What should I look for in pet insurance

lyndonjones

Hi,
We are the proud owners of "buddy". Buddy is a Yorkshire/ Maltese cross breed. We currently have the six week free pet insurance from zurich but I am looking into other insurance suppliers such as 123.ie and Argos etc. I am looking for help in determinig who supplies the best package, what will it cover, how the premium is calculated, excess, is there a limit for claims
per year.

Any suggestions are welcome

Vojera

I don't have pet insurance (guinea pigs aren't covered!) but if I was in your position I would call into my vet and ask his opinion. He or she will probably have an idea of the most common claims and what people need to be covered for, as well as any procedures that might not be covered that you should be aware of.

star-pants

Best thing is really to ring around yourself, find out what they're willing to offer and for how much.
We were with Allianz for our two Lhasas, the excess was 75euro, but after making a claim in 2009-2010 for getting the girls treated for fox mange our premium went up by over 150 euro per annum in 2010. They refused to budge and basically said if you claim your premium goes up so we left them.
As mentioned above, ask your vet who most people are with, who they think seems to offer the best cover / for what procedures. And use that information when deciding yourself. When I mentioned to my vet that we'd left that insurance company he wasn't surprised and informed me that many others had done the same.

Then again, some people feel if you put away X amount per month then it's always there should you need it for a vet bill, whereas if you pay X per year say into an insurance company & you don't claim then it's lost money as such. But if something happened and your bills were into the thousands, insurance could be good.

psycho-hope

Hi, we just got pet insurance for our dog, after his accident cost us the guts of 500euro, both our own Vet and the folks in Ucd recomended Allianz as they will pay the vet directly, apperently most other pet insurance companies make you pay the full amount and then have you claim it back.

Hope that helps:)

tk123

We're with Aliianz for the convienience of it! I just sign a form in the vets and they do the paperwork and send it off. When you're sick with worry that something is wrong the last thing you want to do is fill in forms etc. Also our vet does direct claim so I just have to pay the excess and they claim the rest back.

andreac

Just remember, you wont be covered for any pre-exisiting conditions with your policy. So if your dog ever had skin trouble, ear infections etc or any other problems they wont be covered on your policy.

Wisco

If paying the insurance company pays your vet directly, you'd want to make sure your particular vet will accept this.
Personally, most people I know are with petinsure.ie or Allianz. Petinsure pay out VERY quickly, and have lower premiums and excesses than Allianz but I'm not sure of their fee limits per year vs Allianz. I would be inclined to stay away from argos and their ilk and go for Allianz or petinsure.ie as most vets have more experience dealing with them and they are more established in the Irish market.
Definitely read the small print in each policy- will they cover a disease from year to year (ie, if your dog has diabetes diagnosed this year, will it be covered for diabetes for the rest of its life?). Are any conditions excluded?
Good luck digging through it all.