Insurance vs saving up

Diane H

Diane H

Junior Guinea Pig
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Crail, Fife, Scotland
I’m looking into insuring the guinea pigs I’ll be adopting in the near future and wondered if members preferred to take out guinea pig insurance over having a guinea saving pot for future vet bills? I’ve seen Exotic Direct, are they any good?

If you save some money each month instead of taking out insurance, for two guineas with no current health problems (~1 year old), what amount are you looking at? I’m thinking of putting aside £30 per month to cover both?
 
Exotic direct are the only ones to offer guinea pig insurance. I never bothered as with 4 piggies it's massively expensive. I have only had two occasions where the insurance would have been good due to very high bills. Most times, by the time the excess is taken off, I would have had around £10 covered by them so I use savings instead. I don't have a set amount to save as it all goes in a general savings pot instead of a specific one for piggies
 
I looked into insurance when we first got our first 2 piggies and it would have cost £23 a month for 2 healthy young piggies and the maximum payout was £2000 per year so I decided it wasnt worth it.
I always make sure I have about £200 per piggy saved up ready for vet bills, with about the same amount I could easily access on my credit card if anything serious happened needing an operation. My most expensive set of vet bills so far was about £380 all at once for Blodwen, but Puggle's recurring bloat cost us about £180 initially then about £60 a month for a few months... and once my piggies start getting older I need to be prepared for more regular and expensive vet bills!
 
I took out insurance when I got my first piggies. I think it was around £26-£30 a month and gave the maximum cover for both. The second year there was quite a hike in monthly cost so I decided to just put money away. I now have four and wouldn’t get insurance again. Luckily they’re fine so far, but I think having a vet fund is better.

Be aware I think there’s a clause where they don’t cover pre-existing conditions for two weeks or something. I can’t remember exactly what it said. Only you can decide whether it suits you to pay for insurance or have a vet fund.
 
This is a very helpful thread 😊

We too decided that insurance didn't seem like a good deal after we'd paid for it for a year and the boys needed nothing but their annual check up, but I'm also not very confident about how much it would be good to set aside.
 
Hubby and I inquired about insurance in the past as well. They quoted us £15 per piggy, we had 3 that time. We didn't go through with it. We also found out that they don't cover dentals, which we had a couple of piggies having dental problems in the past. We are lucky we can afford vet fees, but if you can have a vet fund and put money in it weekly/monthly, that's better.
 
anyar.dris said:
Hubby and I inquired about insurance in the past as well. They quoted us £15 per piggy, we had 3 that time. We didn't go through with it. We also found out that they don't cover dentals, which we had a couple of piggies having dental problems in the past. We are lucky we can afford vet fees, but if you can have a vet fund and put money in it weekly/monthly, that's better.
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Oh, I didn’t know that! I don’t remember reading it in their policy document!
 
Siikibam said:
Oh, I didn’t know that! I don’t remember reading it in their policy document!
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I can't remember if hubby saw it in the policy/terms and condition while reading about it or somewhere else. But yeah, dental procedures isn't included. Just meds I think will be included or check up or something like that. But if there are extensive procedures, it won't be included. Like in humans, some dental treatments aren't included in health insurances (I had it when I was still living in the Philippines) and only one free teeth cleaning and 3 teeth fillings were usually included in it.
 
I decided that I’d rather have the money in my account as Insurance was expensive and I really didn’t think it would be worth it.
I earmark about £500 for vet bills which covers most things and top up when needed.
It also means avoiding the hassle of dealing with insurance claims
 
I didn't take it out as they only cover up to £2,000 a year (Bracken and Rusty both had operations costing more than that), pre existing conditions aren't covered, they won't cover un registered medicines (most given to guineas), the excess is quite large and they don't cover guinea pigs over the age of 5. I keep a savings pot as with 6 piggies the £30 each a month insurance didn't seem a very good deal.
 
piggieminder said:
I didn't take it out as they only cover up to £2,000 a year (Bracken and Rusty both had operations costing more than that), pre existing conditions aren't covered, they won't cover un registered medicines (most given to guineas), the excess is quite large and they don't cover guinea pigs over the age of 5. I keep a savings pot as with 6 piggies the £30 each a month insurance didn't seem a very good deal.
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To say it wasn’t a good deal sounds like an understatement to me!
 
I looked at it when I first got my piggies after having a trip to the vets that cost over £200 🙈🙈 .. decided it was going to be too expensive... I keep a little fund in my PayPal account for the vet trips...
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond, all very helpful, not just me but I’m sure to other newbies. I think having a decent little pot of money aside (£200-£500) at all times is looking like the best option 👍
 
Question to those that have pet insurance,
How much do you pay for pet insurance?
Also for how many guinea pigs?
 
I don’t know that many (or any) have it on here. If you do a search you’ll find how much people may have paid in the past.
 
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