Vet bills: How do you pay for them?
Hi everyone,
So this isn't exactly a "corgi health" question, but as I'm starting to seriously look into getting a puppy, one of my major concerns is of course, healthcare. As we all know, vet bills can be insanely expensive, and I don't make that much money that I can just pay it all so easily. So I was wondering what all of you guys do about vet bills?
Of course, there's pet insurance. For those of you that purchase that, how much coverage is enough? Do you get the full coverage, with all the preventive care and stuff covered? Or just the accidental/disease coverage? Are most insurance companies pretty good about following up on claims? I've read that with pet insurance, you have to pay up front first, and then they reimburse you. That would really suck if you had to pay for a very expensive procedure and they take forever to reimburse...
I've also heard some people say it's better to just put what you'd pay monthly into a savings account. But then I'm worried about what to do if something happened to my puppy. Obviously if I just started putting money into the account, I won't have much saved up yet. On the other hand, it would kinda be nice to have that money just in case, instead of having to pay for the insurance if my puppy ends up being super healthy and doesn't need much besides the basic vet care...
Then there's CareCredit... But then in the end I'd still have to pay for all of it. So I don't know if it would be good to rely solely on that.
Anyway, so please tell me what all of you do about paying for healthcare. Thank you!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beca and Mishka on
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We pay out of pocket - for routine stuff and wellness checkups, we work it into our household budget. We also have a separate dog emergency fund that we contribute to every month, roughly what we would have been paying every month for pet insurance. We have that account auto-debit our main checking account so that we don't forget.
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Permalink Reply by Shou on
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Thanks for your comment, Beca. I'll definitely have to start budgeting for pet care when I get my dog too. But I can always start on the emergency fund now. The auto-debit is a good idea. I'll have to look into doing that. :]
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Set aside an emergency fund. Put $20 a month or so in it and then chances are if the dog needs some major care, you'll have a fair amount saved up. At $20 a month you'd have $1200 in 5 years. Save $30 a month and you'd have $1800 in 5 years. And if the dog never needs it, you can use it for something else.
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Thank you for your comment, Beth. I'll have to start on that emergency fund now. I'm just worried about something happening to the puppy before I have much saved up. But hopefully nothing will happen. Though I'll probably look into getting a care credit card too, just in case.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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I pay out of pocket but also my vet of over 12 years will let me charge if I need to, guess I'm lucky. The most I have had for any one bill is a few hundred dollars when Bella kept throwing up. BUT considering I have 8 dogs and several cats...I can't complain. Could something happen? Yes, but maybe see what the odds are for this?
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Thanks for your comment, Jane. That is pretty lucky that that's the highest bill you've had. I hope my puppy will be as healthy as all of your pets. Or at least, I will do my best to keep him that way! So far from everyone's comments, vet bills don't seem to be quite scarily high as I thought they might be. So I feel a little better about it. :]
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Thank you for your comment, Josh. That's what I'm debating too. Insurance seems like it might be a good idea for emergencies, but then if it doesn't happen, I feel like that the money could've gone to better things... Like accruing interest in a savings account. Haha.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberlie on
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We pay out of pocket for all standard care, check-ups and vaccinations. When it comes to emergency and unexpected vet bills, we have a shared credit card that we only use for the vet. Then we both split the cost of paying off the card, in most cases we are able to pay of the card within 1 month so we don't incur interest.
If you are looking to get i puppy i recommend waiting until you have saved enough to cover: cost of the puppy, standard vet care for first year (vaccination for first year, spay/neuter & microchip, research vets as not all are the same price and not all have good service and ask for their pricing) food for first 6 months, toys and all accessories, training, pet lincence ect. If you can save that amount and do all that reasearch to find the costs than you have the devotion enough and thought through concept of caring for a dog. Plus it makes the first year alot less stressful which is helpful when it comes to keeping patienent and giving you time to devote to training.
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Thank you for your comment, Kimberlie. I do have some money saved up that should cover the routine stuff for at least a good 6 months or so. And I get more work during the summer, so I'll have more money plus be able to add more to my savings as well. I've waited more than 15 years to get this dog, so I'm definitely not gonna let myself mess this up. Haha.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
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I've been blessed to either be able to pay it on my own out of savings, or if we are short, my parents will loan it to us until we can pay it back. I'm lucky that my parents love animals as much as I do!
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Thank you for your comment, Jennifer. That is pretty lucky. My parents don't necessarily love animals quite that much... Or at least, if they do, they're hiding it well behind that "animals are too much work!" excuse that they've been giving me all these years! But nowadays that I'm living on my own and don't need/want their help, they've been oddly eager to help me out. So if it comes down to it, I'm sure I could most likely ask them for help. Haha.
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Permalink Reply by Lawren and Teddy on
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I also pay out of pocket. I thought about buying pet insurance but looking into them, the monthly payments were so high and the coverage honestly not that great so I decided not to do that. I do have savings so if anything major happens, I should be okay. If not, I do have a credit card that I could put it on or apply for Care Credit if I had to.As a major back up, I also have my mom. She loves her "grandpuppy" and would help out if I needed it.
One thing I want to add, the cost of vets greatly depends on the area of the country you are in. I noticed that you are in Garden Grove so I imagine that the cost of vets would be around what I have here in the Seattle area, ie on the pricey side! Teddy's neuter cost $400 and the vet I go to is actually one of the cheaper ones in the area. Call around and ask for prices on basic stuff like vaccines, office visits and the like. I was surprised by the difference between two practices less than two miles apart. One was nearly double of the other one. Definitely do research on vets in your area.
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