Hi all

I am a soon to be proud owner of a Full Breed Pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy, looking around online for good quotes for pet insurance but wondering what people recommend on here?

Thanks!

None. Stick the money into a savings account and spend on vet fees if you need to.

PS we don’t have pedigree pets, so your mileage may vary… And do post some pics when you have some!

Petplan.
Read the T+C’s carefully all are not the same
Look at life cover as opposed to 1 year for an illness.
Max treatment costs etc.
Also ask your vet how they deal with claiming (most will leave it to you)

M&S

@Julian, thanks for the advice. I agree that would be a good idea the only issue would be if anything happened very early on (Touch wood it doesnt)

So the cover would be something Id feel a lot more comfortable with.

Pictures will be below as requested 😉

I’ll have a look at Petplan and M&S, yes Ive noticed this 12 month thing, definitely want to get the higher cover for extended cover.

Our ‘Bo’ (Looks slighlty Brindle in the photo but is actually pure black with white)

3 1/2 weeks old:

We’ve got our dogs with Petplan.

They weren’t the cheapest, but we felt they offered the best cover.

We’ve had a bit a run at the vets over the last 6 mths and the insurance has certainly paid off.

Great looking dog 8)

What JulianA said, and hope your dog doesn’t cause a traffic accident, or savage a miniature poodle. Best case, your new dog lives a long and peaceful life, and you’ll have £2.5K +interest to spend on whatever bike frame is flavour of the month in 2022.

Worst case, your dog will develop kidney disease / get run over / bitten somewhere serious and it’ll cost 2.5K to keep him comfortable, and the bike frame will be off the cards.

We started self insuring our dog this year – the premiums rocket when they hit six years old – better never to start down that road.

£2.5K

Doesn’t go very far these days. One of the costs of peace of mind.

Worst case, your dog will develop kidney disease / get run over / bitten somewhere serious and it’ll cost 2.5K to keep him comfortable

and the rest. two colleagues have had £10k+ vet bills. one guy downgraded his cover a month before his dog was diagnosed with a tumour and he’s had to fork out thousands 😳

I’m with M&S. expensive but the cover level is excellent

Tesco for our Kelpie. Already paid out £1400 for some poisoning she picked up on the farm somewhere, it may well be a case of £2500 for the lifetime, but at £5 a month (ours had a claim 3 months into the policy, Tesco had £15 from us, if we’d put it in a piggy bank it would not have scratched the surface!).

Pet plan paid out with no fuss or delay on one of my cats. The staff were helpful too on the phone. The whole out money in a piggy bank thing doesn’t really work for reasons mentioned above.

I have mine covered with Petplan. It’s about £32 per month for whole life cover. Might seem expensive, but they pay out £342 (three hundred and forty two) per month on Atopica for one of of them.

and the rest. two colleagues have had £10k+ vet bills. one guy downgraded his cover a month before his dog was diagnosed with a tumour and he’s had to fork out thousands

Nice they could afford it, I’d have put the dogs down. And then bought another. The same thing I’d do (and have done) if he died of natural causes.

Ours, and all the previous ones haven’t had insurance – nor our horses – and when you do need Vets, IME they’re cheaper if you are paying yourself.

– and when you do need Vets, IME they’re cheaper if you are paying yourself

The missus never gives a discount for uninsured people it costs them the same whatever. There are more expensive options that come to the table if you have insurance though.

I have seen how big the bills can get and as for insuring bikes etc it’s a personal choice.

Both our cats are on petplan supercat. Our maine coon broke both hips and they paid out 8k no probs straight to the vets.

None. Stick the money into a savings account and spend on vet fees if you need to.

+1

Nice they could afford it, I’d have put the dogs down. And then bought another. The same thing I’d do (and have done) if he died of natural causes.

Couldn’t agree more.

Ok, well this might just be my opinion but the ‘put the dog down and buy another’ doesnt really work for me, and I think you’re somehow missing the point of having a dog and what they offer/mean to people.

Petplan seems to be the clear winner, I’d rather pay more a month for the top cover than to be in a horrible situation with fees I might not have the money for.

Thanks for all the input 🙂

Ok, well this might just be my opinion but the ‘put the dog down and buy another’ doesnt really work for me, and I think you’re somehow missing the point of having a dog and what they offer/mean to people.

You are obviously correct; my parents always had dogs and we’ve dogs/horses etc; we’re wrong 🙄

Only people who’ve a spare £10k would possibly spend it keep a dog alive, or those who’ve paid a fortune for insurance…

b r – Well at least you’re happy to accept your ability to be incorrect 😀

I feel we’ve all learnt something today.

We have M&S of the top of my head it’ll pay out 7000 a year for any one thing but you can keep claiming for the same illness year on year. Many others will only pay out for one year. Costs about 25 a month.

Ok I’ll have a look at M&S also, anybody had any experience with claims from M&S?

We have claimed when dog got bitten was all fine.

Move to the country and use a proper “farmers” vet, if they charged ridicoulus prices they’d soon be out of business. Town vets fees have gone through the roof because because the insurance companies are footing the bill before passing it onto the gullible ones!!

Had four dogs over the last 23 years and never had insurance, dog three was ill before he died last year and we had something like a £1500 vets bill, still not as much as if I’d paid insurance for the 14 years of his life.

Move to the country and use a proper “farmers” vet, if they charged ridicoulus prices they’d soon be out of business. Town vets fees have gone through the roof because because the insurance companies are footing the bill before passing it onto the gullible ones!!

Country Vets massivly undercharge and get away with it by paying their staff less. Town vet fees cost normally what it costs. (Again inside perspective)

Not a bad little idea moving to the country to save on vet fees. Won’t cost too much to move house, possibly find new jobs, schools or increase the commute. I recon you can easily offset that with the £15 a month your pet insurance would cost. Why don’t we hear of more people moving to the country to save on vet bills? 🙂

b r – IME they’re cheaper if you are paying yourself

I agree, hence, at the town vet the first question after your name and address is usually “do you have insurance?”

mikewsmith – Country Vets massivly undercharge and get away with it by paying their staff less. Town vet fees cost normally what it costs. (Again inside perspective)

Both charge what they can get away with. (inside perspective)

We had ours with Marks and Spencer for years, all throughout many expensive investigations and operations and always found the claims to be totally fuss free and straightforward. The vet put in the claim direct and they paid the vet so it kept me out of the whole paperwork loop.

However, we took out insurance with them when they were new to the market years ago and I think his first premium cost about £6 per year when he was about 3 years old. It’s rocketed each year until last year they wanted nearly £80pcm for an 11 year old crossbreed, which just was a no goer for us, espcially as you had to pay the first £x per claim per year and something like 20% of the cost of each claim on top of that to boot.

Have known of a lot of pet owners who took out policies with them at a low premium and they’ve hoiked the prices up. Not all of those people have claimed either, so it’s not just down to that.

From what I hear of everyone who’s been on Petplan, their premiums may seem a bit steeper than others out there initially but they don’t seem to have the crazy big hikes in price that Marks and Spencer have done.

And it’s definitely worth looking at the small print – not all policies offer the same level of cover.
There’s a good basic guide on moneysavingexpert about different sorts of insurance levels.

Good luck, he’s gorgeous!

both my staff’s are with MORETHAN they paid out no problem when i needed them to as one of mine broke his leg and had to have it pinned at 6 months old! He’s all good now though theres no stopping him.

@redwoods – Thanks for that info mate, it’s very good to know as Im sure if the prices have been hiked that much through your experience then there’s obviously the chance of the pattern continuing. Will certainly take the advice on the small print, want to make sure to get this right first time 😀 Thanks we love him.

@smallpaws – Havent had a look at morethan yet but will check now. Glad your Staffs back to 100%!

We live in that there country and our vet is indeed the same one the sheep go to, still worth insuring a dog though.