Can't Afford Your Pet Insurance? 3 Options to Look At

Caring for an animal can be expensive. You need to cover the cost of food, supplies, and medical care. And while pet insurance might help with the latter, the reality is that some policies can be quite expensive.

Forbes says that the average cost of pet insurance is $56 per month for a dog and $47 per month for a cat for a policy with unlimited annual coverage, a $500 deductible, and a 90% reimbursement level. However, these are just averages. And depending on the health and age of your pet and where you live, your coverage may be costing you a lot more.

If you've reached the point where you can't afford your pet insurance policy, you may be in a financial bind. But here are some options to consider.

1. Shop around for a more affordable policy

Maybe your pet insurance premiums have gone up and you can no longer swing them. That doesn't mean another pet insurance company won't be able to swoop in with a more competitive rate.

Do some research before dropping pet insurance altogether. You may find that you're able to get a better deal elsewhere. 

Also, it could be a good idea to rally some co-workers with pets and urge your employer to offer pet insurance as a workplace benefit. That way, you may be entitled to subsidized coverage that results in much lower premiums. Even if that coverage isn't subsidized per se, you might at least get a group rate discount.

2. Downgrade your coverage

You may be paying for a pet insurance policy that offers a wide range of coverage, including wellness benefits for your pet. Policies like these might reimburse you for regular checkups, but they can also be very costly. 

If you have a policy like that, contact your insurance company and talk through your options for downgrading. The most important thing is really to have coverage for a catastrophic event, like a major surgery. So if you're willing to forgo some of the added benefits, you might save a bundle on premiums.

3. Bulk up your savings

You may end up coming to the conclusion that you can't afford pet insurance at all -- not your current policy and not another one. If that's the case, and you need to drop your coverage on a short- or long-term basis, at least try your best to beef up your savings account so you have funds you can tap for a pet care emergency.

It may be that the cheapest policy your pet is eligible for is one that costs $50 a month. If you can't swing that, but can manage to add $25 to your savings every month, that's a good compromise.

Having pet insurance is really important when you have an animal you care about. So it's important to see what options are available to you when your premiums stop being affordable. But if you really can't swing pet insurance at all, having more savings is a reasonable way to compensate.