Pet Insurance

[Pete]

Wondering if anyone can help me.  We are moving down to the Dordogne at the end of this month and bringing our cat and dog.  

Anyone got any ideas for French companies that do pet insurance (obviously there are loads in UK) ?

Any advice much appreciated.

Pete 

[londoneye]

We get ours through a company called April Assurances.

Prices are not bad, although there are some things not covered.   Errm, hate to say this, but I have never quite found out what is covered actually.   However, if it helps I can give you two examples which were:

     Cat being bitten by another cat, resulting in abcess - was covered in full

     Cat being attacked or fallen from something (no idea what happened really) - was classed as accident and was covered, albeit there was a little bit of interrogation, because we had no idea what had happened.

      Dog - problem with ears - only the lab tests were covered, not the vets' fees.

Primarily got ours in case cat or dog developed a longish term illness or had something drastic happen, like being run over.    However, if you want to wait until you get here (assuming you are moving from UK and not just another part of France), then most vets waiting rooms have a good selection of leaflets which you can then compare as to the cover obtained.

Feel free to pm if you want further information about the insurance.

[mossie]

Also check, you might find that your UK insurance covers you for a period of time when you first come over.  I think ours went for 40 days or something along those lines.  We haven't been able to insure our two dogs over here because we were told they were too old (7 and 8 respectively).  We were told this by the french lady we rent our house from who works in an insurance office in Paris.  We are however going to re-investigate this when we get a pup.  I would be interested to hear what you find out.

[londoneye]

Good point - Ive just checked April information, and their tariff only goes up to 7 years of age, although as I understand it, if you start the insurance before the animal is that age then they will continue.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

How much generally is pet insurance? Are we talking 100's a year or 50? I know it's a subjective question, but I have never heard of such a thing. I take it it's purely a health insurance?

[mossie]

Like any insurance it depends.  Firstly it depends on the age/size/health/known genetic problems of the breed of dog and what risks are covered.  We have a deerhound, a large breed who obviously cost more to ensure than a smaller dog.  I can't remember the exact details, but in the UK I think he cost about £120 a year to insure with a very good insurer.  My braque, on the other hand, being a smaller breed was less than £100.  However I think this is well worth it.  Firstly we didn't have to worry about big bills and when the deerhound broke his leg at 14 months, the vet's bill was about £1000 but all we paid was the £40 excess.  From that one episode alone, it has been worth it.  It was also very comforting because at the time all I had to worry about was whether they would be able to save my dog (you can't have a three legged deerhound as they are too big) and not about whether I could pay the bills.

[londoneye]

My cat insurance costs c. 11 euros a month (3 years old) and my dog costs c.13 euros a month (just over a year).

No excess to pay, but then as I said not exactly everything is covered.   Pretty much anything in relation to accident seems to be covered (finally checked it and obviously my French is better than when I took out the policy because I seem to understand it now !!! - hey progress).   
for illness as opposed to accident, consultation and pharmacy costs are not paid, although radiology, diagnostics etc seem to be.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

So consultancy costs arn't even covered? Sounds like a bad deal to me. So you'd pay £120 a year for say 10 years. That's £1200 gone. If something is wrong with your pet, most of the time, the vet can fix it themselves without further specialist needs. So say there's something wrong with your animal every other year on average (over the course of its life). Probably looking at £60 per consultation, plus medication say £40, that's another £500 to pay out over 10 years. Of course annual jabs and the like are not included in this calculation. That's £1700 gone, before anything really serious happens. Think I'd rather stick that money in an account of my own giving me interest and using it as and when needed.

[londoneye]

My friends do exactly what you say and this could actually be the most cost effective method.

However last year, we paid out 138 euros (cat, mauled by another, resulting abcess sorted), around another 70 euros for cat having mystery accident.   Total over 200 euros, all coming under accidents heading therefore all paid out.    Thus, not out of pocket for last year.    

I guess its like any insurance, you can't guarantee that you will come out better off at the end of it, but then thats not really point of it (although always good if you do !!)

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I suppose that's what insurance is, a gamble (unless it's illegal not to have it). You're gambling on something happening. With cats, I suppose they are more likely to get into trouble as mostly they are unsupervised. Both our dogs are over 7 now, so until they kick the bucket and we get new ones, insurance will not be an option for us anyway.