The Schnauzer Forum

Hello,

We are shortly due to collect our new miniature 'Henry' and would appreciate please advice as to where to go to find the most appropriate insurance for his well being.

Thank you,
Steve

I have used Animal Friends and they have been good but chose Lifetime Cover for Otto after doing some research. One claim so far and they responded exactly as expected. Might be better to ask whether anyone would not recommend a particular company.

We have both Oscar and Sasha on PetPlan, again on lifetime cover. It's great because our vet deals directly with PetPlan so no paying for bills first then claiming back and I have to be honest, PetPlan have been good. Oscar had an over-night stay in the animal hospital when he was around 5 months old with a constant sickness and diarrhoea and he just could not keep anything down. I think in the end the bill came to £1,300 but we didn't need to pay anything.

Saying that, it's not cheap. I think we pay around £43 pcm for Oscar and £42 for Sasha - I was told by PetPlan that dogs are slightly more expensive to insure than bitches.

Someone I bumped into a little while ago told me that they didn't insure their dogs but instead put the monthly premium into an ISA for them - so that if they did need to pay vet bills, in theory they would have the money and if they didn't need to pay out, they had some savings.

Personally I prefer the comfort of having the insurance but up to you

How strange I was speaking to someone last week who said they put what they would pay for insurance into an isa and only have 3rd party insurance on the dogs. I have pet plan for team schnauzer and the welsh terrier and sainsbury for Mahri the a'dale. I used to have Elle with them but they put the price up so much because she developed skin issues I moved her to pet plan where her skin is not covered but it was a lot cheaper. Just for comparison Mahri broke a canine recently my vet referred me to a dog dentist( sharp intake of breath I know it will be expensive). The dog dentist dealt with sainsbury for a pre authorisation the cost could be anything from £1625 to £2133. referal consult fee is £201.00 then all the costs for the treatment make up the rest. Sainsbury were very good 2 days to issue the code and accept the claim.
I have used john lewis insurance for one of my airedales. they were very good he got thyroid cancer and they were first class at dealing with the on going claim for his meds for 2 years. I used equine and ? I can't remember now they change their name regularly my vet won't deal with them because they were so bad at paying claims. If you get cheap insurance imho you will have a problem getting claims paid. I think on that occasion my young dog broke her leg falling down a hole and had to have emergency treatment. The insurance company tried to say the claim could not be covered as I did not have a pre authorisation code for the operation. We had words and my vet was paid eventually.

I'm with Bought by Many who have some interesting options but at the end of the day you only ever know how good company is when you need to claim.
I posted some stuff about them on another insurance thread.

Petplan are a well established insurance company who do deal direct with a number of vet surgeries which can make claiming much more straightforward if you do need to claim. However, you are best checking out a range of companies for prices, what exclusions there are (what you will still have to pay for), how much the excess will be and consider the benefits of going for a lifetime policy and whether making a claim will automatically result in higher premiums or even exclude claims for a particular ailment in the future.

We do not insure our own dogs, but, as mentioned above, put aside money in an account for if and when needed and have over the past decade been "in pocket" as regards savings over expenditure.. Our ten dogs range in age from two years old to nearly eleven. To date vet treatments have been few and far between and the most costly have been not those covered by general insurance anyway. We are in a different position to many on the Forum however as seven of our ten dogs have been bred by us so we are confident in their health and fitness and family history of good health.

I would recommend people to insure at least for the first year of the puppy's life though as, if you are going to put money aside, you would not have had time to accumulate a decent sum and puppies are more likely to be at risk of illness due to their immune system still developing and possibly their enthusiasm for getting into mischief.

For anyone looking just for third party insurance, you can get this as one of the benefits of membership of the Dogs Trust (yearly membership £25 or £12.50'for over 60s):

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involv ... ship/faqs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You should be getting 4/5 weeks free insurance when you get your puppy as most breeders will offer this so you could ask the breeder which company they are using and check them out too

That was really interesting about the dogs trust insurance I support them by sponsoring a dog and also donate to many of their fund raisers. I will now look at membership.
ref exclusions, Elle my 12yr old welsh terrier is excluded for all neurological claims, she had a fit once when she was 2 or 3 the vet said it was epilepsy. I think she ate something or had a reaction to something. It was not an epileptic fit but to this day they will not agree that it was most probably CECS the dog version of IBS. She is not covered for any skin or ear problems because she was diagnosed with eczema turns out she is allergic to fish and chicken and probably wheat. So what is she covered for? I asked myself that question last year and had decided when the renewal came round not to bother. Just weeks before the renewal date she was rushed to the vet in severe pain and from there to an eye specialist who said her eye had to be removed due to glaucoma. That little episode was just short of £5k so she remains insured now just in case the other eye goes the same way. Pet plan give me a discount for having 3 dogs insured with.

We've used More Than in the past but found renewals were getting very expensive. We have three dogs with Petplan and one with NCI (company who took over pet insurance from AXA). We have had no problems with Petplan and our dogs are all covered on Lifetime policies, we have not found the renewals to be very much, considering one of our dogs had neurological problems and a splenectomy and we hit the 7k limit for the year, renewal was about £10 more than the previous year. NCI are a different story and we are only with them because our dog has pre-existing issues and we can't move him to a different insurer. We pay around £115 excess per condition but when you've got an ongoing issue that could easily run into thousands of pounds that is quite a small price to pay. Monthly payments are around £128 total for the three with Petplan and £95 for the one with NCI. We like having the safety net of pet insurance but of course it is a personal choice and dependant on your own circumstances.

We have Rosie insured with Petplan (who are actually owned by Allianz) on their middle lifetime policy and they charge £25.06 a month. The excess is £100 a month. In other words I'm paying £300 a year against a total annual limit risk of £7,000 and ordinarily visits will be excluded due to the £100 excess .

A puppy is relatively cheap but it'll be interesting to see how the premiums are increased over time.

I have 5 dogs one a mini of 5 months. I’ve just reviewed my insurance and gone with pet emporium good premiums and lifetime cover. Before I was with direct line much poorer cover for the same price, really vet only and. Haven’t used pet emporium yet for claim so time will tell

I signed her up for Trupanion insurance on the recommendation of another owner. It's pretty simple to sign up for monthly payments and choose your deductible.

Wherever you get insurance from be sure you do get it. The idea of savings is good so long as you don't dip in and don't get a bill that's more than the savings. We had a bill for TWELVE THOUSAND POUNDS with one of our giants of which the insurance paid half. And still the dog died. We insure ours now for as much as we can afford; I hope you can do the same.

Ive been looking into insurance for Jasper. I used Morethan for Barney who were really good but the policy has slightly changed where you have to pay a percentage of the vet bill, so I've been looking at others and was 99% certain it would be Petplan. Petplan is the one he's insured with through the breeder.

I phoned them up to get a quote when I'd had the details of the months cover through. Of course there was all the faff of questions etc. At the end he said do you want to buy the policy ? I said I was looking at other companies and if he could give me a reference number I'd call back if I decided on Petplan. To which he told me he couldn't do that, I'd have to go through the whole process again of questions to get a quote (obviously trying to get me to buy on the spot). I told him I didn't mind and would call back and do it all again if I wanted to use them.

At this point I think he was sensing losing a sale and said would I hold while he spoke to his supervisor to see if there were any offers. I held. He came back offered 10% off the annual price he'd just quoted and a months free insurance. Jasper is now insured with Petplan

Insurance companies are SO annoying. It's amazing how discount is suddenly available if you give them the impression you are looking elsewhere or wanting to cancel to move elsewhere. Obviously the pet insurance side is a little different as generally anyone would take up a lifetime cover policy with an insurance company, then probably not move it.

Even so - grrrrrrrrrr

Good work though on getting your discount for Jasper