Cat insurance - Which company from this list

Damien360

My brother in law just got a vet bill for his uninsured dog of 250 for meningitis treatment. The dog is still recovering but is home now, mainly due to cost. He is broke and it is a stretch for him to pay it.

It has focused our mind and decided we had better get our cat insured. She is a bog standard domestic cat, 6 months old but now part of our family.

I have checked quotes online but I cannot find any reviews here of experiences with any of them. All quotes are for illness included. Typicaly how long to pay up and are they a pain to deal with.

123.ie - excess 69 - premium 90 - policy on illness is very strange and not sure they will pay for anything

petinsurance.ie - excess 75 - premium 99 - looks to be an ok policy.

petinsure.ie - excess 150 - premium 114

allianz .ie - excess 100 - premium 127

tesco - does not seem to do ireland

argospetinsurance.ie - excess 75 - premium 89

Leaving aside all the vet fee maximums that are paid in a year, I am looking at argos just on price but has anyone here dealt with them. Do they take a very loing time to pay out.

A quick browse of current threads here and I can see 2 months and more for large payouts with vets insisting on upfront payouts for various companies. I can see the vets point in this if the delay is excessive. All of the above have different underwriters so they will all be diffenent to deal with. Who is best to deal with on the list.

Any help appreciated

The Sweeper

You need to read the small print and see what is, and what isn't, covered.

If your cat has any pre-existing conditions, the insurance company will never, ever pay for any treatment related to those conditions or related to anything arising from those conditions; e.g. my cat broke his jaw before he was insured. He is now insured, but the insurance company will never pay for anything to do with his jaw, including arthritis of that limb which may arise from it having been broken.

Check whether your insurance policies cover dental work - and if you can't tell, ring and ask straight out. Many pet insurance companies won't cover dental, which is a problem because needing a tooth or two pulled is very expensive.

Check whether the insurance company will increase the price of your premium in the event of a claim. I insure here with Petplan, who give me a discount for additional pets and have never upped my claim more than the standard annual increase of a few bucks per pet, and I've claimed back around $1,000 from them in vet costs. Someone else I know insured with a different company, made a claim on one of her dogs, and had an insurance renewal that was extremely high for BOTH animals.

With cats, it's important to check what the insurance company's policy is around bladder problems. Painful bladder syndrome is becoming more and more common in cats, sometimes manifesting as cystitis, and sometimes as emergency cathetherisation to unblock crystals in the urethra that could cause the cat to die. Treatment can be extremely costly, and sometimes the vet will put the cat on specialist food for the rest of its life (eg. Hills c/d). Some insurance companies will pay the cost of the food because it's a medically necessary prescription item essentially - otherwise the food is expensive, very much so compared to supermarket meals.

Examine the insurance company's policy around vaccinations - will they ever, ever pay out on an ailment that can be vaccinated against - some companies won't whether or not the cat's vaccinations are up to date.

The above are really all questions you need to ring and ask about.

After that, it comes down to excess, premium and maximum annual cover.

falabo

just found out by reading your post that the excess is now €90 with petinsure.ie
When I joined it was only €60

will definitely not renew