... the choice on what to sacrafice would be easy!

chillin_penguin

Yes it is completely worth it.

€350 for 1 blood test. Yes its a pain and you might think a waste of money, but if something was to happen how would you pay the vet bills???

racso1975

Yup really regret not gettin it. Paid over 500 to vet this year. Had a big arguement with missus about it and she won out and we did not get it. Who's sorry now!!!!!!:mad:



Answer: My wallet

bcirl03

Can I get pet insurance for my goldfish?

skywalker_208

whippet wrote: »

Most stupid post I've read hear in a long time .....obviously written by someone who has no experience of pet ownership or if they had wasn't / isnt a suitable owner

Completely agree.

I dont know why this thread is in Rip Off Ireland either - surely it should be in the pet forum?. It is €10 a month....
a bottle of coke costs €1.50

It really in an insignificant amount of money to pay out every month vs the potential costs involved in vet bills etc

tk123

Definitely worth it. Our guy had to get an operation on his leg last month and it cost 2k - which was covered. In the summer he cut his paw in the river and the bills were around €250. Some vets do direct claim as well so you just pay the excess and thats it - they claim the rest.

Cookie_Monster

why can you only get pet insurance in Ireland for dogs and cats? :mad:
No one we've found will cover smaller animals

BengaLover

It also pays to shop around!
I was quoted a premium of 180 a year for my cat and then another with more or less same benefits and price was 99 a year!

BengaLover

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

why can you only get pet insurance in Ireland for dogs and cats? :mad:
No one we've found will cover smaller animals

There is one i saw yesterday online that covers rabbits.

Alun

BengaLover wrote: »

There is one i saw yesterday online that covers rabbits.

That's petinsure.ie.

boomerang

tommy21 wrote: »

We can't insure the cat now due to this, so just shows.

Are you sure you can't get cover for the cat Tommy? I know they won't cover a pre-existing illness/injury but you should still be able to have the cat insured if you want to?

Run_to_da_hills

I would seriously consider pet insurance from a liability perspective.

You could be sued If your dog took the ear off your neighbours cat, bit a child on the face or ran out in front of a motorcyclist causing him to crash.

Most pet policies cover liability.

Will_H

Just to add to this thread....

I was down at the vets recently behind another customer who's dog had been in for an operation. The vet gave him the bill to which he replied he had pet insurance. She replied that he still had to settle the bill and claim it back from the insurance company. So I presume it all depends on the policy you have/get. Check with your provider before taking out the policy.

tommy21

Will_H wrote: »

Just to add to this thread....

I was down at the vets recently behind another customer who's dog had been in for an operation. The vet gave him the bill to which he replied he had pet insurance. She replied that he still had to settle the bill and claim it back from the insurance company. So I presume it all depends on the policy you have/get. Check with your provider before taking out the policy.

That person will likely not be covered. A stipulation in most policies is that you must contact the insurance company who will decide if the claim is warranted and assign you a vet of their choosing, otherwise you are not covered. Other than that some policies state you can use any vet, but they must sign a document (usually can be downloaded) to state that they are happy to be reimbursed via the insurance company.

Edit: this is why I always have insurance company number/details on me - if god forbid one of my animals was injured, you're not going to spend too long searching for it, your likely to just run to the vets, so handy to have it to hand.

keithclancy

In fairness the Pet Health Insurance is worthwhile.

Our Doggy got the end of her tail trapped in a Heavy door when we were staying Amsterdam once. Believe it or not theres a 24 hours emergency animal clinic in Amsterdam.

She had to have surgery to have the end of her tail amputated + an overnight stay. Came to 280 euros.

I wouldnt skimp on that kind of thing, couldnt imagine the poor thing being in pain

Anyways, the Insurance gives piece of mind and if we got it before then it would have saved us a good bit.

Just remember if you have a breed, the Insurance will not cover defects inherent to the breed (hip displacia, luxating patella etc) as they are classified as pre-existing conditions, basically meaning they had them from birth.

Cabaal

foggy_lad wrote: »

for most people the thoughts of spending that amount of money on vets bills for a dog or cat or rabbit is simply ridiculous. the most humane thing to do in such circumstances is to have the animal put to sleep which should cost €10-€15

pet insurance is just another wasteful indulgance borne of our recent boom. the party is over now though and all these little costs willl be let lapse!

Depends how much people about their pet to be honest,

If you applied the same example above to humans then why bother with cancer treatment as its very expensive when its much cheaper to end it all
:rolleyes:

Will_H

tommy21 wrote: »

some policies state you can use any vet, but they must sign a document (usually can be downloaded) to state that they are happy to be reimbursed via the insurance company.

Wasn't aware of that Tommy - good to know....

Arpa

It's luck of the draw really, our dog was healthy for fifteen years, then started to get problems from old age, tumours etc. We weighed up the options. We had had a good run with her and an operation at €1,500 was not welcomed, also her quality and length of life after was not guaranteed so we bit the bullet and had her humanely put down.

However I recommend weighing up your options on a number of factors including breed, sex, age.

In days gone by remember, there was no such thing as pet insurance, and I don't see that much has changed in the relationship between a pet and its owner since before the boom. Only thing that has changed is perception. Is Flopsy Wopsies life more valuable now than twenty years ago?

I wouldn't bother. Just learn to understand death as a natural process.

skywalker_208

Arpa wrote: »

I wouldn't bother. Just learn to understand death as a natural process.

Yes that nice if your pet is 15 and old but not relevant if it is 2 years old and develops problems or breaks its leg etc.

Getting it put down at that age is hardly an option...

problemchimp

Had pet insurance with allianz for our dog. She eventually died and I'd say Allianz were pleased as it cost about 6k in specialists fees. It cost me about the price of 20 silk cut purple and a bottle of 7up per month.

keithclancy

Arpa wrote: »

It's luck of the draw really, our dog was healthy for fifteen years, then started to get problems from old age, tumours etc. We weighed up the options. We had had a good run with her and an operation at €1,500 was not welcomed, also her quality and length of life after was not guaranteed so we bit the bullet and had her humanely put down.

However I recommend weighing up your options on a number of factors including breed, sex, age.

In days gone by remember, there was no such thing as pet insurance, and I don't see that much has changed in the relationship between a pet and its owner since before the boom. Only thing that has changed is perception. Is Flopsy Wopsies life more valuable now than twenty years ago?

I wouldn't bother. Just learn to understand death as a natural process.

You could apply the same logic to people but we dont shoot people when they get TB these days.