Pet insurance!

[~max~]

Hi all! I am picking up my little kitten Jess on thursday (thanks to Smudge for the name!), and will bring her to the vet the next day for her injections and check up. I am now wondering if pet insurance is really necessary, as she will be an indoor cat only. Secondly, if I am going to take up insurance for her, do you have recommendations? I have been quoted �3.39 per month by Tesco online, which seems fairly good value....I couldn't find any that has a no excess policy, as it seems they all have a �50 excess. Does anyone have some advice please?

[Kleiber]

I'll probably get slated for this, but personally, I think pet insurance is a waste of money. I'd rather put a set amount away every month, in a bank savings account, to cover for emergencies. Most of the pet insurance companies have so much small print, that you're lucky if you ever get paid out on a claim. My old GSD had to be castrated when he was 12 yrs old, because he had a benign tumour. I had so much hassle from Pet Plan ("We don't pay for neutering" "I know, but this is for medical reasons, not social or cosmetic..." - "We don't pay for neutering" - I got so exasperated in the end!!). I'd had that dog insured with them since he was 4 months old & had never claimed a penny! I asked if they had a no claims discount, for people like me, but was told that if they did that then people wouldn't take their animals to the vet. What a load of rubbish - people like that wouldn't even bother to get their pets insured! To be honest, the only animal I'd insure now would be a horse.

[garner]

I also agree with kleiber some of them cause you more hassle than the pets.I have a weekly amount put away and have never had to put extra towards any vet bills.It pays for boosters, flea and worming treatments and should an emergency crop up would cover that, unless of course it was a massive bill in which case I would go to any lenghts to get the money for my pets.You will have to be firm with yourself and not touch the money ect if you know what I mean, but in the end its up to you which way you wish to go.

[~max~]

Thank you for your replies! I think I will go for the �3.39 one, as it is quite cheap and will give me peace of mine, should Jess deveolp a condition that requires ongoing treatment (touch wood she won't!).

[Illyria54]

I have to say that in the past I haven't bothered with pet insurance, but with the dogs I have now I took it out straight away, and 'boy' am I glad I did, in the Summer 1 of my dogs was bitten by a snake (an Adder), it was a Sunday he was in the vets on a drip for 5 hours, we almost lost him, initially it cost us just under �500, we claimed on our insurance and got �450 back! So I will always have pet insurance now.

[otisredding]

Oh I so agree. Even an indoor cat can become ill, have an accident or develop a problem. I have always had pet insurance since we had problems with our GSD years and years ago. He developed a chronic illness and to be honest we just couldn't afford to keep buying the very expensive medication for him every month , I feel dreadful saying that, even now - in the end we had to make the decision to give him sleep, if we had had insurance it could well have been a different outcome for him at least he would have maybe had a few more years with us and I made up my mind then I would always have insurance cover. I have never regretted it either, we have made several claims over the last few years too with our pets, one way and another. Our Cairn Terrier has had �3,000 worth of cruciate operations and I would never have put away that much money. on a weekly basis.