Wow - Pet Insurance

[Red Fox]

I've just taken out a PIA policy, Accident and Illness. I'm paying $37.60 per month for $15,000 cover with a $100 excess per condition. They also pay 100% of the bill rather than 80% like a lot of other policies I looked at.

Any pet insurer who pays 100% of the bill also charges a $100 excess, unlike insurers who pay out 80%, and who don't charge an excess at all.

So things like ear infections, hotspots etc, a vet visit won't be much more than $100 if that, which means you aren't going to get much back if anything, if you are required to pay a $100 excess.

However if your insurer pays out 80%, you get to claim on every vet visit and get most of your money back.

You need to work out the sort of cover that will suit you best. It's horses for courses.

Very true. For me, the policy is for the expensive things like Chemo or surgery. If a vet bill came to $100 for an ear infection I wouldn't even worry about the insurance but for surgery or treatment that came to $5000, then I know I am only going to pay $100, rather than $1000 with a policy that only pays 80%.

I'm with PIA, same cover and chose it for the same reason. We've had 2 claims over 2 years. First was paid out within 48 hours, the second was over the Christmas period and took a little longer (around 3 weeks I think). I've found them very easy to deal with

[aussielover]

I've heard good things about RSPCA as well.

Unlike some of the others where its like getting blood out of a stone...

[D4DOGZ]

We have Ins with RSPCA ( petsure ) for our three, currently $118.00 per month.

We have the 80% cover, and have claimed on all three dogs.

A 100% cover would have been good last year when buster had the two snake bites 5 days apart as he went over his limit and the second bill was over $2600 we only got back a little over $1200.

But the money was in our account approx 10 days after the paperwork was sent in, so i was pretty happy with that.

[SeeGee]

Yea have actually just reviewed the rspca, the limit is not as generous as Medibank for Charlie.

[PeiLuvR]

I have not had pet insurance for any of my dogs. I guess i don't really know enough about the type of cover you can get. But i will definately be getting it for my next dog/shar pei. I hav spent so much on my Millie Millon Dollar Baby, and i will spend whatever is neccesary. My Vet actually mentioned Pet Insurance Australia to me.

[shelby-001]

Ok guys, I think I've decided it's going to be medibank pvt...... for us they appear to offer the best cover.

Gold paws is what we will go with ($15000 per year accident and illness + $165 per year routine care), the silver is only $9.50 cheaper per month but you lose $3000 off A&I per year and forgo the routine care completely. Also the tick treatment value is less.

Equivalent cover from companies like Bow Wow Meow, PIA, Pet Plan, 1300Insurance and RSPCA (who are all under written by Petsure) were from $6-$11 per animal more per month for the closest equivalent cover they had.

Obviously everyone wants something different from their insurance so different policies will suit different people, but that's the one we were happiest with.