There are many reasons you should get pet insurance, and it isn’t all about the money you’d save.  Now, the money is a huge part of it, don’t get me wrong.  For a manageable monthly payment you can eradicate vet bills for good and get many years of having a healthy pet; you’ve heard it before of course but you cannot hear it enough really, your pet is worth every penny of your money i’m sure.  Haven’t we all had massive vet bills that have crippled us?  Of course we have, but we’ve still paid them haven’t we?

Not only this, pet insurance can also offer a reward for your pet should it go missing.  People in this day and age are far more willing to look for a missing pet if there is a little money in it for them; sad i know, but true.  Gone are the days when people would rally together and help look for the pet for free!

Another thing to consider about pet insurance is that should you lose your pet for any reason medical or otherwise, you can also claim compensation for your loss if you have the right pet insurance.

There are many pet insurance companies out there, but believe it or not they don’t all offer this sort of compensation.  You might think that this is unneccesary if your dog is still with you, and you probably don’t want to even entertain the thought of compensation should you lose it, but consider the things you could do with a little extra money at the end if you had it.

It’s worth a little time to consider at least.  If you couldn’t think of anything you needed to buy, or your pet insurance had covered any medical bills you had outstanding, you could always pay for a fitting tribute to your dog or perhaps even donate to a dogs home on your pet’s behalf.  There are thousands of things that a little money could help you with in the event of losing your dog; please consider it.

It’s simple when you consider that you can get pet insurance for a dog from Tesco for around £7.35 a month at the moment, which makes it £88.20 a year.  Now consider that last operation you paid for (or a friend paid for when their pet was ill, everyone knows a vet bill story).  IT makes sense to get pet insurance when you think that a vet bill can quite easily be £200+, and you can also end up paying that out twice if symptoms persist etc etc.

Those expensive vet bills will be sorted out by your insurance company and sometimes the insurance company will make payment directly to your vet on your behalf, so you don’t have to sort anything out at all!

When it comes to an operation for a dog, due to an accident perhaps, or an illness, what do people do who don’t have pet insurance?  I reasoned that they must love their dog so they would do anything they could to get the money to pay for the treatment.  They would sell their TV set and miss out on the family holiday, or some equally big sacrifice that the whole family would make (and so they should!)  After all, their dog is a member of the family isn’t it?

Then i asked myself, is the dog really a member of the family if it isn’t insured like the rest of the family.  The majority of families these days have life and/or health insurance, but not all pets do.  When a family is presented with a huge vet bill and they are required to make a sacrifice in order to keep their beloved pet alive, they must surely ask themselves, “perhaps we should get some pet insurance.”  And to be honest it’s not surprising is it?

For the equivalent price of many operations your pet could end up having, your pet insurance could be spread out over the space of a year and your pet will still be covered from everything all year!  That’s a hell of a saving isn’t it?

They all centre around one main thing: Look after your pet!  There, i said it, and if you do this then not only will your insurance premium stay reasonably low, but your pet will be much healthier too.

It is a fact that these pet insurance companies do their research thoroughly and they know very well what complaints dogs and cats suffer from, they know why, and believe me they know how much they cost to keep.  So the only way you can beat them is to minimise this so that they charge you less.

You could start by ensuring your pet has a reasonable diet that won’t prematurely age it and clog its arteries.  High fat diets like many human beings will seriously kill your pet and it’s simply not worth being this “kind” to your pet; inevitably you’ll kill it.

There are a number of high priced treaments in a verterinary surgery and i know for a fact that one of them is dental work; this can cost a fortune.  You can prevent this too by brushing your dog’s teeth and/or simply not allowing your dog to eat things that are likely to damage its teeth; including sweets!

The RSPCA have reported massive rises again in abandonment, and research suggests that a lot of this is due simply to the fact that people haven’t properly considered how much it will cost to own and take good care of a pet.  Just like us, pets require check ups and often frequent medical attention; and it’s quite likely that an animal these days is going to need surgery at least once in its lifetime.

Pet insurance covers these vet bills of course, but what is actually making vet bills so high these days?  Well it’s basically down to the modern techniques and treatments offered by vets these days.  Whilst they may still be very overpriced, some of these treatments do cost a lot of money and of course (including their all important profit) these costs are passed onto the customer.  Pet insurance is essential these days simply because the majority of medical problems that would have ordinarily resulted in the loss of your pet’s life a few years ago can now be solved and cured completely with the new techniques and equipment.

Keeping a pet is no longer a cheap thing to do, when it gets sick you don’t simply put it down; not if there is an option to save it!

You take risks yourself simply because of something called public liability insurance.  If you don’t have this then you cannot be fully aware of th risks involved with your pet, or you do know and you don’t care; if it’s the latter then you really shouldn’t own a pet, you’re a danger to everyone.

The risks are considerable, and if you read my previous post about public liability insurance then you’ll get the idea about how important it is and you’ll also get some insight into what could happen and the sort of expenses you might expect to see if your pet was to cause a terrible accident or worse.

However, back to caring about your dog.  What happens if your dog or cat gets sick for example?  You will be required to pay for their treatment.  And then what happens if you can’t afford to pay for their treatment by a qualified veterinarian?  Well you put your pet’s life at risk don’t you; either that or you cause them extreme pain and discomfort.  Is it really not worth paying a few extra pounds out each month to protect yourself and your pet from all eventualities?

However, those who do offer public liability pet insurance sometimes differ in the amount of cover offered.  You must always look into this and always take the one that offers the highest level of cover at the most reasonable price; how reasonable the price is obviously depends entirely on you and your budget so i wouldn’t dream of telling you who i consider the best one to be in this respect, i would advise you to shop around.

As much as you might not want to think about it, you must consider that awful things can happen as a result of something one of your pets could do.  All these terrible things that you can imagine will require either paying for or compensating in some way.  You need the higher levels of cover simply because things are never really that simple are they?  If your dog was to run out on the road and cause an accident you can bet that it wouldn’t be just one car that crashes into a lamp pose, it could quite easily be several that crash into each other.  Now think about the amount of damage your dog could cause before you think about not taking out pet insurance.

You could very well have a point, and even if your dog gets sick 5 or maybe 6 times in its life it may well cost you less than its entire lifetime in pet insurance payments.  But are you prepared to take that risk?  Many people who do take this risk fall prey to the huge vet bills that exist these days.

If you think that you can get away with it then you are a mistaken.  The first few cases may well be cheap, but what happens if your pet needs surgery and you can’t afford it?  Do you think you may have let your pet down by not being covered?  In know you will have done.

But against all this there is a much heavier price to pay for having a lack of good pet insurance.  What happens if the worst happens and there is an accident caused by your pet?  This could cost you a fortune in lawyer’s fees in order to sort out and you could be sued for thousands of pounds.  Public liability insurance comes with most pet insurance these days and it is really something that you should not look over.

Be safe and keep your pet protected.

Both the insurers are pretty good.  I don’t want to sound like i am favouring one over the other, and to be honest they both have strengths where the other has weaknesses, but you can find that out yourself when you compare the two.

Sainsbury’s Pet Insurance:

• If it’s nectar points you’re after then you’ll want to get your pet insurance from Sainsburys because they offer double nectar points on any pet insurance policy at the moment.  [accurate at time of publication].
• You can get 12 months pet insurance for the price of nine at the moment and until September 2010.  It’s a good time to buy pet insurance from these guys.
• If you have more than one pet, with Sainsbury’s you can get a 5% discount on your second pet.
• You can get up to £7500 in vet fees cover.

Information about public liability insurance wasn’t available to me readily, but i strongly urge anyone taking out this insurance to make sure they ask Sainsbury’s about it and make sure that they are covered in the event of something happening beyond their control.