[fugitive]

Hello

Recently our snake collection has expanded a good deal and by the end of this month we'll have 3 more Royals and (hopefully) a Dumerils Boa.

Threads about poorly snakes has got me thinking about getting some insurance to help towards costs if one of the snakes got ill.

So far I've only found one company that deals in Reps/Snakes (a lot kind of say they do but when it comes down to getting a quote they're not interested). Do any of you with a variety of snakes or quite a few at all have a company/broker you could recommend?

It would be worth knowing for future reference for those who may be thinking about breeding in time to come.

I have been researching for myself (I am very aware that Google is my friend, thanks!) but I would far rather approach a company that has been recommended, for the sake of peace of mind really.

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated. Thanks, Sal x

 

[rbailey182]

I did think about this when my collection started to get bigger but decided not too. However, I do put money away each month to cover any medical bills that might occur... I think as long as everything is spot on with your keeping there isnt much that goes wrong..... ( Im aware that sometimes it does and that its nothing down to husbandry etc but the majority of cases I think are easily avoidable.... hence me saving money...... just incase)

Plus I think that insurance for snakes can be very very pricey..... but dont hold me to that

 

[fishboy]

and no snakes will be covered for anything to do with breeding, ie- becoming eggbound. lots of get out clauses and exclusions i imagine. best to just squirrel some cash away yourself in case of emergencies or just have a CC handy.

 

[HoodPassion]

better than insurance Flirt with the Vet lol

 

[twinklu]

I have my 6 Royals insured with exotics direct
2 x normals and 1 x pinstripe are on one policy, costs £120.00 per year and between them they have £1000.00 worth of cover, and the other 3 Royals are on another policy costing £100.00 per year (cheaper because the 1st year always is) and again they have £1000.00 between them, the cover is for medical fees only and there is a lot of fine print to go through, i could have paid an extra £65.00 and had the morphs stated as such so if they died i could claim the purchase price of the said morph back but i never use that section of the insurance policy so to me it wasn't worth it but if you did want to claim purchase price on death then you can always add it on.
Ring them and they will go through things with you, only had to use them once in the last 3 years and i got my money back (less the £35.00 excess) no messing.

 

[fugitive]

Thanks Twinklu, that's brilliant. Exactly the sort of info I needed.

Thanks also to the other guys who replied too. At the moment we do put money up to cover emergencies but when things are tight and you've got 3 kids that money ends up getting dipped into.

I'd rather pay into an insurance plan so that I can't spend the snakes money on beer and fags....:lol2: (or food).

 

[alan1]

I have my 6 Royals insured with exotics direct
2 x normals and 1 x pinstripe are on one policy, costs £120.00 per year and between them they have £1000.00 worth of cover, and the other 3 Royals are on another policy costing £100.00 per year (cheaper because the 1st year always is) and again they have £1000.00 between them, the cover is for medical fees only and there is a lot of fine print to go through, i could have paid an extra £65.00 and had the morphs stated as such so if they died i could claim the purchase price of the said morph back but i never use that section of the insurance policy so to me it wasn't worth it but if you did want to claim purchase price on death then you can always add it on.
Ring them and they will go through things with you, only had to use them once in the last 3 years and i got my money back (less the £35.00 excess) no messing.

interesting...
wonder on the insurance cost of a £2k or £5k snake?

 

[gingerpony]

PetPlan insure exotics but they go though Exotics Direct so IMO you're probably best off dealing direct with ED (as long as i don't get caught out putting this in writing lol)

i believe the premiums go on the value of your collection as for example, you're more likely to claim for £1000 worth of surgery/treatment to save a £3000 royal or boa than a £30 normal cornsnake (when you also take the excess into account)

 

[fugitive]

interesting...
wonder on the insurance cost of a £2k or £5k snake?

Stop showing off :Na_Na_Na_Na:



Cheers GP (although the chances of me ever owning a 3 grand snake are, sadly, pretty flippn slim!!) xx

GP, I'll email you about the snakey tomorrow xx

 

[alan1]

Stop showing off :Na_Na_Na_Na:

was'nt sal... have thought many a time about 'trying' to insure mine

 

[fugitive]

Only teasing, lol :flrt:
It's got to be worth looking into, huh? I know what I'm like with 'emergency cash', it rarely hangs around long enough to cover an emergency.

I figure that even if the policy doesn't cover breeding related problems (again, worth it if we can find a willing company) it will cover big emergencies and also (and perhaps most importantly) ongoing problems. As with any pet, those are the kind that can really suck your account dry.

In your position it's got to be worth the extra cost of replacement value too I would have thought.

The other thing that occured to me that there are literally thousands of snake/rep keepers on this site alone.....maybe the larger companies just aren't aware of the sheer volume of snake/rep owners. Perhaps if their attention was drawn to this potential goldmine there would be more policies available. (Which would be good for the keepers as it would eventually bring down the prices of individual policies).

All food for thought. David & I are definitely going to get covered in the next month or so, I think by then we'll have pretty much all the snakes we want for this year, give or take (!) x

 

[storm]

i have some of mine insured with exotics direct, i pay £8.63 per month for 10 months (covering 12 but in 10 payments) per policy holding 3 reptiles. i currently have 3 of these policies which covers 9 reps..

it was great when i had only a few, but for me to insure all of mine now id be looking at over £207 per month as id need 24 policies to cover 70+

good if you only have a few,it covers up to £1000 of fees per policy that is renewed every year, unlike some other companies, they did pay out over £500 for one bill and £300 for a following bill within 2 weeks minus the £35 ecxess fee though :2thumb:

one thing to bear in mind though, if you are say 3 months into your policy and claim say £300, you will lose the excess BUT you will also lose the cost of the rest of the years policy for the remainding say 7 months so thats minus a further £50-£60 that you dont get back as you then pay the rest of the year up front.

also as already stated, they do not pay out for anything that could be related to breeding.
just something to think about. x

 

[Ssthisto]

I figure that even if the policy doesn't cover breeding related problems (again, worth it if we can find a willing company) it will cover big emergencies and also (and perhaps most importantly) ongoing problems. As with any pet, those are the kind that can really suck your account dry.

If you go on Exotic Direct - Insurance for Birds, Mammals and Reptiles the first thing I see is:

Total value of animals must be over £200 and less than £2200.
Individual animals with a purchase price less than £100 are only covered for vet fees.
Only nine animals can be insured per policy (crap, I'd need *multiple* policies!)
Vet fees are only covered up to a value of £1000 per policy (not per animal!)
There's an excess of £35 per vet visit (and 10% of value for theft/fire claims) - and I've never paid more than £35 on a routine vet visit with administered Baytril/etc.

Here's a list of what they wouldn't cover:
Escape or mysterious disappearance (you'd have to PROVE they were stolen)
Postmortems
The excesses due to recurring conditions
Any vet fees due to attack by vermin (good luck if you have to resort to live feeding for some reason and the rodent injures the snake)
Any vet fees if your animal is harmed by Teflon fumes
Any vet fees incurred by anything related to breeding, including egg binding in a female who's never been mated
Any vet fees incurred when your animal gets an injury or illness from *one of your other animals*

So, basically, they've got a get-out clause for almost anything that is likely to happen to a pet reptile - that last one is a KILLER. If they could prove that you brought another animal into your home that was vectoring something, they can get out of paying for any costs.

 

[thetong6969]

about 15-20 years ago i insured a royal i bought for 80 plus 3 boas i had
the royal got sick, ri and was prob wild caught anyway knowing the shop it came from near to me
(he still prob sells junk now and i try not to venture in)
anyway after the snake having to go to the vets and the vet injecting it 3 times a week(at £80 a pop)
it died after 10-14 days
wouldn't eat or drink so became dehydrated
so i contacted the insurers and they wanted a post mortem , but the snake was in the hands of vets anyway so i said contact them after a massive row on the phone they paid out 80 pounds.
it's not worth the hassle my oh had a dog cost her 140 to have it put to sleep was a decision we would have had to have taken later on anyway she got 20 quid back from them as the dog was older than 8
they take your money easy enough tho