I've just received my renwals for M&S ins,and the excess has gone up to £70
which I think is a lot, and if the pet is over 9 the excess is £70 plus 20% of the bill.

How often is the bill at the vets £70 it would have to be something major,
I know ins is probably for the more serious things
but with five to insure, by the time I've paid the monthly premiums,
I wouldn't be able to afford to take them for the minor things, so anybody got anything better.

How often is the bill at the vets £70 it would have to be something major,
I know ins is probably for the more serious things
but with five to insure.

My cattery insurance for upto 28 cats is less than you'll pay for 5 !!

I think that this is pretty standard for pet insurance to be honest. Most things that are treated as they get older are either complicated because of their age (needing liver and kidney function tests before anaesthesia etc) or chronic conditions that need ongoing medication, and so the chances are that if you need to claim the £70 excess will just fly by!

If you picture my Merlin, who spent the last 3 years of her life with hypertension and a racing heartbeat. £45 worth of medication every month, a consultation and tests with a cardiologist every 3-6 months (at £3-400 a throw), initial testing that ran to just under £800- and I paid the first £75 and 20% of the rest of the bill. Totaling it all up even though I paid without claiming for the first 12 years of her life (apart from a couple of minor injuries) I still claimed far more than I'd paid in over time.

Have you tried asking for a bulk discount if you have 5? Petplan offer a bulk discount and I know that a couple of the others do too.

I warned folk a while back that M&S are whopping up the excess - there was no excess at all when I first put my cats on it but every year it's snuck up a but more and a bit more to £70 per cat.
Not only that, the premiums they wanted to charge me for 4 cats of similar ages (4 years) differed from policy to policy (mostexpensive being Alfie at almost £13 per month and I've never made a claim on his policy!) and they could not explain why when I called their call centre, so I decided enough is enough- most of the time it isnt worth making a claim anyway so now I'm putting the money to one side instead of paying anymore to M&S

Also, the bulk discount was hardly worth having

Animal Friends at http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/about_us.html look good

Animal Friends at http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/about_us.html look good

Just had a look on their website, they do sound good, but now for the test... I have rang them for quotes for insuring my lot, see what they come up with, I will let you all know.

i've never yet paid more in vet treatments than i would have paid had i had insurance.
the two most expensive treatments cost about £290 each on two seperate dogs.
One was 13 when he died(the money was to try and keep him alive) the other dog was 8(pyrometra).
I paid £150 last month on one dog, but the treatment was cosmetic and not classed as necessary by the insurance companies.
dog number 2 is diabetic -however @ £25 for 3 months i'm still better off paying vets fees.
However i'm not complacent enought to think that that's normal we've just been lucky.

THe prices are crazy.

My boarding cattery policy covers 28 cats, limit of £2500 per cat, £50.00 excess and costs me around £300 per year which is around £10 per cat.

THe prices are crazy.

My boarding cattery policy covers 28 cats, limit of £2500 per cat, £50.00 excess and costs me around £300 per year which is around £10 per cat.

The cats in your care are unlikely to be hit by a car or be treated for a serious chronic disease (the two most costly things) though.

In the last 4 days of her life the vet bill for my sister's cat came to a little under £1400. She was attacked by two dogs and succumbed to an infection 4 days later after major surgery to sew her back together. I wouldn't have been able to have afforded that and it would have broken my heart not to have tried to save her life purely on monetary grounds.

In the last 4 days of her life the vet bill for my sister's cat came to a little under £1400. She was attacked by two dogs and succumbed to an infection 4 days later after major surgery to sew her back together. I wouldn't have been able to have afforded that and it would have broken my heart not to have tried to save her life purely on monetary grounds.

I agree... My pedigree Bengal costs nearly as much on her seperate private policy as the whole cattery.

Just had a look on their website, they do sound good, but now for the test... I have rang them for quotes for insuring my lot, see what they come up with, I will let you all know.

I've given these a ring and for my lot it was £120 cheaper than M&S, the excess is £49, M&S excess is £70,
they will accept Jasper who is 18, and they woud have covered him for his teeth which has just cost me £150,
M&S dont cover for teeth, and its a life time policy for any illness, I remember being with direct line and they would only cover the illness once
also they make donations to lots of animal charities,
I know its a lot to insure the five of them, and I have thought about putting the money in a saving scheme,
but I'm just scared somthing drastic will happen to them and I wont be able to afford it,
so think I am going to give these a try for this year.

worth looking at then