A couple of years ago, before my cat started to have health problem, I took out the wrong policy and only had him covered for illness up to 12 months. I'm now in a predicament where he is not covered for the conditions that he has and therefore the medication or food that he's on. We got our renewal quote through today and it's £32 pcm!!! Considering he's not covered for anything I feel it's a bit steep. I've looked around at other quotes and the best I've had so far is £13 a month (better) but with £100 excess .

Seeing as his conditions are not going to improve - Hyperthyroidism, renal failure, high BP - do I just cancel the policy altogether and put that money into a savings account just incase something does happen?

But then what if something major happens like he gets run over?

Any thoughts?

My husband just insured our cats with Direct Line. It's £15 per month with £50 excess. I know that Pets at Home, Asda, Tesco's etc do Pet Insurance but we went with DL because we have car insurance and house insurance with them too.

Direct Line only insure cats up to 10 years old. Kenny's 13

thanks for replying anyway

Since he has some of the biggies already there is little point in getting any other insurance, is there? As none of these pre-existing conditions would be covered. Personally, in your case, I think you would be better off just putting money into a pot.

Hobbs has a good point. My mum insured one of her cats but found it a bit of a rip off. One of her cats is 15 now and has never had a days sickness in her life and she was paying for insurance monthly. She found it better to save the money monthly and then use that for vets fees if need be.

It's rare I'd say this but saving might be your best bet. He's an 'old' cat with a history of major health problems. Firstly, there aren't many companies that would start insurance because of his age. And those that would will charge a high excess. (£100 is low - most would charge upwards of £75 plus 25% or more of the claim value). But, if I were you I'd look at saving at least the £32 per month of your original quote - if not more. The reason older cats cost more to insure is simple - they are much more prone to chronic illness.

And if she had had sickness? Or an accident? Would your mum have had several thousand pounds handy at any time to pay a vet's bill? I'd guess not. Insurance isn't a rip-off when you need to make a claim. If you are lucky you won't need it - but you will find lots of posts on this forums from people who have claimed huge amounts when their pets were sick and you'll also find lots of posts from people who wish they'd had insurance. In many cases not having insurance means that the animal has to be put to sleep rather than treated.

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Things you should know before insuring your pet can be found at Important Facts about Pet Insurance. I can also try and answer questions about Pet Insurance via PM. I am not an insurance broker.

have you gone onto compare the market? we have just done this for our puppy and got some great prices you can scan through first

erm! dunno about that one! AND !!! I amseriously beginning to wonder if vets DO chargeless whenthey know animals are insured!!

Heres my experience!!!

Misty (Died aged just 4.5 years)was insured!! withthe insurers FROM HELL! we piad out £11,000 for her is vets bills(yep we were lucky - we could afford it! the insurance was an utter waste of money!

Then old fellow - was with axa for 8 years - NOT a penny claimed! Prior to him being 9 I puthimwith JBI (would be interested on your views onthem!!!)
not a penny claimed form AXA - claimed from JBI £600ish - about the same as the premiums paid to them!

Milly coming up four! with green bee (john lewis) not claimed a penny!! paid around £900 in premiums!

The cat smokey - livedto be twenty! cost us total NOT over £1000 over those twenty years! ANDwe always had treatment when needed!

billyCat-NOW 17! NO insurance EVER three lots of dental work totalling around £700 total! NOW thyroid problems!! Drugs costing me around $18 a month and blood tests £48 a time! so quids in! BUT vet knowshe's not insured and sure he is treating him cheaper!

THAT SAID!
I will agree!! if you cannot afford a BIG bill then take out the insurance!! because believe you me we got through £11,000of our own money in just 18 month!

BUT!!! do still think its a con!

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I got to the same point with my horse last year as horse insurance is only available with 12month policies. 3 of her legs were excluded due to previous claims, and she's getting old now so there's certain things I won't put her through...so I bit the bullet and now put the amount I would have been paying for insurance into a separate bank account for any veterinary treatment for her and i've got a credit card or two should I need it.

It IS scary to actually bite the bullet and cancel insurance because there's always the worry something big could happen before you've saved up much money, but I think when it gets to the point where lot's of things won't be paid for the it can be sensible to just put money aside

I was in a position a few years ago with a dog who ruptured a disc and it cost us £5k+ - we weren't insured so it all went on credit cards. I am scared to be in that position again. But I agree, he has the biggies, he's elderly and frail and if anything really major happened I'm not sure he would be strong enough to survive anyway. We're keeping him indoors these days so there's less risk to him of injury or accident and if something does come up we have some savings and credit cards so we can deal with it if we need to.

I don't think insurance policies are a rip off in the slightest. My last dog who had the back problem went on to develop IBS which without her policy (which cost £28 a month due to actually covering pre-existing conditions) would have cost us thousands as she had endoscopies and loads of other tests. She wasn't the healthiest dog and we made quite a few claims so we got or monies worth with it. It's a risk you have to take like any insurance policy.

Thanks for helping me weigh it up.