Any recommendations for cat insurance please?
Thank you
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Just bought a policy today… did a little research and
went with PetPlan. Most of the providers get a fair amount of negative feedback. One consideration is lifetime type cover option over straight forward regular offerings which won’t continue to offer insurance for an ongoing illness at renewal once an initial claim has occurred.
Hopefully other forum members will have better info as I’m still within 14 day cooling off cancellation period
100% don’t go with Petplan. Next, don’t go with Tesco Pet Insurance. They’re both a disgrace.
I’m currently with The Insurance Emporium, but haven’t had to make a claim yet.
They all seem to be award winning…
We were with John Lewis, over six/seven years made four claims, paid within a week, no obvious increases in premiums for either cat (we did query a difference, one cat 5% more expensive than the other. Black cat more of a risk than black and white).
Then they reached twelve years old. Premiums more than doubled, so we now put the money in a savings account.
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Maybe a stupid question, but what’s the reason for getting pet insurance? Seems expensive for what it covers and as @catswhiskers says you may well be better off putting the money you would have spent on premiums into savings and using this if needed.
Sainsbury’s pet insurance for the last four years, double nectar points and competitive price regarding like for like.
Not had to use them yet (thankfully), so can’t give a review on service.
We have MetLife pet Insurance for our Rottweiler (ok, not a cat). She is 11, so old for a rottie, but has developed pancreatitis and chronic hepatitis. The insurance has paid for itself with coverage of treatment and meds. Our other rottie is 4 and very healthy so we don’t have any insurance for him.
Not sure about the rest of the world but here I think you’re better off putting the money in the bank each month. We’ve never had pet insurance and from what I’ve heard from others we’re not likely too.
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A long time ago, I had five cats with in total about 35 cat-years of cat ownership (not that you ever own a cat!). In terms of vet costs there was the initial cost of speying/neutering (and possibly vaccination, though I don’t recall that). After that there was routine anti-flea treatment. I assume none of those are insurable. Otherwise to the best of my recollection the only vet bills we had were: 1) One had to be put down due to cancer. 2) Another had an accident that ripped a large area of skin half off, requiring painstaking stitching (taking well over an hour). We were lucky with the latter in finding a vet who did it more for love of animals than money - he said most vets would just put the poor thing down. 3) And there were probably about half a dozen other visits to the vet for things that were dealt with by simple medication. I doubt insurance would have been value for money unless very low cost.
Since the advent of supervets everyone wants their pet to be able to have bionic limbs if they have an accident. These things don’t come cheap.
Seriously though, a tooth extraction for a cat could be ÂŁ300, a small operation the same or more expensive. We decided we could stand that sort of cost if it was not too often rather than getting insurance. Our cat is 21 and needs thyroid medicine at the cost of about 600 per year, the cost of insurance for a 21 year old cat would be far more than that.
As with all insurance, it depends on circumstances and luck.
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We have three times over the years had bills in excess of ÂŁ4K from referral vets. So for us pet insurance is well worthwhile.
I have had no problems with either PetPlan or Tesco and would recommend both, although ours are all with PetPlan currently (you pretty well have to stay with the one you started with or at least you do after the first claim).
I had a cat who lived to 18 and kept her insured with PetPlan. She required constant medication for a thyroid condition and regular blood tests in order for the vet to maintain the prescription. She also had an expensive dental around the age of 15. Petplan always paid claims promptly but their excess is high and they increase the excess when the cat is older. I seem to remember that it is over 12 for the additional excess to be applied. Unlike others, my experience with them was good. When the time came to say goodbye to my 18 year old, I adopted a two year old Tabby/Bengal from Cats Protection. She is also insured with PetPlan.
It’s actually over 10 years old currently. They do pay promptly and you do it all on line now. They reckon to pay within 5 days of your vet completing their on line form (which in the case of our vet can take a month).
Petplan: The “I’ve never had a problem with them paying” is fine feedback, but doesn’t really give much useful insight. They are legally obliged to pay and most claims are straight forward and undebatable, so they’re doing nothing special. Some of you may remember my two kittens (Mo was one of them), who developed FIP. Cut a long story short, we bought two kittens and they were covered by Petplan. One kitten developed FIP and died within 14 days of the symptoms . This was a very distressing time and I paid a fortune having many tests, hospitalisation and treatments with several vets/referrals. I didn’t think about the money, as there was too many things going on at the time and it happened so quick. During that 14 day time, the Petplan renewal came up and I completely forgot about it. After he died, I put the claim in and heard nothing. I chased it up and nothing. I started looking at Petplan reviews and found numerous people with the same experience of them not responding, making it difficult, or basically being twats. Eventually I received a response shortly stating, thanks, but as you didn’t renew during the treatment, you’re not covered. Vets thought it was a disgrace and so did I. Also, I remember about 15 years ago, I had Petplan and decided not to use them anymore. I received a reminder from them stating that I may have forgotten to renew or maybe I didn’t care about the welfare of my pet! Laughable. I shared that letter to many. Yep, twats.
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Just as a reference for cost, my wife got told yesterday that if one of our cats needs an op the general anaesthetic alone would be ÂŁ2,000 
Was that a Harley Street vet?
I have PetPlan on auto-renew. In general I don’t like auto-renew because I like to think about moving, but with pet insurance and our own medical insurance where moving isn’t realistically an option, auto-renew is a way to avoid inadvertently falling out of cover and as they are all monthly paid these days, you can stop anytime if you want to.
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Have had cats all my life and never had insurance and a bit dubious. Last year cat was referred to super vet in Winchester and cost over £2,000 but of course you pay to try and save my beloved cat (didn’t work unfortunately)
Nope. Near preston in countryside. Maybe they got confused with the horses they treat 