Pet Insurance vs. Savings Account/Credit Card
I wanted to touch on the topic of the differences between having pet insurance versus putting money aside or using a credit card because I’ve seen a few comments from you guys about the topic. This is usually a highly disputed topic because about three years ago consumer reports made the suggestion that a person should open a savings account as opposed to buying into pet insurance.
Ok.
While maybe three years ago this *might* have been a good idea, look at where we are today. If you had happened to invest the money you were putting aside, it’s likely disappeared into dust, if anything. Also, in the past three years multiple pet insurance players have entered the arena to not only offer more options, but raise the bar for any existing companies.
Of course I am biased on the situation, but let’s think about this logically. If you start putting, say $20 away a month tomorrow, and if you have the self-discipline to do that then GOOD FOR YOU! What happens if you’re on a hiking trip this summer, say in June, and your trusted walking companion trips, stumbles down a hill and ends up breaking a foot. Traumatic for you, of course. Traumatic on your wallet – YES! The trip to the emergency room and treatment for a broken foot ends up costing you about $1,000. Yes, you might be happy to have the $100 you had put away at this point, but would probably be MUCH happier if you had put that $20 into pet insurance and instead of having to cover $900 of the bill out of pocket, you’d only have to pay maybe $100-$200.
The same would go for a credit card. If you put that $1,000 onto a credit card a paid it off, you’d have to worry about interest accruing and it would end up costing you more than the $1,000 trip to the vet. Now, if you feel like your pet is indestructible, power to ya for saving money! Just bear in mind that accidents (expensive and inexpensive ones) can happen any time.
You can visit here to learn more about alternatives to pet insurance.
