I am 100% getting insurance, i just dont see why i am getting a lot of quotes for over £30 for a miniature poodle puppy, I want to pay about £20 or less ideally as i know every year the premium will go up.

I just did an online quote with axa for a pedigree miniture poodle. Came back as £19 a month with £75 excess (athough ours said this and when the documents came it was £50). Must be affected by area?

I wonder how area affects it so much, I tried looking at quotes before in beaconsfield and had high quotes and even in earley now its still high.... strange!

I just did an AXA quote for a miniature poodle and it came out as £17.63 per month - I'm in Swindon so not THAT far from Reading!

What I would like to know though is whether to insure for £3 or £4K worth of vets fees per year or for £7.5K? IN an ideal world of course, cost wouldn't matter and you would get the best possible for your dog. However, I need to keep our outgoings down as much as possible at the moment so would love to know if £4K would be enough for now . . .

. . . just did same AXA quote for a JR and it came out as £16.16 per month so the breed makes a slight difference there . . .

Thats so weird! I would love to know what they base quotes on other than breed!

Guess i may have to just pay a higher premium.

I would have thought 4k would be enough for a small dog (not a big one though) but then i have no experience in how much vet fees can add up in a year 0_o

oooooo I just called an insurance company and it turns out purchase price makes a massive difference to premiums.

I reduced purchase price from £1000 to £200 and the premiums were £110 per year less! The guy on the phone said it is ok to do this if you are not bothered about getting the full purchase price back should the dog die but the way I see it is, its quite unlikely for the dog to die.....

I guess I will be going round getting new sets of quotes and see if I decide to reduce the purchase price .

We found setting the excess high really brought it down. Although it might seem a bit dangerous at first, we realised that we were unlikely to claim for anything less than £100, so that's our excess. We're insured with AXA too, I think it's £15 for a Border Collie.

Forget the fact your dog is a little puppy, insurance companies don't set premiums on whether your dog is a puppy or adult.. they set it on the dog or breed.

Lifetime cover will cost you more, anything from 25 to 30 as you say, and no matter which company you go with they will increase premiums yearly.


You need to read the small print on any policy you take out.... some will say lifetime , but still have a limit on the amount... let's say your dog has a broken leg.. they will pay out for that condition without excluding it for as long as the money (limit is there) once that has been reached, then your dog will no longer be insured for that leg.

If it needs op after op and they cost reaches the cover very quickly, then you have reached your limit... if the break only costs you lets say 1000 , you will still have the excess , left in the bank (cover) which my see his life out,(for any related claims) thats lifetime cover, it will all depend on how much the treatment is at any given time.

A 12 mthly cover will only do as it says on the tin.. cover your dog for that or any related illness for the 12 mths of that premium.. when you renew , they will exclude what ever you claimed for.


Personally I would take the cover, and continue with the insurance... and see how it goes.. you can always chance later on, but thats a risk we all take, when we swap insurers.

Are you sure its 30 a month for this dog... if you are not happy with what you may be paying out, look for an alternative and get recommendations , there are to many bad insurers out there..

I am with Tesco, (lifetime) and started out at about £20 odd a mth, but now my dogs are older and have claimed a few times, my premium is now £70 a mth, one is 7 and the other is 10, and have not long claimed between £3/4000 in a major claim...(got another one on the go now) I have been happy with them, but everyone will have a story about every insurance company be it negative or positive.

Panda, have you been on the go compare website, or the compare the market site?
You should be able to get quotes most of the insurance companys in one go, and then you can compare the differences and decide which ones best for you

Personally I wouldn't lie about the purchase price, Insurances companys usually have fine print, and if they later find out you fibbed, they could invalidate your insurance.