You get better protection if you use your credit card. The key difference is that when you claim on a credit card under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, the credit card company is legally liable.
A pet rat can live between 2-4 years maybe longer it just depends on how well you look after it.
How Long Do Rats Live? - Really Cool. I recently got this book about rats - the book is called Rats by, Debbi Ducommun - and it had a scale of equivalent aging schedule for rats compared to humans. On the scale it had this information: Rat Age Human Age. 5 weeks ................................