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pet insurance

post #1 of 18
12/16/06 at 6:27pm
Thread Starter 
does anyone have insurance on their cats? I am thinking of going thru petinsurance.com because of my experience with Twinkie (paid over 1200 in vet bills) and am wondering if this (or others) are worthwhile. Please share experiences. thank you!
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post #2 of 18
12/16/06 at 7:34pm
After paying $800 to fix Trout earlier this year, I seriously considered getting pet insurance.

When I really thought about it and looked at the plans though...it seems, you just pay premiums and then in the event of a claim you have to pay a deductible anyway. So I decided against it, and if something should happen to her, I will use my credit card and get another job for a while to take care of the costs. The insurance seems kinda steep for me IN CASE something happens to her.

Just MO.
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post #3 of 18
12/17/06 at 2:42am
I don't recommend it since they will say that your cat has preexisting conditions (because it does) and refuse to cover anything that happens to it. This means that you not only pay the high vet bills, you also pay high premiums.
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post #4 of 18
12/17/06 at 8:03am
I looked into Insurance for Kota (my dog). All the ones I looked at want you to pay the premium and you make a claim. Well if I can afford to pay the premium then I don't need the insurance do I...lol. So it's better to just set aside a small amount every week and use that when needed.
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post #5 of 18
12/17/06 at 8:53am
I have pet insurance and wouldn't be without it, but I think policies are a bit different here in the UK than in the US (if that's where you are). I insured mine as kittens so they have no pre-existing conditions. I would have struggled big time when Magpie (bridge baby) died last year if I hadn't had it as vet bills were nearly $4000. Insurance paid it all minus deductable of $100.

Quote:
Well if I can afford to pay the premium then I don't need the insurance do I...
well paying $20 a month in premiums is rather different to paying $4000 in one go! I can afford premiums as it's a monthly amount I can budget for alongside my other bills, but I can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in one go. S'pose it depends on whether your vet will allow you to pay installments, whether you have savings or ways of earning extra money to pay off credit cards etc. as much as anything else.
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post #6 of 18
12/17/06 at 9:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbantigers View Post
I have pet insurance and wouldn't be without it, but I think policies are a bit different here in the UK than in the US (if that's where you are). I insured mine as kittens so they have no pre-existing conditions. I would have struggled big time when Magpie (bridge baby) died last year if I hadn't had it as vet bills were nearly $4000. Insurance paid it all minus deductable of $100.

well paying $20 a month in premiums is rather different to paying $4000 in one go! I can afford premiums as it's a monthly amount I can budget for alongside my other bills, but I can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in one go. S'pose it depends on whether your vet will allow you to pay installments, whether you have savings or ways of earning extra money to pay off credit cards etc. as much as anything else.

If you can afford premiums then you can afford to put the money into a savings rather than buying the insurance and taking a chance that it may not pay for something specific. That way your not waiting for them to process your claim either. The money is right there.
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post #7 of 18
12/17/06 at 9:22am
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Originally Posted by SalemWitchChild View Post
If you can afford premiums then you can afford to put the money into a savings rather than buying the insurance and taking a chance that it may not pay for something specific. That way your not waiting for them to process your claim either. The money is right there.
Scully's vet bills were over $8000 earlier this year, for the $12 a month I pay in insurance for him I would have been a long time saving yo cover that cost, as it was I paid $800 (there was several visits with deductables, would have been cheaper had everything been billed at once)
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post #8 of 18
12/17/06 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbantigers View Post
I have pet insurance and wouldn't be without it, but I think policies are a bit different here in the UK than in the US (if that's where you are). I insured mine as kittens so they have no pre-existing conditions. I would have struggled big time when Magpie (bridge baby) died last year if I hadn't had it as vet bills were nearly $4000. Insurance paid it all minus deductable of $100.

well paying $20 a month in premiums is rather different to paying $4000 in one go! I can afford premiums as it's a monthly amount I can budget for alongside my other bills, but I can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in one go. S'pose it depends on whether your vet will allow you to pay installments, whether you have savings or ways of earning extra money to pay off credit cards etc. as much as anything else.
Indeed. We have our pet insurance with Marks and Spencer, pay no deductible and insurance on both kittens is about £15 a month.
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post #9 of 18
12/17/06 at 10:47am
British and Canadian pet insurance is MUCH better than American. PetsBest is the only American company that might be good, but it's only in a few states. Others are ripoff artists; you pay the premiums and they claim EVERY condition as a pre-existing one. That is what happened to me with Gizmo.
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post #10 of 18
12/17/06 at 10:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SalemWitchChild View Post
If you can afford premiums then you can afford to put the money into a savings rather than buying the insurance and taking a chance that it may not pay for something specific. That way your not waiting for them to process your claim either. The money is right there.
It would take rather a long time to build up $4000 from $20 a month though! That's the problem. If you can guarantee a cat will hold off being ill until you've saved up enough money, fine - but unfortunately it doesn't always work like that! I received from my insurance company more money than I'd paid in over the years for Magpie - a lot more. The risk you take with any kind of insurance is that you may never claim and the premiums paid are therefore lost money. For me I'm buying peace of mind and the knowledge that if either of my cats are ill I can pay for their treatment. That's worth $20 a month.
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post #11 of 18
12/17/06 at 11:36am
you insured your cats when they were kittens so add up the costs after ten or fifteen years--it's a gamble that the companies are willing to take.

I wish we could get marks and sparks policies here.
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post #12 of 18
12/17/06 at 11:52am
Coincidently, my husband and I were discussing whether or not to get insurance for our cats. Here is an article that he came across.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...Insurance.aspx
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post #13 of 18
12/17/06 at 12:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by icklemiss21 View Post
Scully's vet bills were over $8000 earlier this year, for the $12 a month I pay in insurance for him I would have been a long time saving yo cover that cost, as it was I paid $800 (there was several visits with deductables, would have been cheaper had everything been billed at once)
I am just curious..........what was wrong with Scully that would possibly cost $8,000 last year I can't even imagine.
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post #14 of 18
12/17/06 at 1:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmocat View Post
you insured your cats when they were kittens so add up the costs after ten or fifteen years--it's a gamble that the companies are willing to take.

I wish we could get marks and sparks policies here.
Is pet insurance not a very big thing in America? I've read a lot of people's posts where they mention having to pay loads for treatment. Over here pretty much every major insurer also offers pet insurance and they even have ads for it on the telly.
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post #15 of 18
12/17/06 at 4:10pm
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Originally Posted by Slave2_Ragdolls View Post
I am just curious..........what was wrong with Scully that would possibly cost $8,000 last year I can't even imagine.
When we got him he weighed 33lbs so he has very regular vet visits concerning his diet (for health reasons he needed to lose more then the recommended per month so regular vet checks were needed)
Then we found a very large lump on him that required many tests and surgery and of course follow up visits. Then we found a second lump that turned out to be just fatty tissue.
Then while he was getting over surgery, he had an infected tooth that needed pulling.
Plus the cost of shots, senior panel etc
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post #16 of 18
12/17/06 at 6:31pm
Thread Starter 
I had pet insurance for a total of 3 hours last night! I had buyers remorse and decided to cancel.

The reason I cancelled was because upon thread search I found that a woman's premium almost doubled when her cat turned 10.

Also, my fiance pointed out that insurance is good for things that you couldn't possibly afford (ie house burning down, major surgery and med expenses) and most vet bills I can swing.

Just thought I'd update! I don't think it's that great of a deal just from the stories here on TCS.
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post #17 of 18
12/18/06 at 1:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wickedkitten View Post
Is pet insurance not a very big thing in America? I've read a lot of people's posts where they mention having to pay loads for treatment. Over here pretty much every major insurer also offers pet insurance and they even have ads for it on the telly.
There does seem to be a big difference, doesn't there? Like you say, insurance is very popular over here and I'd recommend anyone in the UK get it. But it does depend on getting a good policy and even over here people can be lured by low initial premiums into taking out policies that have lots of exclusions. It's also important to take it out when they are little so that insurers can't pull the pre-exisiting condition card (difficult with rescue cats obviously). When Magpie was ill the vet suggested giving him a new drug to disperse his blood clot which would have cost £400 a time and he would need several - so that would have been another £2000 there if he hadn't deteriorated before they could do that. That made me very relieved I have insurance as up until then I suppose I'd always assumed I'd just manage and that the chances of them being seriously ill were quite low. It made me realise that a cat can become seriously ill and need expensive emergency care at any time. I guess the bottom line is not so much whether you have insurance but thinking about how you would pay for treatment if that kind of thing happened. So long as you have an adequate savings plan then that is a viable alternative. I just know I'm hopeless at saving and would end up dipping into such a savings fund when I needed money for my car etc.
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post #18 of 18
12/18/06 at 3:17am
If any of you American members who are considering pet insurance will PM me, I can give you an earful about why it's a really bad idea.
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