Tell me about your pet insurance experience

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Hmmm, that patio & furniture do not look like anything I ever had, so maybe just a relative. Yeah, mine broke out through every window screen we had on the main floor.

Beyond the screens, ours figured out how to dig out under a gap in the fence. When we plugged the gap he figured out the latch on the gate, when we changed the latch, he jumped up on out picinic table, vaulted onto a branch of a tree in our back yard and over the fence.

We locked him in the car once on a long road trip when we stopped for breakfast and he figured out that when he leaned on the horn we would come running.

He had this head fake action when he was on the leash during a walk if he decided to go, he'd fake one way and you'd brace yourself for the bolt and he'd take off in another direction nearly tearing your arm off forcing you to drop the leash.

But there was never a more affectionate dog. You'd be sleeping late at night and he'd jump up on your bed and cuddle up to you. he'd always be sitting there at the door when you came home from school with his tale going a hundred miles an hour and a tilt to his head.

The worst day of my life was when my dad took him to the vet and he didn't come home.

[VladtheImpaler]

/\

Yeah, very affectionate and... loved women. He was with me during my "active" dating phase, and when I had female "visitors" he would just sit there and watch. A strange pooch. Never tried to escape when I was with him - just when he was home alone. I started running with him when he was around 6 months old, and I guess he just got used to always trotting just to the right of me, whether he was leashed or not.

[Suzles]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Were your premiums fixed or did they change as time marched on?

Cowperson

Molly's (the dog) actually went down. We didn't enrol her with Trupanion until she was 7 years old - as that is when we came from England to Canada with her. We had pet insurance in the UK and brought her lengthy veterinary and claims history with us. I was just pleased to get her insured at all. We were paying about $70 per month here and, if I remember correctly, it was about 40GBP a month in England. She had had pancreatitis at age 4 (nearly died and a big claim) and she was another of those 'allergic to everything' dogs for which she needed monthly injections (flown in from Switzerland at 150 GBP's per shot). The best thing for her, moving to Canada, is that all her allergies disappeared!! The cats only came to us in June, after Molly died, so I don't know how they will pan out on premiums. It is only there for peace of mind and worst case scenario.

[lucky1]

I had both my dogs on pet secure and between the various ailments they has between them it worked out that I basically broke even over a ten year period.... Now the policies can be used for teeth cleaning, blood tests etc... It really helped when the hounds became fairly 'senior'.... I recently had to put my little guy down ( I miss you buddy ) and the insurance cover reed almost everything from the X-rays, the blood tests, to the eventual euthanization and cremation
I would get it again for any puppies I may get...

[AliceS]

I put my golden retriever on VPI but the premiums went up every year, as she got older. I looked into other providers but I didn't find anything I liked. I ended up switching to this thing called Pet Assure, the rates are fixed (and not based on the condition of your pet) and they basically give you discounted rates at the vet. I ended up signing my cat, Molly, on to pet assure too

[photon]

Originally Posted by AliceS

I put my golden retriever on VPI but the premiums went up every year, as she got older. I looked into other providers but I didn't find anything I liked. I ended up switching to this thing called Pet Assure, the rates are fixed (and not based on the condition of your pet) and they basically give you discounted rates at the vet. I ended up signing my cat, Molly, on to pet assure too

So you are saying you are just an average consumer?

You're not in any way affiliated with Pet Assure?

EDIT: Offline already, I doubt they'll be back.

This is a spam message from someone from Pet Assure pretending to be a pet owner.

[First Lady]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Trupanion takes a different approach; for example one time (lifetime) deductible for each type of incident; others are annual. They also have no caps, which explains why the appear to have higher premiums.
However they don't offer coverage for preventative and the day-to-day care things, like teeth cleaning.

Makes it challenging to compare apples to apples.

[AliceS]

Originally Posted by photon

So you are saying you are just an average consumer?

You're not in any way affiliated with Pet Assure?

EDIT: Offline already, I doubt they'll be back.

This is a spam message from someone from Pet Assure pretending to be a pet owner.

Haha no I'm just a consumer, LOL yeah I guess it did look like spam .. sorry. I actually used to use UPC (united pet care) but their premium was a little higher plus I moved from CA to NH and they only cover like five states.

[photon]

Originally Posted by AliceS

Haha no I'm just a consumer, LOL yeah I guess it did look like spam .. sorry. I actually used to use UPC (united pet care) but their premium was a little higher plus I moved from CA to NH and they only cover like five states.

You're a "consumer", yet your registration IP shows you as being from Pet Assure.

And your post IP addresses aren't from regular computers, but from something that would be used by people trying to hide their real location.

If Pet Assure is willing to lie to people just to try and gain customers, how trustworthy are they going to be once they have them?

[VladtheImpaler]

Game, set, match.

[j_j]

I have analyzed Trupanion and PC Financial in the last three months and asked a lot of questions of their CS staff, and the claims people, vets and other owners. I even got them both to do a pre-adjudication of our vet records to tell me what I could expect to be excluded. (Each offers a one month free trial, so I signed up for both--you have to ask about Trupanion's, but they do have it.)

From what I had heard, I expected that Trupanion would be a clear winner (especially positive review from the vets), but PC Financial had fewer exclusions, and they actually were pretty good to deal with. One thing I did not like about PC is they do not pay the actual cost of services, it's based on a average fee table.

In the end, my choice came down to why I wanted coverage. I wanted insurance that could cover the big things (cancer, tumors, etc) that I haven't/couldn't get enough money together to cover (expect about $10,000-$14,000) and would mean a premature passing.

I wasn't as concerned about covering the small stuff that happens (ear infections, eye issues, injesting objects). I understand that doing that leads to premium increases, changes in the co-insurance amount or even leads to non-coverages. I don't think any pet insurance is a good idea if this is what you are thinking about covering.

A lot like with my house insurance, I was prepared to only make a claim when the amount of the loss makes sense to do so--otherwise they scratch it all back from you in premium increases. For this reason I went with Trupanion. They have the unlimited coverage, the ability to set my own deductible and the 90% co-pay. They also pay the actual vet costs charged, not some imaginary fee list.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by photon

You're a "consumer", yet your registration IP shows you as being from Pet Assure.

And your post IP addresses aren't from regular computers, but from something that would be used by people trying to hide their real location.

If Pet Assure is willing to lie to people just to try and gain customers, how trustworthy are they going to be once they have them?

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by AliceS

Haha no I'm just a consumer, LOL yeah I guess it did look like spam .. sorry. I actually used to use UPC (united pet care) but their premium was a little higher plus I moved from CA to NH and they only cover like five states.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by First Lady

I've had various pets over the years and for the last 4 years have owned a purebred English Bulldog.
Our vet bills for him exceeded his purchase price within the first 6 months. *Fingers crossed* he has been pretty healthy since then.

Recently I've become involved with Alberta Bulldog Rescue and seeing the plethora of things they can be subject to has me thinking about getting insurance for Stewie.
I've done some internet research and likely will get a couple of quotes, but curious to what others have experienced.

Discuss....

I have 2 English bulldogs and got pet insurance immediately. With pickles (my first bulldog) it saved us 2500 when she broke her leg as a puppy jumping off the arm of the couch to get cat food on a shelf.

It didn't cover the entire surgery, but it covered about 65% if the cost. They sent us a cheque after we submitted the bill, no questions asked.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by photon

You're a "consumer", yet your registration IP shows you as being from Pet Assure.

And your post IP addresses aren't from regular computers, but from something that would be used by people trying to hide their real location.

If Pet Assure is willing to lie to people just to try and gain customers, how trustworthy are they going to be once they have them?

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by j_j

In the end, my choice came down to why I wanted coverage.

Very good point.


Does anyone else get impression Photon knows what we each have for breakfast.

[photon]

Lol, well if you happened to post using a McDonalds IP address at around breakfast time I could make an educated guess

I just vet all new registrations, and I usually check the IP address too, and when the IP resolves to a company name it looks suspicious. At the very least I'll make a note to check their ID after a while after I approve them.. I knew there was a pet insurance thread going on so I figured this would happen.

There's people who's only job is to search the Internet for discussions about a certain topic and then register and plug whatever product.

[Superflyer]

Big bump here.
We are looking at getting a pet so I was looking at pet insurance. What are your current thoughts on this? Is it worth it?