UKH

So we just realised we've naively elected to be held hostage by our pet insurance company... 

When we got our 6 year old rescue cat everyone told us to get the PetPlan lifetime cover. I'm pretty sure a friend told us that the renewal was fixed up until a certain age, but that's our fault for not checking. We have just received our latest renewal 1 year later and it's up by a third. This presents a dilemma: we have no idea what our bills will look like over the course of our cat's hopefully long life.

In 5-10 years what will we be paying? The insurance covers us for bills up to £4k - if the renewals start going into the thousands, and we have to pay 20% of the bill once he's over 10 plus the excess, this policy will become almost worthless, and we'd be better off just putting money aside for his vet bills every month. The problem is, unlike our fixed mortgage, we have no idea what we will pay in the future. 

He had an issue with a kidney stone in his first year with us which most insurers won't cover now as a prexisting condition, so shopping around seems impossible. I really thought insuring when the pet was young was supposed to help with lower premiums over the life of the pet, but now it just seems like we're at the mercy of PetPlan's renewal quote generator.

Has anyone had a lifetime insurance policy for a pet that's got to an old age? What did the premiums go up to?  

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

when we got our 2 rescue cats they were 7 years old and I had a quote from Petplan that had me squeaking 'How Much??'. I decided to put the money into a savings account each month instead. Fingers extremely tightly crossed, but so far I'm well and truly quids in. I realise it only takes one nasty accident or chronic illness to wipe it all out, but at that point any insurance would be pretty useless going forwards anyway I suspect

In reply to hms:

Friends of mine have had loads of dogs, often three at a time (live semi rural, have their own field etc).  Their plan: get insurance for the first year or two, just incase they ‘have something’, then sack it off and save a smaller amount into a savings account similar to you. It’s always surprising what the insurance won’t cover. 

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

You aren't posting him back to Amazon are you?!

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Yes, kidneys! We got royally shafted by our insurers when our cat developed a kidney issue due to a very subtle change in the wording of one of the clauses. Can't remember the insurer, but wasn't PetPlan.

I'm holding onto my 2 dogs' insurance. Pet health aside, I don't like the idea of having to stump up for a hefty legal liability claim, should it ever be needed. It's something a lot of people don't factor in.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

His kidneys are insured with Petplan as it wasn't an existing issue when we took out the policy, and they paid out a decent sum very quickly, so top marks there. So the good news is we are covered for any future kidney issues should they arise, but only if we stay locked into this policy, which is the dilemma we face. Should we leave its doubtful anyone else would insure us for that issue, and so we are stuck!

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Can't help you with your questions purpleme but we have been through the same thoughts. We have had our crossed terrier for nine years and he is now 13.

Insurance is expensive for an older dog(or any animal) and that with any claim you have to pay not only an excess(which is par for the course for any insurance) but also a percentage of the remaining bill makes putting money aside for any future vets bills looks more attractive.

It is a risk because vets bills can be very high but this year we are going down this route. Apart from a couple of bouts of gastroenteritis over the nine year(one of which very serious and we thought he was not going to survive) he is healthy, but fingers crossed.

Dave 

In reply to Queenie:

You can get very affordable third party insurance from Dogs Trust without the stuff.

In reply to Queenie:

You can get very affordable third party insurance from Dogs Trust without the other stuff.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

We had 4 cats for 20 plus years. Never paid insurance and despite a couple of £1000 plus bills definitely came out ahead of the game. 

We do have insurance on the dogs, there is a big difference in how the vet reacts. 

Is the cat insured, no, okay let's have a look, this is wrong, take these pills. 

Is the dog insured, yes. Vets eyes light up. Let's have all these tests, best keep him overnight just in case, let's have more tests, here is the medication. 

It's almost as though the vets are a buisiness and the insurance within reason is a cash cow. 

In reply to Dax H:

True enough that Vets are in the most part businesses - but the change in clinical behaviour is likely to be relief at not having to worry about money (as much), and being able to do what they perceive to be a thorough job rather than a attempt to profit.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Dont forget liability insurance should your cat cause a car crash... can get expensive. Heard a story of dog jumping out of a car window and knocking a cyclist off... expensive claim.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

> Dont forget liability insurance should your cat cause a car crash... can get expensive

Cats and dogs are not considered the same in law when it comes to 3rd party liability. For example: The Road Traffic Act 1988 states that if you hit a dog you are legally required to report it to police, whereas this is not the case for a cat, unless there is collateral damage to people or their possessions. You don't have a legal obligation to keep a cat contained on your property or on a lead in a public place. However there is the obligation of reasonable care so it is all a grey area. 

I suspect a cat jumping out of a car onto a cyclist would have several ramifications (uncontrolled pet in car not being the least), but that is not the most common situation. 

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

Don't give the keys to the cat

Dogs aren't very bright

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Here's the insurance cost/month for our cats for the last 11 years or so...

• Sep 2012 - £7.11 & £6.85 - 4 & 3 years old
• Sep 2013 - £8.50 & £7.56 - 5 & 4 years old
• Sep 2014 - £14.03 combined - 6 & 5 years old - it went down!
• Sep 2015 - £25.25 combined - 7 & 6 years old
• Sep 2016 - £22.76 combined - 8 & 7 years old - down again
• Sep 2017 - £11.24 & £10.65 - 9 & 8 years old - down yet again
• Sep 2018 - £13.07 & £12.80 - 10 & 9 years old
• Sep 2019 - £17.29 & £13.71 - 11 & 10 years old
• Sep 2020 - £21.87 & £17.79 - 12 & 11 years old
• Sep 2021 - £26.90 - 13 years old - down to one cat ☹
• Sep 2022 - £33.60 - 14 years old
• Sep 2023 - £43.19 - 15 years old

I suspect the "down in price" years (and maybe others as well) were where we accepted larger excess & co-payment; we (by which I mean my Mrs) does check prices every year and we switch if appropriate.

Including the earlier years means we've probably spent approx £4,000 in cat insurance. But it looks like they might be going exponential as Dave (cat) gets older - how much longer can he last, seems to be in ok health apart from a bit of arthritis and possible dementia.

And they're not even our cats!!! Daughter's but she went to Uni in 2010 and left home (and Manchester) after her degree leaving us with the cats. Incidentally, the younger cat (who died) was called Javu.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Wife used to work for a vet dealing with customers and claims. Vets are expensive.

Petplan is one of the more expensive insurane providers. Apparently they do pay out for more things and quicker than some others. Some vets will even do a direct claim through them to prevent you having to pay out and then claim it back.

In reply to Michael Hood:

That is very helpful!! Judging by your 7 year old cats monthly charge (÷2) it went up about 4x by the time they were 15. If our 7 year old's £420 renewal did that it would cost us roughly £1650 a year, or £137.50 a month, when he reaches 15 😬

In reply to SouthernSteve:

Interesting. And hypothetically what about a cat jumping out of a hedge, knocking down an old person? Would be interested to know if that could result in legal action on to the owner? I personally suspect it could.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Look in my posting history for some of my experiences with pet insurance...

A lot of policies do promise not to up their premium until a certain age, but that's generally around 6 or 7 years, and if you've claimed then that promise is dropped anyway.

What is not clear at the outset is that you are essentially binding yourself permanently to the first insurer you go with, because if you ever change to another then anything that's been treated in the past is regarded as pre-existing and therefore not covered.  I despise Ginny's insurer (Bought By Many / Many Pets) after they played silly buggers with some of her treatment costs, but there's absolutely no possibility of changing.  They are, grudgingly, paying out on most of her anxiety meds, which she'll be on for life, so I will have to stick with them.

Pongo is with Purely Pets, who have the most atrocious communication skills, but do seem to actually pay out in the end.

As I understand it, PetPlan is one of the most expensive - they cover more, pay promptly, and are better at not trying to wriggle out of paying, but you do pay for the service.

Assuming you have the ability to cover an unexpected bill, going without medical insurance is definitely an option and especially as they get older and the premiums increase, it may well be worth the gamble. 

I would never recommend this to anyone who couldn't guarantee being able to lay their hands on, say, £5k, at very short notice, for emergency surgery.  Or at least who could stomach having to say that they cannot afford surgery so the pet has to be put down.

If you do go this way, as suggested above, get third party insurance from the DT.

So to actually answer the OP: keep going for now, but give thought to dropping it if/when the premiums get too high.