Article Title: Pet Insurance Why Bother?
Author: Terry King
I recently read a piece of advice to pet owners that really
annoyed me, basically the author suggested that pet insurance
was a waste of money and pet owners would be better off putting
the money in a savings account to cover any unexpected vets
bills. The argument went along the lines that over the average
10 year lifespan of a dog, the owner was statistically unlikely
to recover the £2200 in estimated premiums.
No way you, you don't say what a genius! Pet insurance is just
like any other insurance, its money you pay for piece of mind,
just incase something goes wrong. Most of us have household
insurance, or contents insurance, so we know that we will have
enough money to cover costs, in the statistically unlikely event
of the worst happening. There is no way I would expect to claim
all of the £40,000s or so I expect to pay in premiums on my home
and its contents during my lifetime. I accept that in return for
knowing should I be unlucky enough to have a flood or be burgled
I will be able to replace damaged or stolen items; in return the
insurance company is allowed to make a profit.
Let's say I applied the advice to my home insurance and rather
that taking out a policy I put the money away in a savings
account. If I was lucky and the next 10 years were uneventful in
say ten years I would have a tidy nest egg, which would cover
most but not all eventualities. However if I was unfortunate and
after only a few months my bathroom flooded, (as recently
happened), I would not have saved enough to cover the cost of
repairs or damaged possessions.
The same principle is true with Pet Insurance, if I chose to
put the money away in a bank account I could be lucky and never
need to touch the money until my pet dies. On the other hand I
believe that with my luck, after only a few weeks my dog or cat
are more likely to contract an illness, that is only treatable
by the most expensive drugs known to the veterinary world. In
this hypothetical case, by this time I would have saved just
enough money to say "Hello" to the vet.
I guess that a good way to make a decision about pet insurance
is to decide what type of pet owner you are. I think for the
sake of argument we should create two broad categories of Pet
Owners.
The first type we can call the "I'll do anything for my Pet,
whatever the cost Clan".
The second we'll name "I do whatever is reasonable, but if the
cost's start mounting it's just a Dog or Cat people".
I don't intend to pass comment on the rights or wrongs of
either attitude, both types of people would consider themselves
responsible pet owners and who am I to disagree.
But I do suggest that you might want to decide which of the two
descriptions most closely describes you, before making a
decision whether or not to take out pet insurance.
If you think that you are closer to former than the latter,
then I would strongly advice you to take out Pet Insurance.
If you feel your attitude is closer to the latter, then hey
live a little Insurance is for wimps!
About The Author: Terry King runs Parcel Pets -
http://www.pets2hom
and has had pets all his life. He lives with his wife Louise,
dog Sam, Cat Sabrina and 5 fish!
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