Pet insurance can offer a vital lifeline if your dog gets ill or injured – but you need to read the small print first. MEGAN HARDING takes a look at your options and reveals the results of our survey...
Unlike car and house insurance, pet insurance often leaves you with less bartering power when it comes to renewal. Many owners feel compelled to stay with their current provider because pre-existing medical conditions and age can make it difficult to switch.
But regardless of what you think about pet insurance, it can offer a lifeline in the event of an emergency – but you must read the wording of the policy carefully to check what exactly is covered.
A 2018 Which? survey on pet insurance found that one in five pet owners had experienced problems with soaring premiums, with some dog and cat owners being charged as much as £2,000 to protect their pet. The average price of an annual lifetime policy costs £472 for dogs and £285 for cats, with French Bulldogs being the most expensive dog breed to ensure. The average amount for pet dogs aged seven to 10 years old is £526.
Risk assessments Generally, pet insurance options can be divided into two types: lifetime cover and accident-only, but there are other options that may be cheaper, such as time-limited where the policy covers you for a specific timeframe – usually 12 months – to cover accidents or short-term illnesses. These can be more affordable, but once the policy ends, you will need to find another, which could be an issue if you’ve made a claim, as providers will rarely cover pre-existing
conditions.
A pre-condition policy will cover you for a fixed sum to treat a specific injury or illness, also known as maximum-benefit cover. If the issue you have covered is chronic or requires additional treatment, you will only be covered up until the sum is used up and then you’ll have to pay the rest yourself.
The accident-only cover is exactly what it suggests – only covering your pet in the event of an accident.
It’s often the most affordable but won’t cover you for an illness, and according to the Which? the survey,
70 percent of inquiries are illness-related.
Lifetime cover offers the most comprehensive cover, but it also means it’s more expensive,
although it should cover your pet throughout his life, including any chronic conditions that arise. It renews every year, provided you pay the premium,
which will likely rise over time as your dog ages.
When choosing insurance, remember that no two companies are the same and many use a variety of different factors. Our Dogs Monthly insurance expert Neil Flint from VIP has 23 years’ experience in the industry. He explains, “Every pet insurance company is different and will base their quotations on different factors. Some companies may ‘postcode rate’ – with higher premiums in urban areas than in rural areas.
“Also, different companies will ‘risk rate’ a breed differently; some may think a breed is a higher risk or has a higher chance of developing a condition often seen in a particular breed, whereas some may not.
“Age does make a difference. A lot of companies view an older dog as being more at risk of developing a condition than a younger healthier dog and this may also affect premium cost.
“A policy that is more expensive is not always the best cover. Try to look into what the company base their quotations on and consider the different factors that may best suit you and your dog.
We ran our own quick survey just to get a taste of your experiences with pet insurance providers and it seemed to be a pretty clear split between two-thirds and one-third of respondents.
Everyone who took part in our survey owned at least one dog, with almost a third owning two, 13 percent owning three, five percent owning four and six percent owning five or more. Just less than a quarter also owned at least one cat and a small percentage owned a reptile, bird, small animal or other.
35 percent were very satisfied with their cover compared to two percent being very dissatisfied. As well as security, one owner said they chose lifetime cover because they wanted their dog, “to be covered for any illness for his life duration”.
We asked what mattered most to you when selecting pet insurance and topping the list was price, followed closely by lifetime cover. The third was customer service and fourth was ease of accessing documents, fifth and sixth were recommendations from friends and families and website reviews. The excess, ease of making a claim and how much cover could rise as a dog ages were also considerations.
But with rising premiums, not everyone is happy with their insurance. One owner said, “Once one of our dogs was classed as a senior, her premiums went up into the thousands, which I consider to be a ‘push off premium’ to off-load her. The insurance company could not provide me with an acceptable reason for the increase.”
Neil advises that if your premiums increase, it’s worth speaking to your provider about lower levels of cover rather than switching, especially in the case of a pre-existing condition. “You could speak to your insurance company about their lower levels of policy – this way, you may still have the ongoing continuation of cover and be able to claim for the same things if you need to, but just at a lower level of vet fee cover.”
When it came to switching providers, our readers were almost split 50/50 – 53 percent stayed and 47 percent switched. The main reason for the switch was due to a hike in premiums. Many said they switched with no hassle, but it was more difficult for those with pre-existing conditions, but Neil says there are some exceptions.
“Every company has its own way of looking at previous conditions and deciding what they would class as an exclusion. For example, some companies may place permanent or temporary exclusions where others may advise that if a condition has been clear for a period of time, they may no longer classify it as pre-existing. It is always best to check with a
company before a policy is taken out.”
One owner found this worked for her, saying, “With my previous dog, the premium went up by nearly 200 percent. Shopping around, I found an insurer for much less. I had to wait 12 months for one condition to be covered, which was fine.”
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