Pet Insurance - Mesa,AZ

We've had several out-of-the-blue pet emergencies that have totaled in the $2k range so we bought VPI pet insurance. Then our dog had a bad reaction to a bee sting (we think) one weekend and we had to take her to emergency care. $1500 later, VPI only paid $60 of it. That was it, we canceled. When I shared this with our regular vet, he said that VPI is terrible. He has done extensive research on the matter and recommended Pet's Best Insurance because they pay 80% of your claims across the board. We've now had Pet's Best insurance for 2 years and have been very happy. True to their word, they have paid 80% of all of our claims and we've been very happy with them, for what it's worth. Oh, and we pay $22/month for our 2 year old dog.

We had it for our Beagle mix for three years. I finally cancelled it.

We had ours through Petsmart. It is great for the first rounds of puppy shots, the spay, the wormings, bloodwork et al. It does not cover the heartworm meds or flea meds.

Keep it for a year or so then dump it. Really if the pet is healthy all they need to do is give a 3 year Rabies shot and update its Bordatella every 6 mnoths. They take stool samples yearly to check for Heartworms. All that does not cost $260.

After having a large bill for our persian, we got VPI for our 2 cats. We had it for 5 years and never used it. We cancelled this year. It was about 200 dollars a year for each cat. We had it for our dog and it was worth it since he had ear infections, ect. If I were going to do it again, I think I would pass.

We always carried United Pet Care (here in Phoenix area). It's not so much an "insurance" as it is like belonging to a discount club. There's a list of providers that participate so you’d need to choose one on the list. Depending on where you're at in Mesa I'd be happy to give you recommendations. This program is not a scam. We had two dogs. A purebred German Shepherd and a Lab Mix. I can't tell you how much money this plan saved us over the years we had it. Especially when our German Shepherd got suddenly ill and we had to take her to an emergency pet hospital (found out she had cancer and had to put her down). The prices of what we would've had to pay made up for the small amount we paid for the program. I think it was around $220 for both dogs for an entire year. Most vaccines are included you just pay an office copay and procedures like getting them spade (we had to pay for our GS to be spade since we bought her privately) was hundreds cheaper than we would've paid. Plus, the people that work for UPC are so loving and caring. When our dogs both recently passed (with in the last year) I called each time to cancel the policy and they quickly and graciously refunded the rest of the policy since we prepaid upfront. They also sent us hand written, beautiful, sympathy cards each time. You can check them out at www.unitedpetcare.com And if you're a AAA member they have new pricing that's even cheaper than what we paid. I would absolutely check it out. For a little over $100 for one dog, you can't beat the savings.

They are all a scam. If you own a pet you can pay yourself what you would pay these ''insurance'' companies and if anything happens, you will have the funds built up to be prepared. Pass this up, it's not worth it.

We purchased the Banfield Pet Care - like doggie health insurance. I know others have dropped it - but it's been good for us.

I have NOT had to purchase VPI - there was another one out there that my girlfriend used and it took care of her with her cats...

I would buy the health insurance if you have a Banfield near you for the first year as it can be costly...

I am not positive, but I think purebred dogs have higher risk of serious illness-hip displasia, maybe others. I think dogs with floppy ears are at higher risk of infections for their ears too.
These may be considering factors too.