Opinions on Pet insurance

ncmc

Hi all, I just wanted to get some opinions on pet insurance. I have my Cocker Spaniel insured with Allianz for two years and had never had to claim.

The renewal came in yesterday and at €258, I feel it is a bit steep. I have cover for vet fees of up to €4000 with an excess of €100.

I have been pricing around and could get cover with 123.ie for €174, with cover for vet fees up to €2500 and an excess of €69

I know it's hard to answer but do people feel €2500 vet cover is adequate? I (thankfully) have never had any vet fees other than vaccinations etc. If in the event dogs do get sick, would the fees often go over €2500?

I would obviously prefer to save the money on the premium, but if vet fees very easily go over €2500, I don't want to regret my spendthrift ways in the future!

mel94

Just be very careful which insurance company you go with, Read the small print on them as some of them dont give you the same benifits as Allianz Or Petinsure do!

ncmc

mel94 wrote: »

Just be very careful which insurance company you go with, Read the small print on them as some of them dont give you the same benifits as Allianz Or Petinsure do!

Thanks for that, I did have a good look through the T&C and 123.ie seem ok, usual stuff about pre-existing illnesses and there's an extra excess on dogs over 8, but other than that they seem ok.

Wisco

It really depends on what sort of fees you have to claim for (if it comes to that). If your dog gets cancer (and I hope it doesn't!!) that can be quite expensive if referral + surgery + ongoing treatment is required. If you need referral for anything (broken leg, unusual disease, etc) you'll probably looking at a minimum of 1000 euro. I know of a dog who had both knees fixed with TPLOs (a very specialized procedure) at a cost of around 2000euro each and it was fully covered with petinsure.ie (the legs were done in different years so didn't exceed the vet fee allowance). I also know of a dog who's fracture repair was upwards of 3000 at UCD Vet Hospital (multiple surgeries required, long hospital stays, etc) so the owners had to pay any costs over 3000 themselves.
My personal experience is that most people, but obviously not all, will not get to the limit in a year that Allianz pays out. Having said that, there are always unlucky exceptions.

star-pants

Allianz bumped up our premium last summer too, we had two dogs on the policy and it jumped up over 150euro, seemingly because we made a claim (that was in around 500euro and we had to pay the 75euro excess). They refused to discuss it with us/budge on price so we didn't renew with them.

So honestly if you're not happy with the price they're quoting, I'd see if you can say 'well X place are quoting me this much cheaper, are you willing to negotiate?' and if they will well & good, but if not then if you're getting the same deal elsewhere for cheaper, I'd go elsewhere.

As said, it is a slight gamble on what might happen with your dog (hopefully nothing!) if it's minor it won't be much, but if it's something big like an illness or a break etc it could be big money. Perhaps discuss it with your vet & see what they advise too.

Whispered

We left allianz too, our premuim went up by 30% with no claims or anything. We're with petinsure.ie now. I can't comment further though because thankfully we havn't had to use them.

Gloomtastic!

Claimed over €2500 from petinsure a couple of years ago and our premium hasn't increased!

theghost

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Claimed over €2500 from petinsure a couple of years ago and our premium hasn't increased!

Lucky you. Claimed for €350 from petinsure last year and the premium went up this year. Although now that I think about it one of the dogs is 9 now so that might have something to do with it

Knine

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Claimed over €2500 from petinsure a couple of years ago and our premium hasn't increased!

Ive claimed several times over the year and mine didnt go up either with petinsure.ie. In fact it was 150 euro to renew for the year for a crossbreed.

TooManyDogs

I gave up on pet insurance all together. I was insuring 5 of my dogs as the other was too old and was getting first year quotes of € 650, but then they were upping them despite me not having claimed to € 900 and wouldnt budge when I said I got better quotes else where. I just got hacked off paying out that money so I set up a savings account and save the same amount of money in it per month and arranged to be able to pay my vet by installment if is ever necessary.
Its working for me, I've had 2 minor illnesses with 1 of the dogs and was able to pay straight away from my little fund.

ncmc

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will go for the cheaper insurance and hope for the best. Does anyone know if they look for proof of pedigree? I have a pure bred Cocker Spaniel (she is on the vets files as such) but I do not have papers for her. Would I be better to insure her as a cross breed and save a few quid that way? I obviously wouldn't be looking to claim the purchase price back if anything happened her.

TooManyDogs

You don't need papers to prove she's a pedigree but if the vet who treats her has her down as a cocker spaniel and you've said she's a crossbreed then you'll have a battle to get the insurance company to pay out. They love nothing better than any tiny excuse to not to pay a claim. One of my friends has a dog with some kind of permanent chest infection and they refused to pay the huge vet bills because in his file at the vets it mentioned he once went to the vets and the dog coughed!!!! So they said it was a pre-existing condition. So I wouldn't try and trick them if your dog looks like a full bred cos it just won't be worth the few bob at the end of the day.

ncmc

Hi thanks for all the replies, I spoke to my vet this morning and he feels that €2500 per condition should be plenty. So I am going to switch to the cheaper insurance. It's a saving of €84 so it's worth shopping around.

ABajaninCork

I too legged it from Allianz when the premium increased for no good reason (i.e. no claims).

OP - have you tried Argos? I pay E16 monthly for my dog, and the gold cover goes up to E5000 for vet bills? Total premium E184.