Careful, now. (Animal Insurance in general)

Member Name: The Operator

Product:	Animal Insurance in general
Date:	16/06/01 (466 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: May cost you a fortune

Disadvantages: Ditto

Until about 10 years ago, pet insurance was relatively unheard of. Now it seems that everyone's offering some form of protection against the escalating costs of veterinary care.

Although I can only speak for cat owners, we own three of the little furry monsters and each one is insured, I would imagine the following is pretty standard for any species.
We've had some fun with insurance companies so I thought I'd just set down a few pointers before you rush headlong into the first policy you see.
These are in no particular order as they are all of equal importance.

Consider the age of your pet. A good age to start insuring your pet is birth. The older it gets the higher the premium. For cats, once past 8 or 10 you are looking at serious money to start a policy and you will either have to shop around as there are bargains out there or, you may have to consider upping your excess or limiting the amount of cover.
Don't laugh either at things like third party liability cover. If Fido runs out in front of a car and the car goes through the jewellers window as a result, you may be glad of it. Likewise if Tiddles gets stuck inside your neighbour's cavity wall and he has to have the side of his house demolished in order for her to be recovered. These things happen!

If you have claimed for an ailment during one insurance year you may find yourself unable to claim under your policy for any similar ailments in following years. You will though normally be allowed to claim for the original one if it is an ongoing complaint and requires long term medication. Again, companies vary in the kind of cover available for this eventuality so as always, shop around.

DO read your policy terms and conditions very very closely indeed. Pay special attention to the part about notifying the insurers about any pending claim. In the turmoil surrounding the fluffy one's illness, this can be easily overlooked. 'Phone them a
nd back that up with a letter to make sure. If they're on the web, e-mail them, too. Insurance companies will do anything to avoid paying you a penny and if you've not followed the claims procedure to the letter, they will have you. I know!

This also goes for minor ailments - Inform them even if you think it's not worth it as these can sometimes mushroom into bigger complaints. One of my cats had a small ulcer on his eye. It wasn't the first and is usually treated successfully with an anti-biotic cream. This one snowballed into almost a year of treatment involving two operations, myriads of various creams and lotions and the prospect of lifelong treatment. Some insurers require you to keep them informed every 90 days or so in such cases - make sure you do it.

When making a claim, think about the amount of excess you have. Providing treatment is finished, if you have say £40 excess, don't bother with a claim for £50. For the sake of £10, you may prejudice similar claims and probably end up increasing your premiums substantially the next year.

Keep your pets' vaccinations up to date. This should go without saying but again, this may be a condition of your cover. There are a couple of policies out there which will make a contribution to vaccination costs although there will probably be penalties involved elsewhere.

Last but not least, keep your documents handy. You don't want to be 'phoning round every known insurer trying to find out if you're with them for the sake of £1 ring binder from the pound shop!

Good Luck!

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