I wish I could tell you that it's a waste of money! (Pet insurance)

Member Name: SueMagee

Product:	Pet insurance
Date:	25/07/05 (6455 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cover for illness, injury and disease.

Disadvantages: A good policy can be expensive, but a cheap policy will be a waste of money.

You’ve paid for the dog, or the cat, or the rabbit. Then you have to buy a basket or a hutch and all the bedding. After that you have to pay for food and water bowls and the first supply of food. You’ll have spent money on a collar and lead if you’ve bought a dog and usually there’s a toy or two so that energy is channelled in the right direction. Quite a considerable sum of money will already have been spent and it’s no wonder that a lot of people think that pet insurance is an area where they can save money, either by buying a cheap policy or forgetting about it entirely.

Once you have chosen your pet the most important decision you can make is your choice of insurance policy. Getting it wrong can seriously damage your financial health and in extreme cases might affect the health of your pet. Having made your choice it’s not always easy to change if your pet has had any health problems as these are generally not covered under a new policy.

We have two dogs. Rosie and Kia are both well-bred Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Before they came to us we saw their parents and checked their pedigrees. Within days of their arrival they were seen by a vet and declared to be sound. Since then they’ve been carefully looked after, well fed and appropriately exercised.

Last year I paid my vet over £3000 and this year it will probably be more than £4000.

There is no NHS for pets. If your animal needs treatment you will have to pay the full economic cost unless you qualify for help from one of the animal charities and most people do not. I currently pay £14 for a straightforward consultation with my vet. A short course of antibiotics can easily be £30 and I recently paid over £200 for x-rays. In one dreadful weekend last year an emergency operation and hospitalisation cost over £1000.

So what’s wrong with the cheaper insurance policies? Well, some of them will only pay in respect of any illness, injury or disease for the first twelve months after diagnosis. This will be fine if you’ve popped a dog along to the vet to have a couple of stitches in a cut paw, although you will probably find that the charge is below the excess which you have to pay for each condition and none of the costs are reclaimable. If the problem is of longer duration then you might find yourself having to meet some serious expenses.

My younger dog, Kia, was diagnosed as having hip dysplasia when she was two years old. This has caused arthritis in both hip joints. Fortunately the problem was spotted early, by x-ray, and she is receiving drug treatment at a cost of about £20 a month. We hope to be able to avoid hip replacement operations which would currently cost about £1500 for each hip. She is now nearly four years old and if our policy was with Tesco, Churchill, Direct Line Essential policy or Paws our cover for this condition would long have expired. I would be having to pay for the drugs myself and would be able to expect no help whatsoever if one or more operations are necessary.

You might think that a problem of this nature is unusual but I’m afraid it isn’t. It’s also not unusual for dogs to have diabetes, thyroid problems or heart ailments all of which require life-time treatment.

Some policies are slightly more generous. They set a limit of how much you can claim in respect of each problem, but don’t impose a time limit. Sainsburys, More Than, Pet Healthcare Services and Direct Line Advanced Policy all come within this category. For a condition that’s diagnosed late in life the allowance – typically a few thousand pounds – may be adequate, but any treatment a younger animal requires will eat away quite quickly at a lifetime’s total.

Last year my older dog, Rosie, required two major operations because of stomach problems. She was diagnosed as having eosinophilic enteritis and we paid out more than £2000. This year she had further tests to establish which foods she’s allergic to and she periodically requires on-going treatment. With some policies I would have used her lifetime allowance already despite the vet’s hope that this is a problem she’ll die with rather than of.

All policies have an excess – the amount which you must pay yourself when you make a claim. This will vary according to the animal’s age and where you live so I won’t attempt to make direct comparisons. There is a point which you should bear in mind though. Some policies – E&L Bronze is one – impose the excess for each claim, whilst others, such as Petplan only charge an excess for each condition in the year.

Rosie is rather poorly at the moment. She has a serious problem with her spine and this has required pain relief, x-rays and more antibiotics than you can shake a stick at. I seem to be at the vet’s at least once a fortnight and if my bill is less than £100 I’m surprised. Because my policy has an excess for each condition rather than each claim I can make a claim each month without being out of pocket.

Few policies cover alternative therapies or preventative treatment, such as annual jabs. A friend’s dog requires prescription food at the cost of £50 a fortnight to prevent the formation of crystals in his urine. It’s not covered by her M&S policy after the first two weeks. Petplan would not refund any part of the cost as I found to my cost when Kia had a similar problem.

Kia’s hip problems will get worse if they remain untreated. She has drug help to improve the joints, we watch her weight and she has hydrotherapy treatment twice a week. The swimming has made her into a much fitter dog and muscles over her hips which were wasting away are now impressive. Rosie swims because of the problems with her spine. She can exercise without putting pressure on her back. Unfortunately I can’t claim for this as I’m with Petplan, but if I was with M&S I would be able to claim at least part of the expense.

Most policies also have added extras – cover for advertising and rewards if your pet goes missing, public liability insurance if your pet causes an accident, kennel fees if the owner is hospitalised and a death benefit. They vary from policy to policy and you should look at each item to see if it covers your needs.

It’s a minefield, isn’t it? When you’re looking for a policy you should be looking for the following:

- A reasonable level of veterinary fees. It’s not difficult to spend a couple of thousand pounds in an emergency and I’d regard this as a minimum cover.

- Look for “cover for life”. There should be no monetary or time limit on a claim for each condition. You should be able to start again each policy year and be limited only by the total vet’s fees you can claim.

- Ensure that the excess you pay is per condition and not per claim.

- If you think you’re likely to use alternative therapies enquire about this before you take the policy out.

Recommendations

Policies constantly change but my current favourites are the Marks and Spencer plan provided by AXA and Petplan, a subsidiary of Cornhill insurance. Both have reasonable levels of cover and I can vouch for good customer service from both insurers.

Summary: Read any policy carefully to ensure that you undersatnd what you're getting.