Pet Insurance Help...

[CEK40]

Good Morning to you all,

I was wondering if any of you out there have Pet Insurance on any of your four legged family members? My dd and her fiance were thinking about getting it for their's but I have heard mixed feelings about it. They have also considered getting a credit card just for pet medical bills but I don't even know if that is a good idea.

The dog in question is what I call a "vacum" and eats anything he can get in his mouth. He has been to the vet numerous times for "tummy" problems. We have considered putting a muzzle on him when he is outside to stop him from eating sticks and acorns or wood.

So if any of you have any information or personal experience on Pet Insurance it would be greatly appreciated, or if you have any tips on helping fund the financial aspect of owning a pet/pets that would be appreciated as well.

Thank you for all your wonderful "Budget" help, I love reading them.

CK in VA

 

[bicker]

We've considered it, and decided against.

Insurance is almost always a bad investment. Generally, it is best only when it covers expenses that you cannot afford to, but will be compelled to, incur.

Another scenario where insurance is potentially worthwhile is when it is offered for a specific service provider, or specific set of service providers, and includes enough ongoing expenses that you're going to incur no matter what. In a case like that it's actually not (just) insurance but (also) pre-payment of fees. You could therefore be effectively getting a discount on future services because the provider(s) is (are) assured that you're going to be loyal to them.

A third scenario, closely related to the second, is where the insurance includes a guarantee of discounted rates from a specific set of service providers. PPOs fall into this category. What I've found, though, is that for pets, the discount offered generally is not worth it. You're paying far too much for the insurance for the discount to justify, in most cases.

So in the case of pet insurance, it really comes down to how much money you typically have socked away for such a contingency, how much you'd ever be willing to spend to address a malady your pet is suffering from, and/or whether your veterinarian is offering kind of insurance I referred to above, i.e., on that includes all routine services for a period of time. In the latter case, you would compare the insurance premium against the standard fee for those routine services, and if the premium is much higher than the standard fee for those services, then it probably isn't worthwhile.