That thing at the end of August

Quoted from richardjackson99

I HATE insurance, it's always weighted against the claimant. And I speak after 36 years working in the financial sector.

The biggest clue is that the price you pay is called a premium  

But that's business - if someone could set up a not-for-profit insurance company, they'd be very popular...

At the end of the day, both sides in the contract are gambling on a possible outcome.

The insurer is gambling that the thing you've insured against will not happen, and the insured is gambling that if the thing they're insured against happens, the premiums will have been less than the cost of that thing they were insured against. So far with Snowy, that has definitely been the case.

The other gamble is that you don't take out insurance and cover everything yourself, but we'd have needed to put away £100/month to cover what Snowy has had out of Direct Line so far, not including the excesses and the bits we've still to claim for. I doubt many people would make that kind of financial commitment to owning a dog, when insurance is available, so it really becomes a necessary evil.

As Siddarz has said it's all a gamble.

Since November 1999 which is when I started keying everything we spend into Microsoft Money we have spent £3097.67 on pet insurance with Direct Line.

That sounds pretty horrific until you take into account the fact that they have paid out £9481.87, giving us a profit of £6384.20.

Which probably says we've been pretty unlucky with our dogs, but at least the cost has been manageable and spread monthly, apart from saving money overall.

None of that includes our first dog who ended up with a monthly medication bill of £250 in the early 1990s so we made a huge profit on that too.

You really pays your money and takes your choice, and always read carefully what is covered. Although there are always going to be policies which are better value than others remember that if a policy is cheaper there is often a good reason.

In particular watch for limits of both time and money that they will cover. Some policies will only cover a condition for 12 months after it first occurs - we got caught once on that one when something recurred a couple of years later and we weren't covered. There are also sometimes limits on how much they will pay out for a condition but that might be a lifetime amount or they might be prepared to pay that each year.

That's not to say that you have to go for the maximum cover but it's important to know what you are covered for.

If you are lucky and your dog isn't ill and doesn't have an accident you might never claim, and there must be people like that to make sure that the companies make a profit. But if you do have insurance at least you have an idea as to what you are going to spend in any one year.

I agree Andrew. I always go for a policy on the basis that I'm only buying insurance in case I need to claim, so I pretty much never go for the cheapest. I do however only have insurance where I couldn't afford to meet a potential cost myself ie. Never an extended warranty etc.

I bought pet insurance that covered a condition for life, what annoys me is the way they change the terms each year - not specifically the increased premium, but the excess being increased by 150% and the "sharing of claims" where I have to stand 20%. When I took out the policy, there was no mention of any prospect of that - although it did say that it was an annual contract and any renewal might not be offered on the same terms. I wonder if it works the same for car insurance? The only other annual contract insurance I buy - because I have to.

You live and learn.



R.

Payday at last, so cheque will be in the post tomorrow, that's is we're still welcome

Also just booked accomodation so we can come down for the Dartington show too

Quoted from Jack Knightmare

Payday at last, so cheque will be in the post tomorrow, that's is we're still welcome

Also just booked accomodation so we can come down for the Dartington show too

Are you at the Travelodge?

Afraid so

That's good. We look forward to meeting you properly. The dog will give us away.

Quoted from Bumble

That's good. We look forward to meeting you properly. The dog will give us away.

Likewise (apart from the dog bit)

Not a dog lover? They don't plot against you like cats. We ask when we book in not to have one of the rooms backing onto the reception patio. Domino barked when they stood outside our window having a fag. The good news is that they insist on giving you a ground floor room so that means no stairs

We had to pay £70 for Dartington saturday night, £20 for the dog and we took £10 option to have room at midday so we could make most of saturday.

We paid £70.00 for the Saturday, we did look at staying at Whiddon Down as it was only £45.00 for the night, & although probably not much further from Dartington, it's in the middleof now where, so decided to pay the extra. Still hope to go alteast part way down on the Friday if we can get somewhere cheap to stay.

As for dogs, I don't mind them generally (not GSD's - but that's a football thing) but prefer cats, the Mrs desperately wants a Jack Russell as she used to have them, but I don't think much of it's chances against the cat , as it's already gone for a Golden Retriever a the vets!