Had 4 weeks free insurance from Agriavet for Nell, my springer spaniel.

Need to set up a full policy now. Quoted £22/mth. (85 excess, 7500 vets fees. no death cover)

that seems expensive. I’ll do a comparison quote thing but how much do people pay?

And are there any insurance companies to avoid like the plague?

PetPlan are by far the best.
E&L are by far the worst.
Compare the quotes you get against the petplan scheme and if you can find similar for cheaper go for it.

My experience with dog insurance was that we would have been much better off sticking the equivalent money into a savings account.

We had 4 weeks complimentary cover with our puppy a couple of months back. Their ongoing policy options were just too much to go with at around £24-£48 / month.

After some shopping around we went with More Than for around £12, not yet (and hopefully won’t) called on it.

Holy Cow PetPlan is expensive!

The essential cover from them is more expensive than liftime cover elsewhere for our new puppy!

Oh and to give a more useful answer, about £190/year.

My experience with dog insurance was that we would have been much better off sticking the equivalent money into a savings account.

All insurance is like that but what happens if your dog gets ill within a few months of getting it? If you can afford the bills easily then don’t need insurance.

Went with PetPlan for my (wonderful) border collie in May. In June found he had a ruptured cruciate ligament and surgery cost about £4,000.

They took a bit longer than normal but I got a cheque. I dread to think what other insurers would have done.

Cost for PetPlan was £380 this year. I’m up approximately £3,620. 😀

Case in point, my youngest (Cocker) needed an operation at about 15 weeks to retrieve a few stones and part of a flipflop from his stomach. That came out of the free four weeks insurance. About three months after the first op, he needed a second one to remove about a third of his bowel after it adhered at the operation site, twisted and started dying.

He was on proper insurance at that point, but PetPlan refused to cover it (despite them covering continuation treatment and a letter from our vet). That was about a grand.

His insurance is about 23 quid a month.

I went with PetPlan. £34 pm.

We went with more than on the premium cover, one dog is at £16 per month (special offer) the other comes in around £18 per month (not special offer but discount for having two dogs). Remember to go through quidco or other cashback sites.
We didnt insure the our last dog and probably lost out over the course of his life.
If you have spaniels of any sort i would recommend insuring them.

If I was you and you have a bit of savings, I would put £2000 in a savings account and pay an amount the same as the premium in every month.

Remember the premium is going to go up as the dog gets older.

I have 2 dogs and I am going to cancel the insurance and start the savings plan method.

AVOID: E&L, and Animal Friends in their various guises.

Cheap pet insurance is generally worth what you pay for it.

Most companies are ok for a one-off, traumatic type event. But for longer term, recurrent issues the better ones really are worth going for – for young animals at least.

For older animals the excesses and premiums go up to the point where I wonder if it is still worth it.

I’ve got a 3 year old working springer insured with Pet Plan for £23.42 per month (whole life cover). I’ve also got two GSD’s – a 5 year old at £37.49 per month and a 6 year old at £40.66. It might seem expensive, but the 6 year old has a skin condition and is on Atopica which would cost £350 per month (yes, £350 per month). Petplan pay out every month (as well as for her other pills) without quibble and have done for the past 3 years or so.

We’ve a spaniel who just turned one year old and we’ve been procrastinating about insurance since we got her. One side of me hates the thought of giving the leeching scumbag insurance companies anything, the other hates the thought of the dog needing care we can’t afford.

Given she’s an absolute nutcase and runs full tilt where ever she can, especially through trees and rododendron bushes (lots round our way), it’s only a matter of time before she hurts herself somehow….

Pet plan. £24 per month for 6 years, so £1700 odd in premiums.
This year alone with hip/back problems and emergency care after he ate a big wedge of baby wipes and obstructed his bowel we have had paid out £2100. They also cover part of the cost of his food as the vet recommended it due to his hip problems, so it’s classed as a medical diet.
Happy with that, all transactions have been easy and within a couple of weeks of claim.

Was in the vet e other day and a woman was having nightmares with E&L, in tears as she was thousands into treatment for her dog and they were being arseholes about it. Vet said it was very common to have issues with them.

IME E&L routinely reject EVERY insurance claim they receive and you then go through a protracted wrangling process even to get very basic straight forward things covered. They are the very epitome of everything that is sh!tty about insurance companies.

My greyhound is with PetPlan, we have claimed loads from them even hundreds for cleaning his teeth. He tripped over a wall the other day and scraped all the skin from his front legs, one of them they cant seal up, most of his bone was exposed below the knee, now we have to take him to the vets EVERYDAY to have his leg re dressed this is like £65 a day on top of the £600 plus for the initial operation,God know how long it will take. Even if you are wealthy you want pet insurance

my spaniel is ~ 8 years old, costs ~ 20 quid/month with petplan, and wound up at nearly 4k for a breathing problem last year. i’m not feeling shortchanged. for the big bill the vets just dealt with the insurance company direct – all i had to do was sign it off.

Tesco did what it said on the tin when our 8yr old passed away from a brain tumour a year ago – damn sight cheaper than PP.

Ignore comments about sticking it in a savings account – things can go wrong at any time with animals and the costs can be alarming – we rocked up nearly £5k in the space of a week on two pups…

We had direct line when our Labrador needed extensive surgery, they were excellent and paid out 5k+ without a murmur. We now have Animal Friends and they’ve been good and very cheap but claims need negotiation and it took a while. We were claiming £350 for fish hook removal on a Saturday which AF said wasn’t an emergency so they paid £250, it took several months to finally get the last £100 paid.

You get what you pay for.

In contradiction to a few posts above our choc lab is insured with e&l and has required £7.5k and counting of treatment in the 6 yeard we have had him. Every penny paid and for £16 a month. There’s always two sides of any story.

I agree with the comments about putting the money aside. The replies above about how much has been spent on insurance plans is inevitable, for balance you need some dog owners to post up that their pooches died of blissful old age and never needed to call on insurance (owner of 13 year old springer and did not need vet intervention until today).

What I don’t understand is how vets get away with such high mark up’s. Dog has been prescribed an anti inflammatory drug that cost me £18.50 for a weeks worth (plus the consultation fee), I can get the same drug online for £4.00. The vets practice is part of a national chain btw.

Our pup broke her leg at 10 weeks. She was covered on Petplan. This was lucky, as I didn’t have time to save the £2500 to repair her, in the 2 weeks we got her. Any other policy would not have accepted any claims against her leg now and at £26 a month on Petplan, she has 8 years payments to break even. So unless you have a few grand in the pot and are happy to ‘possibly’ loose it , as vet bills are always huge, go for it. Personally I am happy with loosing £26 a month.

I’ve got a 3 year old working springer insured with Pet Plan for £23.42 per month (whole life cover). I’ve also got two GSD’s – a 5 year old at £37.49 per month and a 6 year old at £40.66.

That’s £1200 pa in dog insurance!

If you have spaniels of any sort i would recommend insuring them.

We’ve two, a Cocker and a Springer, both working breed. The Cocker has had one visit (except for jabs) to the Vets, he’s an 8 y/o. We’ve had the Springer two years, he’s a 4 y/o and he’s had two visits for injuries he’s picked up – just over £150.

The argument that they could need treatments costing thousands is quite frankly just scare-tactics – these are animals not people, and folk just need to accept that 5h1t happens, and sometimes the decision to be made is often not nice.

Usual thing but whatever you do read the policy and make a decision about what you are prepared to pay for and what you are not.

Petplan. £28 a month on labrador. Got her at 10 weeks. This summer, At 2.5 years old she had a new hip.
£7000 paid out be petplan without any problem. Renewal came this week which I was dreading – it’s increased £2 a month. Can’t complain !!

We are with More Than for my girl. She was a rescue with ‘history’ so we had to choose carefully. I took my wife’s advice on who to consider – she’s a vet but not currently in private practice. We pay about £25 per month. I just banked the cheque for £2400 for her cruciate repair. She is due her 6 week check up in the morning.

I think that if you can either afford to potentially pay a large bill in one chunk up front, just in case you’ve not saved enough in the ‘insurance replacement’ bank account. Or your dogs are a work tool, or you are a bit heartless and can accept that at the point when the little bugger needs you most of all, when it is sick or injured to the point it needs major help you can let it go, you will be fine without insurance.
If you aren’t likely to be able to afford the big lump but can justify a smaller amount every month surely it’s worth it? Part of the cost of owning the dog like food, stupid squeaky stuffed toy pheasants and liver for treats.
Either that, or you may just get lucky and never need it. My Beagle lived for 16 years when I was a kid with nothing more than the standard visits to the vet for checkups, injections etc. despite being a serial escape artist and trouble getter into.
Insurance is after all essentially a bet between you and the insurer, you betting that the dog will need help and them betting against. Same in every walk of life. In fact why bother with anything more than 3rd party car insurance? Just save a bit in case anything happens…

all teary eyed stuff.. but what happened before pet insurance? nobodys dog had hip replacements nobodys dog had 350 quid a month pills.

all teary eyed stuff.. but what happened before pet insurance? nobodys dog had hip replacements nobodys dog had 350 quid a month pills.

as they say about stuff that happened in the 70’s, different times…

This is the one that amazes me:

Rabbit Insurance Rabbit Plan is one of our Covered For Life™ policies which provides up to £2,000 vet fees cover per year. The Rabbit Plan policy is designed for rabbit owners worried about their pet developing chronic and long-term conditions which may require treatment throughout the rabbit’s life. Rabbit insurance can provide essential cover for life-threatening conditions like Fly Strike and Coccidiosis which will require emergency treatment which can run into thousands of pounds. If your vet recommends your rabbit undergoes a course of complementary treatment as part of its rehabilitation following a surgical procedure, we will also pay up to £750 per year for this specialist treatment. Our rabbit insurance plan will provide essential cover for your pet, giving you, that much needed peace of mind.