is £74 pcm excessive to insure two average labs

M

McW

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 November 2011
Messages
570
Visit site
question in the title?

It seems a lot of money, add that to my £54 for the horse and suddenly I'm paying £1500 per annum in insurance premiums. I'd never cancel the horses, but for the dogs is £74 a month excessive? I have 4 yo speyed bitch and 4 months entire male (who will be kept this way)

Thoughts???
 
How long is a piece of string? Lots of factors to consider. Postcode plays a huge part - to insure my dogs where I live costs me £50 a month. To ensure them at my friend's postcode up north (I'd debated moving up there last year) would cost me half that. Then there's level of cover - £7k of cover will cost you more than £4k, excess - £50 excess will cost you more than £150, breed - purebreed tends to cost more than crossbreed, and so on.

I have a 5 year old GSD and a 5 year old crossbreed, who, as I said, cost me £50 a month. £30 for the GSD and £20 for the crossbreed. Labradors can be prone to hip problems like the GSD, so would expect a similarly highly premium. They may class an entire male as more at risk of testicular cancer, requiring an operation/alternative treatment, they may consider him more at risk of chasing after a bitch and getting in an RTA, perhaps more likely to get into a fight and cost them money on your third party liability and so on.

Shop around though - who is it that's charging £74? If it was somewhere like Petplan, I would expect it to be that high (especially as their top policy offers a whopping £10k cover I believe), but you could get cheaper cover elsewhere. You do often get what you pay for though so I would avoid going too cheap - plus these cheap places tend to jack up the premiums each year and if your dog has developed an on-going condition you may be stuck with them at the higher price.

I use Axa - pricewise they're quite reasonable for the level of cover (£7k a year) and I found the premiums didn't rise too much in the second year - I couldn't find a quote for similar cover that beat their premium even with new customer discounts actually, even Axa's quote for a new policy came in 50p or so dearer! I also have experience of claiming now, and although they were a little slow on the first claim, the second claim went through a lot quicker and both with no quibbles - plus my vet was happy to claim direct, which is a good indicator of the reputation of an insurance company.

Whether it's affordable or not will be personal to your income and outgoings. Whether it's good value will depend on whether you ever need to claim - it's the nature of insurance, it seems a waste of money until you actually need it, but you never know for sure that you actually will. In my case, I've claimed as much in the last 2 months than I will have paid out in the entire policy year, so I've broken even and will be quids in if I make any more claims (which I will do, as her condition requires daily medication). I've no doubt my premium will rise next year, but I will have just as much to claim next year because her condition requires repeat blood tests at least anually, and medication for life - averaged out, it's £20 a month of treatment, so her premium would have to go up at least £20 a month, and then probably another fiver to account for the premium increase if I hadn't claimed anything, for it to have a negative effect. But given that her breeds are prone to joint issues, heart problems and even cancers, I will definately be keeping up insurance for as long as I can afford it, because the peace of mind that my only decision will be whether the treatment is fair or worthwhile physically/mentally, rather than whether I can afford it, is worth it to me.
 
Last edited:
I think that's a bit excessive, I'm sure you could get a better quote if you shop around a bit.

However, I've just had my renewal from my current insurer, the new premium is £114 per month. Shocked, too right I was.

My dog is very old, and has a couple of ongoing health issues but I think it's a bit much simply because on an old dog there is so little that can be treated.
 
My 8yr old rottie is 82 PCM for lifetime petplan cover supreme plan x depends how good your cover is and who your insured with, some companies cover problems others won't x
 
I think that's quite steep. I pay 17pcm for 1yo entire male, with tesco on there high level cover for life. (went with them as vet informed me they have never had issue getting payment). Shop around you will get it cheaper.
 
Well it seems rather expensive to me, but that could be because your male is entire? I dunno?

My Petplan lifetime policy costs me 36 quid a month for both the dogs, however this is just their basic life time policy with no frills. I have a GSD X dog and a Amb Bull X bitch.
 
krlyr said:
How long is a piece of string? Lots of factors to consider. Postcode plays a huge part - to insure my dogs where I live costs me £50 a month. To ensure them at my friend's postcode up north (I'd debated moving up there last year) would cost me half that. Then there's level of cover - £7k of cover will cost you more than £4k, excess - £50 excess will cost you more than £150, breed - purebreed tends to cost more than crossbreed, and so on.

I have a 5 year old GSD and a 5 year old crossbreed, who, as I said, cost me £50 a month. £30 for the GSD and £20 for the crossbreed. Labradors can be prone to hip problems like the GSD, so would expect a similarly highly premium. They may class an entire male as more at risk of testicular cancer, requiring an operation/alternative treatment, they may consider him more at risk of chasing after a bitch and getting in an RTA, perhaps more likely to get into a fight and cost them money on your third party liability and so on.

Shop around though - who is it that's charging £74? If it was somewhere like Petplan, I would expect it to be that high (especially as their top policy offers a whopping £10k cover I believe), but you could get cheaper cover elsewhere. You do often get what you pay for though so I would avoid going too cheap - plus these cheap places tend to jack up the premiums each year and if your dog has developed an on-going condition you may be stuck with them at the higher price.

I use Axa - pricewise they're quite reasonable for the level of cover (£7k a year) and I found the premiums didn't rise too much in the second year - I couldn't find a quote for similar cover that beat their premium even with new customer discounts actually, even Axa's quote for a new policy came in 50p or so dearer! I also have experience of claiming now, and although they were a little slow on the first claim, the second claim went through a lot quicker and both with no quibbles - plus my vet was happy to claim direct, which is a good indicator of the reputation of an insurance company.

Whether it's affordable or not will be personal to your income and outgoings. Whether it's good value will depend on whether you ever need to claim - it's the nature of insurance, it seems a waste of money until you actually need it, but you never know for sure that you actually will. In my case, I've claimed as much in the last 2 months than I will have paid out in the entire policy year, so I've broken even and will be quids in if I make any more claims (which I will do, as her condition requires daily medication). I've no doubt my premium will rise next year, but I will have just as much to claim next year because her condition requires repeat blood tests at least anually, and medication for life - averaged out, it's £20 a month of treatment, so her premium would have to go up at least £20 a month, and then probably another fiver to account for the premium increase if I hadn't claimed anything, for it to have a negative effect. But given that her breeds are prone to joint issues, heart problems and even cancers, I will definately be keeping up insurance for as long as I can afford it, because the peace of mind that my only decision will be whether the treatment is fair or worthwhile physically/mentally, rather than whether I can afford it, is worth it to me.
Click to expand...



this really ^^



I pay £15 pcm for my spaniel x collie - who has mild hip dysplasia (claimed over 3k for this -lifetime cover). Im with more than who have been brilliant, and never once took their time paying out etc

My pedigree cocker spaniel i think is around £20 a month (mum pays this as its on paper her dog).......(he's mine :D )

:)
 
thanks eveyone it's with the kennel club and £74 would be the cost for the two of them, maybe I should shop around. I only went with Kennel Club as carried on the first's free insurance 4 years ago. So Tesco and AXA, any other recommendations?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top