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The Pros and Cons of Pet Insurance for Guinea Pigs

Pet insurance for guinea pigs is something that certainly many piggie owners give thought to.

With the unknown cost of vets fees, it can be unsettling to have your beloved pets suddenly go down with illness and not being able to pay for it.

So this is where pet insurance for guinea pigs comes in.

So what are the pros and cons of such insurance?

We wont attempt to make any kind of decision or give an opinion of whether we think it is worth it. Its up to you to decide that, but hopefully the points below will give you some food for thought.

Pros

You pay for peace of mind. The thing with insurance is that you are paying for the peace of mind that you are covered if you have any medical emergencies with your guinea pigs.

You don’t have to pay for expensive vet bills. It can be quite nervy taking your piggies to the vets and not knowing how much it is going to cost you for the treatment and consultation that they will get. This is where pet insurance is great because by paying your premiums up front you can ensure that there aren’t any scary bills when the time comes to take them to the vets.

They cover the cost of expensive medical procedures. Medical treatment has come a long way and most illnesses are treatable, however they are not cheap. Pet insurance means that your piggies can get the treatment they need without you being hit financially for it.

You can control the outlay. Pet insurance has an annual premium which can either be paid upfront or split into monthly payments. This means that you can include it in your monthly budget. This is very attractive for a lot of people who don’t like big financial surprises.

You can shop around for the best cover. Depending on which country you live in, there are usually different companies who offer guinea pig insurance. In the UK we are limited to a few insurers but in other countries there are more options. This means that you can shop around and choose the best policy for you.

You can get multiple plans that cover many guinea pigs. Depending on what type of policy you go with, you can have a policy that pays out if you have more than one guinea pig that requires vet attention in any one 12 month period.

There are different types of policy that you can get depending on their suitability.

For example, 12 month cover gives you a maximum amount of claims per condition. However there is also a limit of how often the fees can be paid for each condition. Once it reaches its limit the condition is excluded from future claims.

Accident only cover treats injuries caused by accidents only.

Lifetime cover means that any vet fees up to a particular amount are covered for the lifetime of the pet. It gives you the same amount of cover, and it doesn’t matter how many claims that you make.

Maximum benefit cover gives you a maximum amount of fees that are covered depending on the condition. However, once you reach the financial limit, the condition becomes a pre-existing condition.

Cons

The cost can be expensive. If you don’t have the budget for it, pet insurance can be out of the price range of owners. If you are on a tight budget then it can cause quite a lot of worry as to what budgetary payments are sacrificed in order to pay for such an outlay.

You pay for an excess up front. With most policies, in order to pay out on the claim, the insurer will require you to pay an excess up front as is the case with other types of insurance policies. So for example, you may need to pay the first £50 of you vet’s bill in order for the claim to be paid out.

Most policies wont cover pre-existing conditions. Watch out for whether the policy covers conditions that your guinea pig already suffers from. Most don’t and so you will have to pay the bill if your guinea pig needs treatment related to that condition. If its a new condition which has occurred after you have taken out the policy, you will be fine.

There could be other hidden costs that you have to pay out for. Often with these policies, there may be fees that you have to pay. For instance, it may not cover the cost of your vet writing out the insurance claim form for example. Most vet’s charge for this.

The cheapest isn’t always the best. If you are shopping around, be aware that as with a lot of insurance policies, the cheapest policy doesn’t guarantee the same quality of policy as a more expensive one. If its cheap there is often a reason. So always ready the small print.

Once you pay out your premiums you don’t get that money back. As with most insurance policies, once you pay out the premium, you don’t see that money again.

 

We hope that this has been helpful. There are some great policies out there that you can check out, however if you feel that they aren’t for you, then there is always the choice of taking a risk with the vet’s bill and paying it as it comes up.

can guinea pigs share a cage

Getting a Guinea Pig Insurance Quote for the First Time

We all love our guinea pigs. They are very precious to us and we do what we can to make their lives happy and content. However there maybe times when we need medical assistance for our piggies because their health has deteriorated to such an extent that we need to take them to a vet.

Just the mere thought of taking their loved piggies to the vets sends most owners into a cold sweat thinking about the cost of such a visit. It can cost £25-£30 just to get to see a vet in the UK, and that’s not including treatment fees and the cost of medication.

However, there is another way for guinea pig owners to pay for the treatment of their piggies and that is through pet insurance. Or do you just chance it that your guinea pigs won’t get sick or worse still, let them suffer because the cost is just too great?

So is pet insurance for guinea pigs worth it and what are the kind of things that need to be thought through before taking the plunge with it?

I decided to take a look and get a quote for myself to see if it was something that I wanted to pursue.

I know insurance isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I know some people may be interested in my experience so I have blogged about it here.

Note: The following details about the quote are correct at the date of this post. The policy and premium quote may change

Where did I get my pet insurance quote from?

There are not many insurers that offer it in the UK.

Most insurers only recognize two types of animals, cats and dogs!

However, Gocompare.com offered it through Exoticpetsdirect.com which is where I got my quote from.

Using Exotic Direct

Exotic Direct offer Small Mammal insurance which covers guinea pigs. However, they only offer one policy for a maximum of three guinea pigs. So for someone like myself who has 4 guinea pigs, I would need 2 policies.

Going onto the next screen they wanted to know each guinea pig’s name, breed, purchase price, and birth date.

I wasn’t sure on the birth date, so had to provide an estimate. Interestingly, they would not accept that I had got Charlie and Fuzzy-wuzzy for free, so I had to put their purchase price in as a £1. This was the minimum amount it would accept.

Next they wanted my personal details. As usual for insurance companies, they wanted to know name, address, phone numbers, DOB, and email for a basic quote.

Then the next screen took me to the initial quote.

How much does guinea pig insurance cost?

guinea pig insuranceFor 3 guinea pigs, there were two types of quote that were given entitled ‘available’ and ‘popular’.

‘Available’ gave me an annual premium of 389.60 and ‘Popular’ gave me an annual premium of £291.02. These can both be paid by direct debit in monthly instalments over 10 months.

The difference between ‘available’ and ‘popular’ is that ‘available’ insures all 3 pets individually, where as ‘popular’ only seems to insure one pet at a time.

The policy is underwritten by Allianz insurance who are one of the world’s largest insurers. and is for 12 months. I have dealt with Allianz before and I know they are a good insurance company.

What is covered under their guinea pig insurance policy?

It would cover my guinea pigs for loss by fire, theft, lightning, storm or wind.

It would cover them against death as a result of accident or illness.

Finally it would cover their veterinary fees for an accident or illness, up to a limit of £5000 in the policy period.

What isn’t covered under their policy?

However, it wont cover the loss of a guinea through escape or mysterious disappearance.

They wont cover any vet fees or death benefit in the first year as a result a of pre-existing condition. This means that if your guinea pig already has a poorly leg for example, before you took out the insurance, the policy would not cover you for it. You would have to pay for the vets fees yourself. However, if the poorly leg continued for past the first 12 months of the policy then you could claim on the insurance for it.
11.

They wont cover the cost of a post mortem report which may be required in the event of a mortality claim, any further excess due under a recurring condition. So you would be liable for the excess on each claim.

They also don’t cover the cost of your vets fees for completing the insurance claim forms (this was a surprise!)

source https://www.exoticdirect.co.uk/whitedragon/documents/file/Policy%20Summary.pdf

Both policies have an excess of £50 for veterinary treatment, although a larger excess may apply for certain treatments. This means whenever I make a claim, I will have to pay £50.

If I wanted to take it further, there were further questions they wanted to know and it would have to go up to their underwriters to review.

What to do?

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet, but will look around at other policies and see what they have to offer and see how their price compares.

Pet insurance for guinea pigs certainly provides peace of mind for owners, especially if the vet bill is high. But the cost is the main factor and weighing it up against just paying vets bills out of my own pocket.

But its certainly been an interesting exercise.

Have you taken out pet insurance for your guinea pigs, if so it would be great to hear from you about your experience in using it.