Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:27 pm Post subject: Who DOESN'T have insurance?
I have been reading lots of conflicting reports on pet insurance, it is on MSN's list of 12 financial products to avoid ion 2010, and I have read other articles advising against it. I currently pay £55 per month for my 3 with an excess of £80. I have never made a claim as it never comes to more than the excess. Gladys, my youngest, will be 2 in April so I think I can stop worrying so much about hips etc. Things are really tight at the moment and I am thinking of dropping the insurance, do any LF member NOT have insurance?
I don't have any dog insurance. To be honest with six dogs it would cost me a fortune and (I am touching wood as I say this) I have only used my vets for vaccinations, castration, spays and health testing over the last 8 years or so.
In fact when I took the last one in to be hip and elbow scored just before Christmas my vet was pulling my leg about the fact that he never sees me or my dogs - and long may that last!!!!!!!!
I do however have a fair amount of savings put away in a Building Society which is the dog fund for emergencies.
Mine aren`t insured either, when I first got cindy insurance was in its infancy (at least I hadn`t heard of it) and now she`s almost 13 it`d cost an arm and a leg to insure her.
CJ was insured when I first got him but after a mix up in the 2nd year (my fault) it went pear shaped and I didn`t bother renewing.
It really depends whether you have a secret stash as Jill has described above.
I've also got 6, the youngest being just 3.5 months, the oldest 7 in March.
I too was blase at never having made a claim until last year when Hally had her neck problem - the cost of the X-rays, MRI and surgery came to not far off £2.5K.
This sum is equal to around 4 years premiums for ALL my dogs - and more than the monthly premium for one dog for their entire projected 12 years.
I don't have money stashed away, and no-one I can borrow that sort of money from - the ONLY alternative would have been to put an otherwise healthy dog to sleep.
She made a full recovery within two weeks of the surgery and has never looked back.
So - in my book, yes, I believe insurance is essential.
Well, I do not have dog health insurance but mine are what the insurance companies classifies as working dogs i.e they are worked on shoots so pretty much none of the companies would insure them anyway plus I've got nine dogs which would probably cost a small fortune.
I think pet health insurance is not a bad thing providing the small print is studied very, very carefully and chosen very careful too. An alternative to the insurance could be to take the £55 every month and stick it in a cash ISA for your own emergency vet fund - that is what I do.
Natasha
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WLF All the Way!!!!
"Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can´t eat it or hump it. **** on it and walk away..."
Like Sue - I made a claim of £2k+ for cataract surgery, hence whilst I begrudge the fact that my premiums are now £22 a month, I appreciate that the insurance company (Directline) will never make it's money back on Zadie.
I took out insurance when we got Poppy last year and was so glad we did when we discovered she had hip dysplasia at 6months of age. Now we have Smudge we have also covered her, fingers crossed though that her hips will be okay! I had thought that we might have had more of a discount for insuring 2 dogs with the same company, but not so... Still my problem is if I wanted to change insurers I might have a problem as Poppy is receiving therapy for her hip which is an ongoing thing.
If I couldn't afford insurance I think I too would try and put money away each months as an emergency fund, in fact if we get a third dog some time in the future I might consider doing just that once they have got through their first year and hopefully any hip problems, etc., don't seem to be evident.
I've just renewed mine today and I wouldn't be without it. Like Sue I don't have a secret savings account and can't afford to put money by each month to make one - the £20 and £15 a month I pay for Meg and Mole would not give me enough savings to pay for much at all. So for me, it's a definate yes for the insurance.
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