Looking for Lifetime Pet Insurance for 18 Month Old Dog

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  H E B on 09/10/2019 - 12:25

  A lifetime policy? What's the cost involved and what happens if they decide to 'cancel' it when your dog gets old?

  With a skin allergy most insurance won't cover much as it's just the excess so usually good for accidents, serious illness and operations obviously.

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  87percent on 09/10/2019 - 12:38

  wtf, i didn't even know this was a thing but a quick google https://www.finder.com.au/lifetime-cover-pet-insurance

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    H E B on 09/10/2019 - 12:44

    That link seems to indicate it's 'guaranteed' for life provided you keep renewing yearly still though. Unless OP is confused it read to me that you pay for a lifetime up front. My mistake.

    So reading the finder link again I guess it just means guaranteed till X years whereas another annual policy might not.

    Like anything insurance I'd read the t&cs closely. I think most of the pet insurance in Aus are underwritten by only 2/3 same providers anyway so not 100% sure the cost difference will be worth it.

    Ultimately insurance is peace of mind, when (not if) your dog needs medical attention you'll probably feel a lot much better to seek help and more urgently rather than pondering if you need to dip into savings and in an emergency situation those seconds/minutes/hours count massively.

    But given your dog is 18months, I heard from a friend who is a vet that most dogs are high risk very young (don't know what they're doing) and very old (sickness) only. If you've gotten till 18months no real issues and you're strict with self insurance to put away that money I think on balance of probability you probably would end about the same.

    If you think your dog will be high risk then do it early as pre conditions and a bunch of other already noted stuff could potentially not be covered in the future. But it sounds like you might have a small dog that likes to lounge around so at least risk of accident is low (like getting attacked whilst walking or being baited or stepping into a animal trap etc) that's the stuff that'll cost you heaps.

    In a perfect world assuming you can afford it I'd do it but it's a commitment. You don't want to pay for 3 years then cancel just before something happens. If unsure, I'd at least up the savings a bit to the amount of premium and that way if you have to use it you have the flexibility.

    Problem with pets is they get no medicare hahaha so everything costs a fortune! Not like human health insurance where we can still wait for surgery.

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      geoffs87 on 09/10/2019 - 15:07

      Yeah, or do what i do did and decide my previous insurer was too expensive, so moved to a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately i didn't completely comprehend the 30 days cooling off, and because i cancelled my last insurance on lets say 1st August, started the new insurance on the 1st August, an issue that arose before the 1st September when the new insurer's waiting period ended will NEVER be covered by ANY insurer.

      Seems crazy, but the logical thing to do to ensure ongoing coverage (if you are ever looking at changing your pet insurance) would be to retain your current insurance for 30 days until the waiting period is up, in case something arises during the 30 days. In hindsight i would have done this and never actually cancelled my previous insurance and wound out the new one within the cooling off period - because now i'm set for bills for life for the issue that unfortunately arose within the 30 days.

      Bit of a shame really, poor doggo is 2 and never been uninsured for a minute… so it sucks that something unfortunately happened during this 30 day window. The new insurer was extremely cold and unforgiving, hid behind T&C's (and fair enough, it was my error).

      Luckily the issue isn't terrible, but would still be better if insurance covered it.

      Unfortunately, Pet insurance is indeed underwritten by 2 companies, one has more expensive policies, and the rest are with the other - so they really don't care about the customers!

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        H E B on 09/10/2019 - 15:17

        So potentially if you were in the position to do so you'd buy 30 days before you even take the dog home otherwise you wouldn't be covered? At least if within the 30 days you don't take the dog home you can cancel under cooling off I suppose.

        But ain't nobody got time for that.

        I heard though that if the condition isn't serious and you can prove it's been clear for 2 years you could ask for it to be removed and covered again if that helps.

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  try2bhelpful on 09/10/2019 - 23:30

  The policy to look for is one that continues to cover your pet, for life, provided you get in before the cutoff age and they don’t have existing issues at time of first insurance. We have insurance with Pet Plan for our kitties and we’ve never had problems getting claims paid but doggies are more expensive to insure and treat. Our old kitty cost, roughly, $12,000 in vet bills in her last year and we covered about $2,000. My suggestion is get cover for illness, or accident, not for standard vet visits. Also look for an excess you are comfortable with to keep the premiums down.

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  jjjaar on 10/10/2019 - 08:47

  Hey! Pet insurance was given a Shonky today

  https://www.choice.com.au/shonky-awards/hall-of-shame/shonky…

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    try2bhelpful on 10/10/2019 - 09:01

    +2

    We started our old girl at 5 years old and the bills came in when she was 12. We got our premiums back and quite a bit else. We cover our current two because they are acrobatic and have little sense of self preservation. however, YMMV and doggies are a lot more expensive proposition than kitties. It really comes down to if you can’t afford to treat the animal be prepared to put it down if the condition affects their quality of life. I don’t have an issue with people doing that because it is better than the animal suffering. Frankly. I think most human health insurance is useless as well, and getting more so.

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      jjjaar on 10/10/2019 - 09:39

      Oh, to be honest I have no opinion one way or another for pet insurance, I just thought the Shonky was timely.

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        try2bhelpful on 10/10/2019 - 09:49

        +1

        Sorry, I was not trying to neg you. It was a good call to post the link. My personal experience has been positive but a lot of people’s isn’t; it was more a call for people to make the hard decision rather than let the animal suffer. One weekend of care can cost $1000. Even good vets can get caught up in saving the animal. Our girl lasted 6 months with a lot of care on our side. If they’d been honest up front about what was going to happen we would, probably, have made a different decision.

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          jjjaar on 10/10/2019 - 10:01

          +1

          @try2bhelpful:

          Sorry, I was not trying to neg you.

          I didn't take it that way at all!

          I appreciate the informed feedback you had regarding it, which is why I stated I had no opinion. I didn't want someone to think that I was biased one way or the other when I have no experience with it.

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  Sunshines bright on 10/10/2019 - 12:18

  "This year it reviewed 86 pet insurance policies and ultimately did not recommend any, saying they were "riddled with exclusions"."

  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-10/pet-insurance-named-i…

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  JackJones81 on 24/10/2019 - 11:45

  First up, most pet insurance in Australia offers lifetime renewal. That means that if you hold cover continuously, renewal is guaranteed. Policies that do not automatically renew are typically called 12-month policies and only Pet Plan offers those. They offer other, lifetime policies too. Age limits typically relate to the maximum age a pet can join as opposed to stay on. None of the lifetime policies will refuse renewal for an old pet if they joined while the pet was young enough.

  The CHOICE review is crap. Read the actual article. They complain because insurance is insurance and you have to pay for cover before things go wrong and no one wants to cover you for things AFTER they have gone wrong if you did not already hold the cover. But that is what insurance is. Managing risk BEFORE things go wrong.

  CHOICE's review of 86 polices did not cover all policies in the market. There are newer generation polices with far fewer exclusions and generous or even unlimited limits. And no sub-limits. Which can be a big deal and is one of the areas CHOICE rightly called out as being "riddled with exclusions".

  For some of these newer generation products, check out Knose Pet Insurance or Trupanion Australia.
  https://www.knose.com.au/pet-insurance/
  https://trupanion.com/australia/