Dog insurance recommendations?

[Red30563]

It's insurance renewal time for Dougal's insurance and our current providers have doubled the premium. No idea why - we have made no claims. We did get a 15% new customer discount last year and I know insurance tax has gone up but I do resent a doubling of the cost! (From £144 per year to £287!) I don't mind paying however much, even if it seems expensive, but I hate the 'new customer' discount' that then disappears and the cost gets whacked up sky high. Why can't companies have 'loyal customer discounts' or 'no claims bonuses' like your car insurance does?

So I am looking round for another option and I have to admit my head is spinning - we have always gone for the 'premium' cover policies. The current one has £7000 of cover, and covers lifelong conditions. But do I really need this? Am I being over-paranoid about dog health???

Do I need insurance at all? Perhaps I could just put some money away each month for him. I don't know.

Any experiences or recommendations welcome. We are currently with M & S so don't want to stay with them. I used to be with NFU but they have just told me they don't do stand-alone dog insurance any more. It is just an add-on when you have contents insuracne with them.

Who are you with and - if it's not a rude thing to ask - roughly how much do you pay? Dougal is a 6 year old border terrier/lhasa apso cross in very good health, by the way.

 

[samerlin]

try animal friends I used to be with them and couldn't recommend them enough although i decided not to bother insuring and just put on credit card instead

 

[Bozzy]

I seem to have to change every year due to the providers putting the premiums up so much. Therefore it makes the life long cover pretty pointless if you keep change insurers as they won't insure a pre-exisiting condition (saying that, I still have it for my boxer!)

NFU provided me with a pretty hefty saving, moved 2 cats to them first and then my dog so it's a shame if you can't try them.

Other's I've used in the past (as well as M&S also) are Tesco and Direct Line. I've made claims with all (over a number of years) and have never had any issues with payments. I would always have insurance but know a number of people who just put money away. Depends how lucky you are (I am not!)

 

[SuzySue]

Our 3 are with More Than and the 2 claims we have made were paid out very quickly. The premiums did seem to go up rather a lot last year but when I shopped around for like-for-like I couldn't actually find anything much cheaper.

 

[2Greys]

Dog insurance is a pain & you have to pick wisely from the start as once you have existing conditions you can get a bit stuck with them unless you can afford to have it excluded to switch insurers.
Strange about NFU as my dog is insured with them, they changed it last renewal so it comes under homes & lifestyle or something as it cocked up our premium, but i suspect that just makes paperwork more multi-use as we don't have any other insurance with them. Ours started at £15 and 3yrs later with no claim is £18 and we do get a small renewal discount. However can't really compare prices because of breeds/age/location factors will all vary between us. I'd prefer a higher vet fee limit per year as £4k could easily go in a year on some conditions but simply can't afford the higher options, but at least it is lifelong which i feel is important. Axa seems popular choice and offers decent cover. Just make sure you look up who the underwriter is on the policy to avoid accidently going with dodgy one.

I guess doing away with insurance depends if you can afford to pay a big vets bill easily as even if you put away some money monthly it will take a while to build up & could easily be wiped out.