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 Jane on
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I just pay out of pocket, but if there was some sort of huge emergency I could put it on my credit card or borrow from my parents. I'm pretty sure I could get carecredit if I had to as well. I'd definitely recommend having a sizable savings account ready before you even get the puppy because even the routine costs can add up very quickly.
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Permalink Reply by Shou on
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Thank you for your comment, Jane. I do have some savings that I plan on putting towards my puppy when I get one. I think that should be fine for the routine stuff. Mostly I'm just worried about unexpected things, which are usually what cost the most...
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Permalink Reply by Cindi & Twinkie on
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Hi, I don't have too much to say here but I wanted to comment to keep you on the home page until someone had something really helpful to say. I will say that we often have to ration care at our house. Last month, Logan was scheduled for his snip and the day before he was to go in, our older dog started vomiting and had bloody diarrhea. She ended up spending two days in the vet's office with lots of IV fluids. Needless to say, I had to cancel Logan's procedure for the time being. I am hoping to have it done next month. It is very hard to plan for everything but you can start saving. I do know that some vet offices offer a pre-paid puppy plan. They can give you a price of what the first year will cost that includes shots and exams. If you have paid upfront you won't ever have to postpone care because money is a little tight one month. Good luck!
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Thank you for your comment, Cindi. I guess luckily I will only have one pet (for now). So I don't have to split my money between any other pets. I definitely plan on putting more into savings, and I'll look into the pre-paid puppy plans. Thanks again! :]
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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I also pay out of pocket for my dogs. We have a savings account set aside with money that we don't touch and it's there for emergencies, pet or otherwise. We didn't start out with a huge savings balance, so I guess we were lucky that Yuki didn't have any health problems when we brought him home, but the majority of pets obtained from breeders are healthy during that first year. There are always the exceptions, though. If a bill ever extends beyond our savings, then we will just work with our Veterinarian to make payments or put the balance onto a credit card.
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Thanks for your comment, Jen. That's exactly how I feel about it. I think if I get my puppy from a good breeder, he should hopefully be fine for the first year at least, minus the routine stuff. But I just don't want to be unprepared in case I get that unlucky.
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Permalink Reply by rae on
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No matter what option you choose, you always end up having to pay for it all in the end. There's no such thing as free healthcare for pet. Even if you get a clinic or something, do you really want free?
We have pet insurance (and I've had two different providers and they both are claims submittal processes) and those are ok. I go for wellness & comprehensive coverage. So regular visits and vaccines are covered, emergency procedures and such, to a point. There's always a deductible. So far it's been ok, our second provider was much better than the first, and the reimbursement procedure is manageable. But even a 10 day turnaround is a bit fast. You have to go into the vet, make sure the dr. fills out all the forms properly, submit them, then they approve/deny and reimburse you. Luckily, our current provider takes e-mail submissions.
We have care credit also, which has been helpful for our cat with UTI issues. If you pay off everything w/in the first 6 months, you don't get charged interest, but that was a special promotion that was setup with our account, others may be different. Not sure, but they are pretty manageable. We're actually looking to get a second care credit account (under my boyfriend's name) just in case, especially since we're working on getting a puppy.
On top of pet insurance and care credit, we're also setting up a pet account/savings fund at a local bank with both of our names in case anything happens and one of us is not available, the other can easily get in and access funds for emergency pet issues.
So far, it's just been our two cats, and even with our boy cat and his plumbing problems, we've been really blessed with super healthy pets. Still, caution is important.
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Permalink Reply by Brandy Harper on
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I was looking into this topic too just today, as I already have two corgis. Can I ask what is a care credit account? I don't think pet insurance is for me but i am interested in knowing more about this care credit that you and a couple others mentioned. Could you advise what it is where to get it that sort of thing.
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Permalink Reply by Chelsea and Wyatt on
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Care Credit is essentially a credit card that you can use exclusively for veterinary care. In order to be eligible for a credit line, you have to have a decent credit history. Not all vet hospitals accept it, but most emergency care hospitals do. Here's the website:
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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you can actually use Care Credit for human medical issues as well. I have a friend who had eye surgery done and she put the charges on care credit. They also aren't as stringent about who is approved and who isn't. I was approved at a time I pretty much had zero credit, but recently I was able to up my max on the card because I have built credit in the last few years and so they allowed me a larger amount. The biggest thing about Care Credit is to have the whole bill paid before your interest free period is over because their interest is INSANELY high. It doesn't hurt to apply so we always told all our clients just try to apply and see if you get it. Many were pleasantly surprised that they got approved for a small line of credit.
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They may have more stringent criteria now, because I was just rejected for approval. My fiance was fortunately approved, and there's only a 20 point difference between our credit score.
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Yeah they probably had to change their policies because when I applied originally the economy wasn't in the dump. I think almost everyone was approved back then, now there are a lot more people being denied who would be approved for major credit cards or would have been approved back when I first applied.
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