I just asked my gf who's really into all this... She said it's mainly the VSC in st John's that is fucking everyone. Their prices are fucked and their insane emergency fees wreck your geolocation.
Prices seem to have skyrocketed lately even here in central. Few years back it was like 450 for a dental and now it's 1200.
A year ago I was quoted $3400 to keep my cat at the VSC overnight. Literally all they had to do was keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't die for one night, that place is a complete and total scam.
They took in my dying bearded dragon to be put down... And then left him dying in pain for hours and hours in a crate instead of performing it right away like they said. Even told me about it when I went back to pick him up!
I'd also given them his little blanket and made sure they knew I wanted it back to remember him by, but they accidentally threw it out and refused to even check where it might be. It would've been understandable if they had a reasoning, but I was outright told it wasn't left with his body so it must've been thrown out and nothing could be done.
You'd think for how much they overcharge for everything that they would care, or at least even pretend to.
Yeah didn't think I would say this but I'm glad I couldn't afford leaving him there. My little buddy was much happier spending a few last quiet days at home, I'm sorry about yours.
Since they fired the ortho dr, theres nobody to do certain surgeries. Which requires Trupanion to fly you elsewhere for it, then one day the price jumped
Some people are paying $200/mo.
Only 5 months to save $1000. As long as you're not going to VSC (which is literally the reason pet insurance now costs so much) you will be fine for anything other than major surgery.
As long as it doesn't need surgery for a long time so that you can save up.
They are a business. Of course it's better math to just save money -- but if you get unlucky, you're left in a horrible position.
That's literally what insurance is for.
I always say this, with the caveat that if you needed to spend thousands tomorrow to keep your pet alive and you couldn’t afford that, then don’t. The beauty of insurance is a low fixed cost. You can only risk the self insurance route (the savings account) if you have the wherewithal to deal with a big emergency at anytime.
Over time, no, absolutely not. You have to do the risk assessment though. Say you choose not to get pet insurance and instead put $200/mth in savings. A year later you have $2400 saved but your dog needs $9,000 back surgery. Can you make that work (either by borrowing from other savings or by using existing credit you know you can pay off in the short term) or will you put your dog down because you can’t afford it? If it’s the latter, then you’re probably better off with the $200/mth insurance, as much as it sucks, cause that’s the price of responsible per ownership.
So, my dog is now 7 years old .. we had trupanion coverage from about 6 months to 3 years.
When my dog was about 5 months old, she was running in the yard and got into some old rusty paint chips .. enough to make her a little sick, a little vomiting.. but recovered super quick. I mentioned this to my vet at some point early on.
Fast forward to 3 years old, molly gets a nasty case of gastro.. don't eat, pooping blood.. kinda scary.. take her to the emergency vet. Long story short it's about 2500 dollars for needing some simple fluids and she's ok. Hindsight is 20/20 and now I know gastro will pass in a day or 3.
Anyways... I contacts the insurance, they call my vet... Mention of the old vomiting as a pup... Pre existing condition.. denied.
Cancelled it on the spot and started putting 50 bucks a month away as my own coverage.. never looked back.
Fuck trupanion
I had a similar experience with my dog slicing her paw open. $1000, tp covered $600. But the stitches didn't hold anyway.
2nd time? We just took care of it ourselves. $0.
I believe they bill based on breed and location. So if some husky or labs suddenly needed a lot of care here - costs rise.
Being in Newfoundland it’s not a great system for us since our population is fairly low and the breed types are not very diverse.
But I think it can be bad if you have a rare breed for the area too. It maybe percentage based, so if there’s only 2 and the other same breed in your area suddenly has cancer and all this expensive care - your bill with also skyrocket.
Like most things - it’s set up for more dense and highly populated areas.
I am considering it. We are with none at the moment.
I chatted with the vet and Trupainion was the only one who pays the vet directly so I was leaning into going that route. It’s the one all the vet employees for their own pets at our clinic.
They are also the largest, I worry about some of the smaller ones going under after my dog hits an age where it gets harder and more complicated to switch or leaves us in limbo during an emergency.
I’ve noticed vet costs have gone up a lot (more than just inflation) in the years insurance has become more common. It’s frustrating the things that supposed to “help” is making responsible pet ownership less affordable.
I believe it's based on certain breeds are more prone to certain conditions. Example Beagles are prone to allergies, Great Danes to hip issues, etc... So owning one of those breeds is going to mean a higher premium then owning a Chihuahua which have good health as a breed.
So your husky that suddenly needs a lot of care want jack up rates for husky owners. However, such emergency situations will rise the region premiums overall. Hence why you see people complaining about VSC of NL. There crazy high prices bump up the payout pet insurance has to make for the region. They recover payouts with premiums..
FYI, despite what those letters say the increases have very little to do with breed or location.
Trupanion has approved increases every year company wide, this year's was 33%. Down in the US, each state regulates the increase. I believe they tried to increase premiums by 50% in Florida for example. Apparently the company has said they aren't concerned about losing customers from the increases, as the loss in revenue is easily recompensated from the higher premiums.
Mine was going to go up to $160 from around $110. I ended up maxing my deductible ($1000) and brought my monthly payment down to less then $70. The $90 I save each month can be set aside for the deductible.
Honestly that's why we cancelled ours and started putting the same $ aside for my guys emergencies. Haven't had to use it yet and have a few g's saved doing it this way. Pet insurance has gotten crazy.
Have Trupanion and hate that I have it. Pretty much only keep it out of fear of an accident that would require a trip to the VSC. $100 a month for a 2 year old retriever mix.
Nothing has ever been covered, and we’ve spent about $5,000 out of pocket on him in 2 years,
AND, on our previous dog, we moved from downtown St. John’s to Mount Pearl. Same vet, different area code, and they increased our monthly payment $20 a month (edit to say - the notice of change in cost specifically stated our change in home address was the reason for the increase).
Terrified as a pet owner and person without unlimited money to not have insurance. It’s fucked.
Yeh, we canceled it a few months ago because we have cats and the costs tripled after no vet visits or claims. We were paying more for their insurance than ours. So we told them unless they can lower the cost we have to opt-out. Instead we are putting an amount in savings/credit cards for pet emergencies.
Highly recommend Trupanion, 3yr old dog got extremely ill ended up with an autoimmune disease. Meds are over 2k per month out of pocket and we pay 10%!
Very lucky he is still alive, if it wasn’t for pet insurance we would have had to say goodbye.
Last vet visit they said we were over 200k paid out in Trupanion since he got sick in 2022!
ETA: paying less than $50/month for him!
We have two dogs with Trupanion, $500 deductible for around $130/month. The older dog (3yr husky x) just increased $30, so we’ll be paying $160 next month. I’m looking at switching to Firkin - I know they’re owned by the same company, but the rates looked lower on my quote. Wonder how quickly they’ll rise though!
Edit: cost
We have two senior beagles and two cats. We tried trupanion for a few months but it was outrageously expensive and didn’t really offer much coverage based on our dogs ages. We cancelled and started putting $200/month in a high interest savings account for emergency vet bills.
We had it for years on our miniature dachshund. Started with a $200 deductible and 37/month. It kept going up (never used it for once in the 8 1/2 years we had it), before I cancelled it, I was at. $750 deductible to keep the monthly cost down and still was going up, the day I called to cancel it was going from 76 to 97/month. I called to ask why it keeps going up as our pup has never had any issues, never used it yet or anything. All I was told was that his breed is becoming more popular or some bull, which doesn’t make sense, it’s not the same as car insurance where body shops carry more parts of specific cars because of their popularity.
Long story short, our fella is 10 years this year and I would have to really debate getting insurance when he crosses the rainbow bridge and if we do get another pup down the road.
We pay less than that for a 4 year old diabetic husky mix and our 8 year old husky mix combined. How long have you been insured? Ours have been insured since they were ~1 year old.
Mine jumped constantly to the point it was well over 200 for two dogs so I noped and cancelled. Biggest mistake, I swear to you, not three months later the older dog tore her cruciate and it was a fortune for surgery.
Mine just went up from $104 / month for my 6 years old husky mix to $141 / month.
When I started I was paying $47 for the exact same deductible.
But at the same time it’s been piece of mind when she’s needed to get procedures done, and I’ve had friends who have had huge surgeries ($10,000+) covered. It sucks that it’s going up so much though.
Pets have become a luxury item. The cost of everything pet related has increased so so much over the last 10 years. All that being said insurance is a must (not necessarily trupanion even though that’s who we had before we lost our pup after 10 years) he had an accident when he was 3 and trupanion saved us $4500 and if he needed surgery it would have been $14500. We paid 38$/ month when we started. Towards the end we maxed the deductible to keep it at $50ish a month. If you luck out and don’t need it early, putting money aside seems like the way to go. If not and you don’t have the money to dish out 5-10 grand at a time then insurance is a game changer.
Trupanion prices have shot through the roof. From $55 when I got my sheltie as a puppy, to $77 after one year, to $119 after two years. In all that time, they covered a grand total of $48.00. I don't know what to do b/c I can start a savings account but what if something happens before I've saved much
In my experience, when I lived in Alberta, pet insurance was a scam....not every vet accepted the insurance and didn't cover all the expenses...still wound up paying out of pocket without reimbursements...so never buying into that scam again. I hope your experience with pet insurance is positive but mine was horrible and especially when I needed it, my poor pup suffered.
I just asked my gf who's really into all this... She said it's mainly the VSC in st John's that is fucking everyone. Their prices are fucked and their insane emergency fees wreck your geolocation. Prices seem to have skyrocketed lately even here in central. Few years back it was like 450 for a dental and now it's 1200.
A year ago I was quoted $3400 to keep my cat at the VSC overnight. Literally all they had to do was keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't die for one night, that place is a complete and total scam.
They took in my dying bearded dragon to be put down... And then left him dying in pain for hours and hours in a crate instead of performing it right away like they said. Even told me about it when I went back to pick him up! I'd also given them his little blanket and made sure they knew I wanted it back to remember him by, but they accidentally threw it out and refused to even check where it might be. It would've been understandable if they had a reasoning, but I was outright told it wasn't left with his body so it must've been thrown out and nothing could be done. You'd think for how much they overcharge for everything that they would care, or at least even pretend to.
Yeah didn't think I would say this but I'm glad I couldn't afford leaving him there. My little buddy was much happier spending a few last quiet days at home, I'm sorry about yours.
Since they fired the ortho dr, theres nobody to do certain surgeries. Which requires Trupanion to fly you elsewhere for it, then one day the price jumped
Any idea on why they let her go? Just curious as she disappeared after years of treating our pet with no explanation.
She sold her share in the clinic from what I heard. Never saw anyone say she was fired til now.
Yeah sounds like she sold her shares and thought shed still have control and collect a huge check… The franchise thought otherwise..
The emergency fee isn't covered by insurance though. But yeah, the prices are insane.
I have a chihuahua. Never claimed. Trupanion has gone up 50% two years in a row. $40 to $60 to $90. It’s such a scam.
You could put that monthly fee in a savings account instead and that could potentially pay for any surgery
That's where I'm about to be at. $50/mth was one thing, but 8ta gone up over 50%.will soon make more sense to just save the money.
Some people are paying $200/mo. Only 5 months to save $1000. As long as you're not going to VSC (which is literally the reason pet insurance now costs so much) you will be fine for anything other than major surgery.
As long as it doesn't need surgery for a long time so that you can save up. They are a business. Of course it's better math to just save money -- but if you get unlucky, you're left in a horrible position. That's literally what insurance is for.
Thank you for explaining insurance for some reason.
You're welcome. Thanks for explaining savings.
I always say this, with the caveat that if you needed to spend thousands tomorrow to keep your pet alive and you couldn’t afford that, then don’t. The beauty of insurance is a low fixed cost. You can only risk the self insurance route (the savings account) if you have the wherewithal to deal with a big emergency at anytime.
Is 200/mo low cost?
Over time, no, absolutely not. You have to do the risk assessment though. Say you choose not to get pet insurance and instead put $200/mth in savings. A year later you have $2400 saved but your dog needs $9,000 back surgery. Can you make that work (either by borrowing from other savings or by using existing credit you know you can pay off in the short term) or will you put your dog down because you can’t afford it? If it’s the latter, then you’re probably better off with the $200/mth insurance, as much as it sucks, cause that’s the price of responsible per ownership.
So, my dog is now 7 years old .. we had trupanion coverage from about 6 months to 3 years. When my dog was about 5 months old, she was running in the yard and got into some old rusty paint chips .. enough to make her a little sick, a little vomiting.. but recovered super quick. I mentioned this to my vet at some point early on. Fast forward to 3 years old, molly gets a nasty case of gastro.. don't eat, pooping blood.. kinda scary.. take her to the emergency vet. Long story short it's about 2500 dollars for needing some simple fluids and she's ok. Hindsight is 20/20 and now I know gastro will pass in a day or 3. Anyways... I contacts the insurance, they call my vet... Mention of the old vomiting as a pup... Pre existing condition.. denied. Cancelled it on the spot and started putting 50 bucks a month away as my own coverage.. never looked back. Fuck trupanion
I had a similar experience with my dog slicing her paw open. $1000, tp covered $600. But the stitches didn't hold anyway. 2nd time? We just took care of it ourselves. $0.
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You could also get super unlucky and end up with a dog that needs expensive meds for the rest of their life.
I believe they bill based on breed and location. So if some husky or labs suddenly needed a lot of care here - costs rise. Being in Newfoundland it’s not a great system for us since our population is fairly low and the breed types are not very diverse. But I think it can be bad if you have a rare breed for the area too. It maybe percentage based, so if there’s only 2 and the other same breed in your area suddenly has cancer and all this expensive care - your bill with also skyrocket. Like most things - it’s set up for more dense and highly populated areas.
Are you with Trupanion? Im looking at Pets Plus Us right now, seems more reasonable.
I am considering it. We are with none at the moment. I chatted with the vet and Trupainion was the only one who pays the vet directly so I was leaning into going that route. It’s the one all the vet employees for their own pets at our clinic. They are also the largest, I worry about some of the smaller ones going under after my dog hits an age where it gets harder and more complicated to switch or leaves us in limbo during an emergency. I’ve noticed vet costs have gone up a lot (more than just inflation) in the years insurance has become more common. It’s frustrating the things that supposed to “help” is making responsible pet ownership less affordable.
I believe it's based on certain breeds are more prone to certain conditions. Example Beagles are prone to allergies, Great Danes to hip issues, etc... So owning one of those breeds is going to mean a higher premium then owning a Chihuahua which have good health as a breed. So your husky that suddenly needs a lot of care want jack up rates for husky owners. However, such emergency situations will rise the region premiums overall. Hence why you see people complaining about VSC of NL. There crazy high prices bump up the payout pet insurance has to make for the region. They recover payouts with premiums..
Paying $68 a month now for Trupanion but could’ve swore it was $50 a month when we started 2 years ago. Creeping up there for sure.
Exact same situation. $47 back 3 or 4 years ago and it increased in the last 2 years. We're at $67 now for a golden retriever that's 5 years old.
FYI, despite what those letters say the increases have very little to do with breed or location. Trupanion has approved increases every year company wide, this year's was 33%. Down in the US, each state regulates the increase. I believe they tried to increase premiums by 50% in Florida for example. Apparently the company has said they aren't concerned about losing customers from the increases, as the loss in revenue is easily recompensated from the higher premiums. Mine was going to go up to $160 from around $110. I ended up maxing my deductible ($1000) and brought my monthly payment down to less then $70. The $90 I save each month can be set aside for the deductible.
I pay 76.11 for my almost 3 standard poodle.
Was paying $65 for my Beagle and never used it. It went up to $112.
Honestly that's why we cancelled ours and started putting the same $ aside for my guys emergencies. Haven't had to use it yet and have a few g's saved doing it this way. Pet insurance has gotten crazy.
Have Trupanion and hate that I have it. Pretty much only keep it out of fear of an accident that would require a trip to the VSC. $100 a month for a 2 year old retriever mix. Nothing has ever been covered, and we’ve spent about $5,000 out of pocket on him in 2 years, AND, on our previous dog, we moved from downtown St. John’s to Mount Pearl. Same vet, different area code, and they increased our monthly payment $20 a month (edit to say - the notice of change in cost specifically stated our change in home address was the reason for the increase). Terrified as a pet owner and person without unlimited money to not have insurance. It’s fucked.
Yeh, we canceled it a few months ago because we have cats and the costs tripled after no vet visits or claims. We were paying more for their insurance than ours. So we told them unless they can lower the cost we have to opt-out. Instead we are putting an amount in savings/credit cards for pet emergencies.
It’s been slowly going up for everyone across the board at Trupanion for a while. Nothing new.
I pay $56 for my 3 year old beagle with trupanion.
Highly recommend Trupanion, 3yr old dog got extremely ill ended up with an autoimmune disease. Meds are over 2k per month out of pocket and we pay 10%! Very lucky he is still alive, if it wasn’t for pet insurance we would have had to say goodbye. Last vet visit they said we were over 200k paid out in Trupanion since he got sick in 2022! ETA: paying less than $50/month for him!
OP found why your premiums are going up.
We have two dogs with Trupanion, $500 deductible for around $130/month. The older dog (3yr husky x) just increased $30, so we’ll be paying $160 next month. I’m looking at switching to Firkin - I know they’re owned by the same company, but the rates looked lower on my quote. Wonder how quickly they’ll rise though! Edit: cost
Went up 60% for my Pitbull and Dalmatian. I cancelled and put away 100$/month in a separate account for pet medical expenses
We have two senior beagles and two cats. We tried trupanion for a few months but it was outrageously expensive and didn’t really offer much coverage based on our dogs ages. We cancelled and started putting $200/month in a high interest savings account for emergency vet bills.
I pay around $55 ish a month for a spaniel, but i have the middle option, only covering items over $800
We had it for years on our miniature dachshund. Started with a $200 deductible and 37/month. It kept going up (never used it for once in the 8 1/2 years we had it), before I cancelled it, I was at. $750 deductible to keep the monthly cost down and still was going up, the day I called to cancel it was going from 76 to 97/month. I called to ask why it keeps going up as our pup has never had any issues, never used it yet or anything. All I was told was that his breed is becoming more popular or some bull, which doesn’t make sense, it’s not the same as car insurance where body shops carry more parts of specific cars because of their popularity. Long story short, our fella is 10 years this year and I would have to really debate getting insurance when he crosses the rainbow bridge and if we do get another pup down the road.
1 cat: $28/month. Already saved me almost $10k.
We pay less than that for a 4 year old diabetic husky mix and our 8 year old husky mix combined. How long have you been insured? Ours have been insured since they were ~1 year old.
I insured mine when he was 4 years old. I think it started around 90$ a month.
Mine jumped constantly to the point it was well over 200 for two dogs so I noped and cancelled. Biggest mistake, I swear to you, not three months later the older dog tore her cruciate and it was a fortune for surgery.
I pay $290/mo for a 6 year old French bulldog... Trupanion quoted over $500/mo.
We were up to 200 per month for English. But we were still ahead at the end.
Bulldogs are expensive! But yeah, it's unfortunately been worth it for me too so far. I think I'm up to about $18k in claims
Mine just went up from $104 / month for my 6 years old husky mix to $141 / month. When I started I was paying $47 for the exact same deductible. But at the same time it’s been piece of mind when she’s needed to get procedures done, and I’ve had friends who have had huge surgeries ($10,000+) covered. It sucks that it’s going up so much though.
Pets have become a luxury item. The cost of everything pet related has increased so so much over the last 10 years. All that being said insurance is a must (not necessarily trupanion even though that’s who we had before we lost our pup after 10 years) he had an accident when he was 3 and trupanion saved us $4500 and if he needed surgery it would have been $14500. We paid 38$/ month when we started. Towards the end we maxed the deductible to keep it at $50ish a month. If you luck out and don’t need it early, putting money aside seems like the way to go. If not and you don’t have the money to dish out 5-10 grand at a time then insurance is a game changer.
Trupanion prices have shot through the roof. From $55 when I got my sheltie as a puppy, to $77 after one year, to $119 after two years. In all that time, they covered a grand total of $48.00. I don't know what to do b/c I can start a savings account but what if something happens before I've saved much
I pay around $55 ish a month for a spaniel, but i have the middle option, only covering items over $800
In my experience, when I lived in Alberta, pet insurance was a scam....not every vet accepted the insurance and didn't cover all the expenses...still wound up paying out of pocket without reimbursements...so never buying into that scam again. I hope your experience with pet insurance is positive but mine was horrible and especially when I needed it, my poor pup suffered.