Continuous cruising and pet insurance

[Boafb]

Hi all, we're planning to move onto the water and become continous cruisers come the spring. We won't have a home mooring and our postal address will be that of a friend. Our 5 year old dog will be joining us, as you do, but we've hit a problem with his insurer. We've been happily insured with Petplan on an "all life" policy since we got him so i checked with them that they'd carry on once we were afloat. They were having none of it - to give them their dues they did check with their technical people before saying no - apparently the problem is that the area you live in and the level of vet fees in that area are used to calculate your premium, and they couldn't do this if we're all over the place. Since we currently live in Reading we assumed that our area was probably on the expensive side anyway, so I gave them the option to charge us for an expensive area (I.e. a high premium) regardless of where we were when/if we claimed. This didn't work for them though.

So, I'm looking for recommendations please for a company that will give us proper all life cover for our lovely dog regardless of the fact that we're cruising the country. He does have a bit of history with his stomach (although he's been grand for a while now), so one that'll deal with pre-existing conditions would be helpful. Thanks, Jules

[Starcoaster]

The only work-around I know from experience is the fact that all pet insurance policies (that I know of) permit you to take your pet on holiday with you in the UK, and sometimes, abroad. How long they will class as a "holiday" can vary, but if you ask they can tell you.

It's not ideal, but if you have a base area where your dog is registered with the vet, then returning to that vet for standard treatments and then, if an emergency happens in another area, telling your insurer that you are currently on holiday there, is just about the only way to do it.

[Paul C]

I've never seen a pet insurance policy that will take on previous conditions, either. Pet insurance is unusual, in that its possible to take out a policy with one provider and so long as you continue with them, they'll cover previous conditions (on certain of their policies); but that if you move provider, they don't do this. It basically means that unlike eg car insurance etc, if you seek the best price upon each renewal you're not comparing like-for-like.

 

Happy to be corrected though.

[Bunny]

We c/cruise April to November then winter moorings . Our rabbit, Rodney, was covered by pet plan and the policy went to my mum's address in Bournemouth , I didn't mention living afloat , to be perfectly honest I didn't think of it . Anyway last year he was very ill and we visited a vet in Rugby twice , then another in Banbury and back for more treatment in Newbury . Total bill in excess of £400 . Each vet filled in the forms and noted continuous treatment. We were reimbursed. Unfortunately poor old Rodney didn't make it . Our Bessie bunny is insured by Pets at home . Claim will be put in soon as she not well at the moment, they paid the last one ok . Bunny

[Guest]

We c/cruise April to November then winter moorings . Our rabbit, Rodney, was covered by pet plan and the policy went to my mum's address in Bournemouth , I didn't mention living afloat , to be perfectly honest I didn't think of it . Anyway last year he was very ill and we visited a vet in Rugby twice , then another in Banbury and back for more treatment in Newbury . Total bill in excess of £400 . Each vet filled in the forms and noted continuous treatment. We were reimbursed. Unfortunately poor old Rodney didn't make it . Our Bessie bunny is insured by Pets at home . Claim will be put in soon as she not well at the moment, they paid the last one ok . Bunny

The problem here is that the OP is striving to be totally honest with an insurer which is generally the best policy with any insurance company.

 

It could be argued by them that saying you and your pet live at an address that you do not actually live at is deceiving them which could lead to a refusal to pay any or part of a claim, worse case is they could claim they have been defrauded if a claim under such circumstances has been paid out.

 

You may have not been questioned about it because your insurers have I guess assumed your pet has taken ill whilst you were temporarily away from the address rather than it being a permanent situation which of course can and does happen. Ours covers us for emergency treatment even whilst abroad for example.

 

Of course when you try to be upfront and honest you almost inevitably hit the 'computer says no' scenario, hence its understandable why some take the risk.

[Neil Smith]

Why not put the money away every month that you are prepared to pay for insurance then use that for any treatment, you never know but you may not need it for a long while then your in profit and can treat yourself.

 

Neil

[Guest]

Why not put the money away every month that you are prepared to pay for insurance then use that for any treatment, you never know but you may not need it for a long while then your in profit and can treat yourself.

 

Neil

Great in theory but when treatments can sometimes easily run into four figures you'd need to save a lot.

 

Plus that method does not provide any third party cover which a good pet insurance policy does.

[dmr]

The technique with all these things is to say you go on long holidays rather than living a nomadic life.

We are with Petplan and Sophie has had a number of longish problems that have resulted in us visiting a number of vets as we travel. Petplan have handled this well and alwayys only deducted one excess per condition even when that is treated by several vets.

 

I suspect our "home" address is in an "expensive vet" area if such things really do exist.

 

It can be difficult to get good continuity of care with all these vets involved.but on the other hand one does get a lot of opinions and where one vet fails another might succeed.

 

............Dave

[MHS]

Great in theory but when treatments can sometimes easily run into four figures you'd need to save a lot.

 

Plus that method does not provide any third party cover which a good pet insurance policy does.

We haven't had pet insurance for around 8 years now. We have put the money away and saved a fortune on our 3 dogs.

 

Yes, we've been lucky as in that time, we wouldn't have made a single claim. It helps that our Labs have never been overweight, fed tit-bits or cheap dog food.

 

We have 3rd party insurance included in our home insurance. Not sure this would be included in any/many boat policies, but it may be worth looking.

[Guest]

We haven't had pet insurance for around 8 years now. We have put the money away and saved a fortune on our 3 dogs.

 

Yes, we've been lucky as in that time, we wouldn't have made a single claim. It helps that our Labs have never been overweight, fed tit-bits or cheap dog food.

 

We have 3rd party insurance included in our home insurance. Not sure this would be included in any/many boat policies, but it may be worth looking.

There is little doubt that some will be in and some will be out of pocket. And of course the overall balance in terms of money has to be in favour of the insurance companies otherwise they would be out of business.

 

However all that said I don't miss the £3 per week our current policy costs for Simon.

 

Good point on home insurance but I don't think our basic policy would cover the costs of a RTC caused by our dog. It would be worth people checking though.

 

I seriously doubt a boat insurance policy would include cover for such an event though am happy to be corrected.

Edited October 28, 2015 by MJG

[Paul C]

I'd have been out of pocket had I simply put away what I spent on pet insurance. But given the chance of you getting it, now that you've revealed you'll be boating, its not a disasterous suggestion.

[Loafer]

Don't tell em, Pike!

[Paul C]

Don't tell em, Pike!

 

He already has!

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

Plus that method does not provide any third party cover which a good pet insurance policy does.

My home insurance covered that, don't know how that would work living on a boat as I have never gone into that aspect of boat insurance.

[MHS]

As a dog gets older, the premiums usually rocket. Your excess gets much bigger, and the companies often only pay a percentage of any claim above the excess.

 

The time comes when it's not worth paying the premiums, particularly if you get to the stage where it's not fair to put an old dog through major invasive surgery.

[ditchcrawler]

I'd have been out of pocket had I simply put away what I spent on pet insurance. But given the chance of you getting it, now that you've revealed you'll be boating, its not a disasterous suggestion.

I was the opposite, three Labradors, one reached 13, one 15 and one only 8 and no insurance.

[MHS]

I was the opposite, three Labradors, one reached 13, one 15 and one only 8 and no insurance.

+1

 

Our three Labs (now only one living) and GSD cost us pennies, since we cancelled all our policies.

 

I think if you own a small dog, or cross breed, the premiums are cheaper??

 

Other comment is that vets often offer extra expensive tests and treatments to insured owners. This forces everyone's premiums up.

 

When we've said to the vets that we are not insured, they usually give us a fixed price, and keep the costs down. We would pay whatever is needed, but don't want them taking the Micky.

Edited October 28, 2015 by MHS

[Paul C]

+1

 

Our three Labs (now only one living) and GSD cost us pennies, since we cancelled all our policies.

 

I think if you own a small dog, or cross breed, the premiums are cheaper??

 

Other comment is that vets often offer extra expensive tests and treatments to insured owners. This forces everyone's premiums up.

 

When we've said to the vets that we are not insured, they usually give us a fixed price, and keep the costs down. We would pay whatever is needed, but don't want them taking the Micky.

 

At our vets they use a pet medical/other records system, and on the main page at the top in large letters is "Insured" or "Not insured". Read into that what you will!!

[Rufford]

My dog costs me a 100 quid a month on insurance, got him some and then of course one day I thought whilst looking at the dog; you have better healthcare than me. So I then took out a policy for me and the Mrs.

 

Bloody insurance. They are almost as bad as solicitors.

 

Regarding address, I reasoned with them that I spend more time at work than at home. As does the dog. End result insured but not for third party whilst at work.

[Starcoaster]

The attempts to save my cat after she was attacked by a dog in August came to around 20k after three weeks in a referral clinic, consults with top level specialists, and every attempt at treatment you can imagine (until the point where it was no longer in her best interests to do so.)

I'm still not even sure of the total bill, it might even be over 20k when you factor in the initial treatments in my local clinic, which got to about 2k.

Ultimately I lost her anyway, but if I had lost her for want of ability to pay for her treatment, I would not have coped.

20k is not a figure I am ever likely to posses in my lifetime, hence insurance.

 

And yes, before anyone spits their tea out of their nose, my cat was worth that much to me, and I still endorse the attempts made to save her, and their cost.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Starcoaster

[MHS]

I'm very sorry to hear about your cat.

 

iirc I read your post about it at the time.

 

Your love of, and loyalty to your cat doesn't surprise me, but the numbers do.

 

You are talking about a total bill of £20,000? What amazes me, is that the insurance company doesn't have a much lower cap on a claim following an attack like this. I would have expected them to refuse to continue much earlier. Most companies will try to duck out of claims whenever they can.

[Starcoaster]

Nope, good insurers are very supportive. I am not sure how/why they could cap a legitimate claim at a level below the policy limit-that would defeat the object of having insurance in the first place.

 

Ultimately, assuming the claim is for something your policy includes and the entirety of the fees claimed for is directly related to the incident and the vet approved the treatment/thought it was viable and in the best interests of the animal, good companies pay out.

My own policy (underwritten by Allianz) covered up to 7.5k. The dog was also insured (Pet Plan, again underwritten by Allianz) and had third party liability cover as part of this, up to 2million, which is what will ultimately pay for the treatment. The dog owner paid the excess on his own policy directly to the vet and his insurers are dealing with both sets of vets directly.

It is likely going to take months to sort out nonetheless-ironically, both of us having insurance rather than just one of us, threw up loads of complications that were not even really made easier by the fact both insurance policies were with the same underwriter.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Starcoaster

[David Mack]

The attempts to save my cat after she was attacked by a dog in August came to around 20k after three weeks in a referral clinic, consults with top level specialists, and every attempt at treatment you can imagine (until the point where it was no longer in her best interests to do so.)

I'm still not even sure of the total bill, it might even be over 20k when you factor in the initial treatments in my local clinic, which got to about 2k.

Ultimately I lost her anyway, but if I had lost her for want of ability to pay for her treatment, I would not have coped.

20k is not a figure I am ever likely to posses in my lifetime, hence insurance.

Which rather illustrates the point that for the more common incidents which cost two or three hundred pounds you are probably better off not paying the premiums and putting the money under the mattress instead, but insurance comes into its own when a big one hits you.

 

My approach with insurance is generally to go for as high an excess as I can (on the basis that I probably wouldn't bother to claim anyway for a smaller matter) and get a lower premium, but still be covered for larger claims. What really p*sses me off is people who put in trivial claims that must result in admin costs for the insurer which are out of all proportion to the sums claimed, but nevertheless put up my premiums as a result.

[Ange]

To directly answer the OP - I did try to get insurance for our dog but couldn't without lying. Millie is uninsured and we keep our fingers crossed all the time that she doesn't need vet care that will break the bank for us.

 

She's 11 now, fighting fit, but I am scared.

[Alanji]

Not something I had considered but as I am about to become bricks and mortarless I will have to do so. As I take a winter marina mooring I may be able to use the marina address even though I will not be living on the boat much (warmer climes beckon!).

 

I wouldn't like to be without cover - not only for possibility of huge vet fees (like another poster I choose a large excess) but 3rd party. As someone said causing a car crash could bankrupt you!