Why's dog insurance gone up so much? =(

[DLowe]

Well its the upsetting time of year again - the time when I moved into the house and all the bills need re-newing..

most have remained the same, as i have not claimed on anything - but the bloody dog insurance has gone up from £31 to £49 a month!!!

with Tesco, pumped the info in online and it goes to £95!!!!!! for the same cover

Confused.CON dont bring anything from "well known" company out until £35/month EACH!

what the hells going on? I know the breeds can be "funny" to insure (Bullmastiff and American Bulldog) but this takes the piss when they are advertising it from £6.50/month

token picture & Links...



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[Clouder_sx]

£49 a month!!!!!!! It's cheaper to insure my 182 twice over. That's utter, utter madness!!

[DLowe]

Oh yes its now by far the most expensive insurance bill I have, infact only the mortguage and council tax out do it...

[Steve_20085]

How old are they? When my last one hit 10 years old it nearly doubled!

My new dog is a bit of a funny breed and a few people didn't want to know due to him being crossed with an Inuit wolf.
Tescos are doing it for £12 a month which I'm pretty happy with.

[Clouder_sx]

Would actually put me off owning a dog tbh a bit different once you have them, obviously, but I assumed £15/month would be asking a lot..

[DLowe]

theyre 3 (Bulldog) + 4 (Bullmastiff)

I'm tempted to list them as "cross breeds" see if it comes up cheaper, but im assuming it will screw things up should I need a claim.... tho they arn't KC regestered

[Prior]

Is pet insurance actually worth it?

I mean over a standard lifetime of a dog your paying nearly £6k at £35 a month. Even the most expensive operation like a double hip replacement is £8k and you need to stop up £2.5k personally as part of the costs.

[The Big Yin]

Pet insurance is way worth it.
Over the past 3 years we have been 8k in bills for our westie. That is not including the ongoing cost of medication for her.
OUr cat a couple of years back was a 3k operation and last year was another 2k.

I think people who don't take pet insurance are taking a massive risk.

[Steve_20085]

Is pet insurance actually worth it?

I mean over a standard lifetime of a dog your paying nearly £6k at £35 a month. Even the most expensive operation like a double hip replacement is £8k and you need to stop up £2.5k personally as part of the costs.

I wouldn't be without mate, my last dog needed 2 operations within 7 months of each other total cost being £8k ish, it's £12 a month I don't even think about, most people can afford a monthly fee but if you'd of asked me for £8k up front there's no chance.

You could say the same with contents insurance, £25 a month you don't even think about, my parents have been paying home insurance for 35ish years and never used it. I dread to think what its cost them in total, probably a hell of a lot more than buying all new goods if they did get burgled.

[Prior]

I guess ive been lucky that both my springer spaniels have only needed standard prescriptions in old age or £100 minor ops to remove fleadarts from their ears.

[Steve_20085]

My parents last dog (springer as well) was 16 and died of old age. They've never had to use their insurance either, it's just one of those things I guess, after my last one costing as much as he did I'd never be without it.

[dhracer]

Christ, I thought our cats were expensive (~£30 a month for the three of them!)

[Dan@DB-Power]

I only have dog insurance on our little one because Clare's brother who was looking after him over our holiday was so concerned, so it put him at ease.

When it ends we will just put money aside for any conditions. Although if it's anything serious then he will get put down as I wouldn't want to put an animal through a major op

[-ghost-]

I stopped with pet insurance due to the fact it was just going up and up and up.

Quite a few years ago my old dog jumped off small monument when she got lost and broke a piece of her shoulder off. The insurance company wanted to use a different vets which didn't seem right imo. the vet then told us from the xrays she had a form of bone cancer. we was about to have her put down took the xrays and results to our normal vet to have the dog put down where the vet wasn't so sure booked us in with another vet she knew the day after who said that the xrays was normal for bones that had had trauma and that the small piece of bone would need to come out. So operated the same day cost £600+tablets, scans and tests so less than a grand in total. Phoned the insurance company who said they wouldn't pay out due to she had bone cancer and it was on going :S

She lived another 5 years so a bit of a limp but had no pain and had a good life. Now I have 3 dogs the older one got to 8 and the insurance went right up. so now I don't bother now I just put some cash away monthly for a rainy day.

[sideways14a]

Dog insurance has rocketed recently because of the bad winter weather 12 or so months back.
A dog,while essentially 4pd, has a heavy rear drive bias and when things were real slippy you would see a lot of dogs in hedges and ditches.
There was also a large amount of young newbies loosing control on kitchen floors and over steering into the kitchen tables causing untold damage to crockery and stuff.

Cats also have been hit with an increase but not as much as dogs, a cat has less of a rear bias and can gain traction better on linoleum but the increase in premiums has come from owners claiming for cuts and bruises more (ambulance chasers) when there fluffies take a chunk out of them for being moved from the fireplace.

[Jeff]

I doubt claims experience has changed much for pet insurers, so the increase in cost is probably largely down to the poor(ish) performance of the stock market and the economy in general.

[dow]

Pet Insurance? But you can get a new dog for only a few hundred for most breeds, or free if you don't care what sort of animal it is... What the hell? I mean, these are just pets you're talking about aren't they? You're not breeding the next crufts champions or a future One Man and His Dog hero here I assume?

You do actually understand that if an operation to save your dog is going to cost a lot of money, there is always a cheaper alternative?

[Johnny]

You do actually understand that if an operation to save your dog is going to cost a lot of money, there is always a cheaper alternative?

buy it back off the insurance company and fix it yourself ?

[Clint]

Pet Insurance? But you can get a new dog for only a few hundred for most breeds, or free if you don't care what sort of animal it is... What the hell? I mean, these are just pets you're talking about aren't they? You're not breeding the next crufts champions or a future One Man and His Dog hero here I assume?

You do actually understand that if an operation to save your dog is going to cost a lot of money, there is always a cheaper alternative?

That's really not the point though Dow. I have two pitbull crosses who I can't get insured in Ireland due to their breed, but anything that's happened to them in the past I've always found the money from somewhere to get them fixed up.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who considers their pets to be part of the family, and that you'd do anything for them.

[Ralz]

I think it is because people keep crashing them so the risk index has gone up