Woolworths Pet Insurance - Price Matching Offer

Hi all,

We're considering going for Woolworths pet insurance and noticed they have a price matching offer:

Price Beat^
If you’ve found a lower comparable quote, give us a call & we’ll beat it

Given the multiple tiers of reasonably complex products they offer I'm wondering what people's experience is with using this service?

A) It seems highly unlikely that we'd be able to find competitors offering exactly the same features/benefits for each tier

B) How much do they generally beat competitor offers by and which competition did you reference if you've succeeded with this?

Cheers

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Comments

  • +4

    All pet insurance is bad because:

    1) They have a lot of exclusions

    2) They charge a lot

    3) Quickly becomes expensive with age

    Best pet insurance is to put the premium into a separate bank account instead.

    Choice has been against it a lot. Here's their latest page on it: https://www.choice.com.au/money/insurance/pet/buying-guides/…

    • +1

      Let me second this. I’ve known people to take it out and never make a successful claim. It’s essentially junk insurance.

      • +3

        mates german shepherd had seizures and cancer, they paid thousands of his medical stuff in Vic while living here and in newcastle when he moved there

        like all insurance you'll hear plenty of + and -

  • Understand that and it's exactly what we've done in the past.

    But now we have a new puppy and have heard a lot of good reviews about pet insurance, even the Choice article you linked says some of the big players have improved significantly since 2019.

    Woolworths offers 10% off a monthly shop which for us would be around $40-50. They also offer 24x7 remote vet access via app including behaviourist. For us this seems to be worth the cost even if they reject some claims.

    • Pet insurance is not worth it, unless you get very unlucky your puppy won't get seriously ill until it is starting to get old, and by that time your premiums will have skyrocketed and you will be questioning even keeping the policy. Every time you go to the vet you will also have to be fighting the insurance company to get them to cover things. They will claim things are pre-existing or not covered. You don't need that extra stress when something is wrong with your dog. By self-insuring you are in total control. And it isn't like if you can't pay for the treatment they have to put the dog down, you have the option of a loan / vet pay.

    • +1

      Pet insurance is still garbage.

      You have to somehow accurately predict what part of your dog's anatomy gets affected (injury/sick) in the future notwithstanding overall diseases.

      Better off getting home and contents insurance that covers accidental injury to your dog and have some savings to deal with the vet bills that come later.

  • +1

    They exclude every ‘known illness/disease’ related to your breed. I.e. your only insured if they get hit by a car and survives

  • +1

    I always thought of pet insurance as being useless, and put money in a bank account instead for my cats. Then I bought a Dachshund pup, and after researching the breed's history of back problems, and the cost of remediation, I took out insurance for him. It's $38pm via Woolworths, covers him for back issues (an exclusion with a lot of other insurers - in answer to your question A) and gives me the 10% off one shop each month, which helps.

    So have a look at your breed, and the likelihood of some issue, and ask yourself if it's something you're willing to cover yourself.

    Can't answer your question B. I've done numerous quotes from different companies and have to say that the Woolworths one was the cheapest all round. I didn't take the highest tier, which offers assistance towards desexing and other regular items, as I'm happy to cover that myself.

    • +2

      It won't be $38/month when he is old enough to actually get back problems though.

      Edit: I did a quote for a ten year old dachshund and it is $138 a month. And that is WITHOUT back problems or any other dachshund related problems included, accidents and illness only. So yours will probably be more like $200/month. By the time you can actually use the cover it is going to be really expensive and you are going to be thinking of cancelling the policy - flushing all that money you've paid for ten years down the drain

  • +1

    Save your money
    Put money into a savings account each month.
    Use it for pet when needed.

    Pet insurance has zero value and too many exclusions.
    It gets increased 15-20% per year and when your pet turns 10 becomes so expensive it’s designed to make you cancel.

    Save your money.

  • Yes, our dog's pet health insurance is due for renewal next month and the premium has more than doubled from when we first commenced the policy in 2019 for $32 p/mth to $75 p/mth now. Thankfully we've not had to make a claim during the past 8 years but I'm perplexed as to what to do going forward….it's a given that health risks do increase with age. As evidenced by the steep premium rise, insurance companies must deem 1 human year to be equivalent to 7 dog years….any thoughts or advice is much appreciated!

    • If you shop around, do you get the same prices everywhere?

    • In the old days, people lived to around 70 and dogs around 10 so they said at the time one human year equalled 7 dog years. Now vets say the first year of a dogs life is equal to 15 human years, the second 15 years and thereafter 7 years to one human. It has changed. I would not give up your insurance unless you are able to pay for any unforeseen potential costs. You don't want to make a life and death a decision based on money.

  • I had bupa. The primary reason I took insurance out was for a certain condition that would appear in 5 years ago.
    They put it down as a pre-existing condition and refused to cover it.
    Also, dermatitis and ear/skin infections were classified as pre-existing chronic conditions. They paid for it once, and since it came back in under 3 months, they excluded it. Another point, for eg, from the woolie's page: Patella luxations are also specifically excluded under the temporary condition definition, so this condition will always be excluded under your policy.

    I stopped it after 12 months. Now I'm looking to get Woolies too. But she's under 2 years, desexed, fit as a fiddle. We used to pay $70 pm for the top tier and 80% of costs were reimbursed. $0 excess.

    A single vet visit costs $70, plus extras, so about $100, approx. That's about 4 vet visits annual, paid for.

    I'm going to stay away from it for now, see what happens as the pet ages.

  • here is something to think about. I have a cat, I rescued it, because I didn't know her history, I insured her. Just in case. Well she was acting all weird by the time she was a few months old. Off to the vet. Brain tumour. Surgery was required. 25k later. She is still with me why? Knose Pet Insurance. They paid 90%. Or she would be gone, or I would have to sell my car, mortgage the house, or go into massive debt.
    My dog was hit by a car that ran off the road. Emergency vets and emergency surgery, again 18k. Same scenario. Without Knose I would have no pets. So Insurance? I would never be without it. And I chose Knose for the no Sub limits. Some Insurers would only have paid up to their sub limits. Knose paid up to the insured limits, I thank them every day.

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