insurance - is it worth it...?

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oliviacharley

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I know people have added this point before but im completely undecided about whether I should carry on with my insurance policy...
I have a 5 yr old quarter horse worth £5000 and I was insistant on taking out a policy when I bought him. I have been paying £45/50 a month into this policy and I do wonder if it is worth it...
(touch wood) I have not had any problems yet, but if I did I wonder if maybe just putting the money aside into a bank savings account would be better....I would have lost £800 if I cancel my policy which hasnt even been used and thinking about it, if I had saved that I would still have it sitting in the bank....
Im a full time student now and although money is tight I wonder if just saving the money each month is worth it...
Reading the section on vets bills...it scares me slightly that the insurances only pay up to a certain amount and then it is up to you....
I used to be a equine vet nurse, so I know how the polices work....my insurance is a good one but insist that I have annual dental examinations, boosters and my horse is also only insured until he is 15yrs...so what happens to all the money you have been paying by that time...and what happens afterwards too if you horse goes down hill....your left to sort it out by yourself...so I wondered what other people think...is it worth it...? Or maybe setting up a savings account is a better idea...Due to the strictness of my insurance policy I do wonder if there would something they would pick up on and then not pay, where as a saving account is there to be used at any time with no rules...I would be looking at an isa account...
I must point out I would have third party insurance.
 
It is useful if you get a huge vets bill drop on your doorstep. However, I insure for minimal amount allowed for a comp horse, which is significantly lower than his worth, but means I know I am covered for vets fees. Would hate to not be able to give the treatment needed because I couldnt affiord it.
 
Can you lay your hands on 5-10 K in an instant?
If not are you prepared to have your horse PTS if something serious happens?
If the answer is No to the above 2 questions then you would be stark raving bonkers not to insure your horse.
What I would suggest however is to drop the sum insured price on your horse to the minimum the insurance company will allow - e.g. £100, this will mean your premiums will fall but you will still have £5K vet cover. This is what I do with mine and NFU is approximately £25 a month this way. Downside is that if you loose your horse you don't get it's value back, its a risk you take.
 
that is what i have always done . i insure for a lot less than the value of the horse as i am more interested in getting vet bills paid. also i was told by my insurance company that if you have loss of use ie: mine are sj but if they can still hack you get a percentage back. it is more for piece of mind i could not lay my hands on thousands quickly if anything goes wrong. i had to claim once i had a pony 24 hrs and the stupid YO put him out without asking with the nasty gelding in the herd and he got kicked to bits. they thought the leg was broken, luckily it was't but as it was an accident he was covered and had the best treatment and it also takes away a lot of the worry at a stressfull time.
 
Ive only had my horse 2 years and at the end of this week he would have cost me nearly £5000 without insurance.Hes been a pain but I am toatally committed and I couldnt have afforded to keep him if I didnt have my insurance.You never think these things are going to happen to you especially with a young fit horse.
 
I had problems getting insurance for my horse when I first got him due to his worth and the fact he had only been stage 2 vetted....they all wanted 4/5 stage vetting to insure him.
My friend was a vet and did his boosters last year, and checked his teeth but she unfortunately died last July and didnt fill in the details at her practice or on my passport...so im quite stuck as to what to do....
My policy strictly states I must have annual boosters and dental checks which he has, but it is not registered so im a little stuck as to what can happen if something does go wrong...hence the saving account thought...? I do not believe my insurance will pay which means I may be at a lose anyhow...
His booster is next week so im going to talk to the vet who owns the practice and see what can be done..or signed...if he will not sign it then I think giving up my insurance might have to happen as I dont believe they will pay out if something goes wrong!!
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I insure my boys for only £500 as all I want the insurance for is the vets fees. With petplan it costs £9.50 a month for the 2 year old and £15 per month for the 4 year old and my 16 year old mare is £9.50 as she is just at grass. I would always have insurance for at least third party liability and vets fees.
 
Insurance is such a rip of!!! I have my ridden cob insured for vets fees etc, but this year they wanted £130 to insure my 28yo TB who only walks to the field from her stable and back again and has been fully retired for years!! what a con, ive cancelled her policy and took out Gold BHS membership so she is covered with public liability i think thats enough, as she was only covered for accident only so when she has been poorly ive had to pay anyway so it really seemed like i was paying the insurance company for the privelidge of paying my own vets bil!!
 
Can we ask which company you are using; they sound pretty intrusive demands to me (though as I don't 'do' vet cover, could be completely wrong!) I'm another that would suggest you lower his value if you want to keep vet cover or take vet cover off, keep his value as it is and stash away the money in a high interest account for any emergencies; but make sure you never feel the need to just dip into it for something else. If you can be disciplined enough about it, that is a fair option.
I cover mine for what I paid for them (usually very little!) and have death by accident, injury or disease, theft and straying, they are also covered for foaling and transit. Third party cover is by way of my BHS Gold membership. If I only had one horse I would probably cover for vet fees but I would drop their value so the premium wouldn't go sky high.
With having so many (4) to have vet cover on each premium would cost more than they were worth by the time excess had been paid and I personally don't see the point in bankrupting myself before I've clocked up enough vet costs before the IC will start paying out. I'm also hard-hearted enough to make THAT decision if absolutely necessary although that's not to say I don't adore them all and wouldn't be devastated to lose one; I do, I'm just practical after being around horses most of my life. The upside of this is my vets knows I don't have cover so always tries to suggest/practise cheaper options than they would if I did have cover if that makes sense and many people say the same thing of their vets. Why line surgery pockets when it's not necessary is my line? If you need x rays to confirm, so be it but then you can usually make your decision and treat accordingly although I know it's not always that simple!
 
thanks everyone for the great replies :0) Im with stoneways insurance who always seem really good...but like you have said I think lowering his vaule would do my alot of favours...I thinking of just having cover for straying, theft etc and the vets fees as I only really wanted the vets fees really...
The money I save from my insurance I will put away in a bank account...Im just move concerned if he will be covered due to not having the signed passport or evidence from the practice if I need to claim :0(
 
I agree with B&J - if you can lay your hands on a significant amount of money in a flash then I would reconsider having insurance for vet fees.

I don't have vet insurance - insurance works totally differently over here and it really isn't worth having to be honest.

I own 23 horses altogether and each horse has an allocation for vet bills; some have a larger allocation than others; that combined with the figuring that they won't all come down with something very costly at the same time gives me breathing space.

I have to say though, if I only had one or two horses and lived in England then there is no way I would be without insurance cover for vet fees....but perhaps not with the insurance company you are with.
 
I have one of my horses insured with Pet Plan for vets fees. I pay £9 per month but have a higher excess and then Public liability with Brithish driving Society (NFU Insurers) for £25 per year. Give Pet Plan a call.
 
Pet Plan were offering insurance with a high excess, about £500 I think, but it would pay out if there was something serious like a colic operation. I meant to look into that.

I could probably put my hands on £500, but not £5,000.
 
In the last five years I have had two horses and spent probably about £2500-£3000 on insurance policies....my insurance company have paid out over £7500 to date so yes I believe in insurance....my friend cancelled hers because in three years she never made a claim........I wish !!!!
 
Why is it when a vets attending and you need medicine or x-rays they always ask you first if your insured before they tell you the price???

My horse was insured and needed injections, x-rays etc which I duly claimed for on my insurance only to be told when it was due for renewal that none of his legs were covered. In other words I had a legless horse. If you have an accident in your car they don't say we will not cover that wing again or any of the wings do they???

So I am a gold member with the BHS which covers third party and me riding if I have an accident. The rest I would have paid in insurance I save to hopefully cover vets fees.

But the old ideas seem to remain that if you have a horse you must be well off. I WISH!!!
 
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Why is it when a vets attending and you need medicine or x-rays they always ask you first if your insured before they tell you the price???


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Because there are different prices for those insured and those not insured.
 
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So does this mean the vets are ripping off the insurance companies by charging them more???

Hence no wonder the insurances keep going up!!

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Ooh good point. You're spot on there.
 
Well, working for an insurance company I can see pros and cons on both parts. I think vets ask whether you are insured as (a) should the horse need major treatment they want to be sure the funds are there and (b) they know full well of certain insurance companies who are renowned for not paying out! I have 4 horses and 2 have been with petplan for years and, as they are now both over 16 they get illness cover I think it is til they are 25? That is cos we've held the policy for many years.

i insure my sister's horse and our v old one through my company and do have vets fees on the younger horse as I think having seen the amount fo vets fees claim we settle I think is worth it as i don't have £5K to hand!

However, it is still quite a premium but I think the PL cover is most important. I think if you are happy to be able to fork out for vets fees (put savings away) or have credit cards you could use in emergencies then maybe a death, theft & PL policy would be suitable as not many people have £2million to hand should there be a big PL claim!

If you do decided to insure the horse for nominal sum so can include vets fees but lower premium check on minimum sum insured. With our company if the horse is valued less than £500 then the vets fees are limited (although you would still pay a full premium for them!).

Unfortunately insurance is the same for everything, you only appreciate it when you need it. If you don't take out house/contents insurance what happens if your house burns down? It's all down to risk and what you're prepared to take.
 
As with all animal insurance, there are two issues:
1) Insurance economically on average benefits the insurance companies, otherwise they wouldnt offer it, and so logically if I can afford to cover any fees at short notice myself (even if a few all come within the same year) then I will be better off by not paying insurance;
2) This is compounded by all the restrictions on insurance--everything you pay in is of no benefit once your horse is 15 and uninsurable, and of far less value once all legs are excluded etc, even though youre still paying in the same amount. How much would you regret paying into an insurance policy rather than saving if you end up having to have an animal put down because the policy no longer covered its legs, if you knew that by saving the same money you paid in you could have covered the initial leg problem and the subsequent uninsured one?

BUT for me the catch is that whilst yes, by saving up vets bills would be payable out of the saved cost of insurance in five years, I dont have the lump sum available right now if something went wrong and so even with their stupid restrictions, its better than nothing (which then means I cant save up the insurance bills, and so they pretty much have me stuck paying them forever).
 
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