Pet Insuance

[Miss B]

The poll is a bit ambiguous, lol.

I chose 'No' for the first question but then had to select a company in the second question. I selected, 'Other - Please elaborate'.

[Danois]

Instead of buying insurance, I pay into the vet's account each fortnight.

Sorry - still confused! I pay $500 a year and get up to $12,000 a year in cover ($6k accident/ $6k illness).

This would mean me paying $1,000 a month into an account to equal the level of cover that my insurance provides.

[Miss B]

We've never bothered to set money aside specifically for vet bills. If our animals require treatment, we just pay for it out of our bank account.

I have the RACQ add on pet policy, attached to my contents insurance. It is only $50 a year/dog, but covers accidents/ sickness up to $500 per event, with no cap on the amount of 'events' per year.

As far as pet insurance goes, that sounds pretty reasonable!

[Sheridan]

Instead of buying insurance, I pay into the vet's account each fortnight.

Sorry - still confused! I pay $500 a year and get up to $12,000 a year in cover ($6k accident/ $6k illness).

This would mean me paying $1,000 a month into an account to equal the level of cover that my insurance provides.

One of my dogs is ineligible for insurance and the other has no health issues thus far. Insurance is fine if you can afford the premium upfront. I can't.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Sheridan

[Rebanne]

I couldn't find any that didn't require you give yearly vaccinations

[storm]

One thing to take into account StaceyB is that the insurance will not cover any pre-existing conditions that Gypsy had prior to taking out the policy.

I am a fan of Insurance as I got it for Angs when he was only 10 weeks old so everything is covered - I have claimed back around $3,000 in the past year. It is worth noting that most of the policies have a per illness cap - so while I am covered for $6,000 of illness every premium year, there is actually a $6,000 limit on each illness for the life of the policy.

May I ask what plan, company insurance you have please?

[Danois]

Storm - I am with the RSPCA policy. They refund 80%.

[storm]

Storm - I am with the RSPCA policy. They refund 80%.

Thank you, there are so many. I am thinking of getting insurance for my new puppy

[wagsalot]

I personally think pet insurance is a bit of a rip off as they always seem to get out paying out via some clause in the terms and conditions.

Instead of paying pet insurance I have a ING account set up which I put a certain amount in per week. Its there earning good interest, and is there for emergencies.

[havahug]

Ok so far I am seeing maybe RSPCA insurance as being the best any new ideas as we want to insure our new import

[katbod]

I moved here from England recently so I know about Pet Plan but don't really know about the others. Looking around though Pet Plan does seem to be best still IF you can afford it! I was with a different company in England but it doesn't exist here so no point telling you about them! The benefits of Pet Plan over all the others I've seen are that they don't pay up to a limited amount for ongoing illnesses. So for example if your dog develops diabetes, most insurance companies will give you up to x amount and then stop paying for that particular problem, whereas Pet Plan will give you whatever the maximum amount per year is regardless of whether you claimed for that problem last year.

The other nice thing about Pet Plan over the others is that they'll cover alternative therapies like acupuncture and I haven't seen any others that do that. I also know that they're good at paying up when you make a claim.

But they are probably the most expensive for those reasons so it depends on how much you can afford and what level of cover your comfortable with getting.

[SammyZ]

I have pet insurance with Pet Plan for my cat but not for Angel. Any animals I get in the future will have insurance. I just figure for such a small amount it is a buffer that I feel more comfortable having.

Bec.

[katbod]

Aside from health reasons it's good to have insurance so you get third party liability. E.g. your dog runs across a road (hopefully not getting hurt themselves!) and causes a car accident (though of course we all hope that's never going to happen). If you're sued for that the insurance company will cover it.

[Danois]

I personally think pet insurance is a bit of a rip off as they always seem to get out paying out via some clause in the terms and conditions.

Instead of paying pet insurance I have a ING account set up which I put a certain amount in per week. Its there earning good interest, and is there for emergencies.

I have called extensively on my policy for the best part of 15 months and I have never had one thing turned down other than some medication and that was because I had already claimed $1,200 worth of medication this policy period.

I paid $470 odd for the policy for this year - I claimed $1,200 in meds, at least that in consults and more again in bloods etc - probably around $4,000 all up. No way would I have have got that value out of the $45 a month I paid in premiums if I had put it into an account.

[baker_girl]

I researched almost any pet insurer I could find and I found that Pet Plan was the only one I could find that rebates 100% of the bill after the $100 excess. You pay an excess per claim however only once per illness or condition.

The only clause I could find with Pet Plan was you needed to keep up annual vacs but not dental check ups as another poster has said? With select or special breeds I recall you paid a slightly higher premium...I think.

[smooch]

I have Smooch with Pet Health Plan with Insuranceline. As I am a pensioner I wouldn't been able to pay the vet bills for Smooch when he had a Fibrocartilagenous Embolism. My vet bill was well over $4000. this happened 3 months after taking out insurance and it has well and truly paid for itself.