Pet insurance recommendation advice Post Reply

[Pomegranate]

Wondering if anyone could give me some advice about pet insurance. We have a 3 yr old cockapoo who is good health but for no particular reason, other than we probably didn't get around to it, we don't have pet insurance. Could anyone tell me firstly, is it worth doing? My husband says that he has read that it is absolutely is not and self insuring is better. If it is worth doing, what company would be a trustworthy one to go with. Much appreciated.

[AHW]

I know plenty of people who just put money into an account every month in lieu of insuring, and if you are lucky, that will really work well. However, in our case, that wouldn't have touched the sides of what it cost - our retriever had cancer at 18 months, and the diagnosis/specialists cost upwards of £4k, and then her chemo was £500 a month (and that was 4 years ago so would be more now, I'm sure).

She has subsequently had a diagnosis of a degenerative spinal disease, and we are about £8k down for that (scans/x-rays/specialist visits/spinal blockers).  I accept that we have been unlucky, but with the cost of vet treatment increasing every year, you can very quickly have large bills for fairly mundane issues.

We have been with Tesco Pet Insurance since her puppy insurance ran out, and they are brilliant. She is now almost 9, and I am paying £160 a month, but she is on medication that is currently costing c. £100 a month, and has been for some time - and my premiums barely moved last year.  They are extremely helpful on the phone and the payment of bills is all through their website and extremely quick and efficient. I bought lifetime cover and bought £7500 a year - which wasn't quite enough in one year; I wish I'd gone for the £15k - but as I said, she has been very unlucky.