Pet Insurance Guide
Introduction
Pet Insurance Plan How much does pet insurance cost? How to claim? Who gets the money? Excess
Payment
Low Cost Pet Insurance Pet Travel Insurance Finally|
Introduction |
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The UK is known as a nation of pet lovers, yet I wonder how many of us have thought about pet insurance for our four legged, or even two legged friends. To some of us our pet is one of our best friends we have, yet where as we insure ourselves against all kinds of risks, we leave our pets uninsured and open to a number of possible calamities, including having an accident, being stolen, becoming ill, and in some cases the possibility of your pet injuring a third party. Out of over fourteen million cats and dogs in the UK, only 20% of dogs and 12.5% of cats are insured, according to the research company Datamonitor. Each year approximately one out of every two pets in the UK needs some kind of veterinary treatment for an illness, injury or accident, and with the average cost of a visit to the vet costing over 220 GBP, and in some cases where specialist treatment is required a lot more, the idea of taking out pet insurance seems to make more and more sense.
| Pet Insurance Plan | Top |
Making sure you get the right pet insurance for your pet is very important. You should always look for a pet insurance plan that provides cover for every eventuality. There are many different pet insurance plan providers, all offering their particular pet insurance plan as the one to suit you, so as with all insurance, due diligence and research is vital in finding the right pet insurance plan for you. Look for pet insurance plans that include the following:
- Veterinary Fees
- Theft or Lost
- Holiday Cancellation
- Advertising and Reward (lost and found)
- Death Benefit
- Third Party Liability
- Accidental Damage
- Boarding Fees
Now, as with all insurance polices, and pet insurance is no exception, there are always some situations that are not usually covered by the pet insurance plan. Typical exclusions include vaccinations, flea control, grooming bills, pregnancy, spaying and castration.
Again, as with other forms of health insurance, most pet insurance plans do not provide cover for the cost of any treatment for any condition that the animal suffered from before the start of the pet insurance policy.
Another thing to remember is that there are certain types of dogs that cannot be covered by the majority of pet insurance policy providers, including guard dogs, working dogs and dogs registered under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
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How much does pet insurance cost? |
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The cost of a pet insurance plan is dependent on a number of things, including what type of animal you want to insure, for example, your long toothed Siberian tiger will cost a little more than your hamster, or your 15 foot python would cost a lot more than your six inch goldfish, extremes I know, but I am sure you get the idea. On more solid ground, in the case of dogs, prices vary from between 5 GBP per month to 25 GBP per month. Other things to take into consideration is the size of dog, as smaller dogs are usually cheaper to insure than bigger dogs, and as with all things in life, younger dogs are cheaper to insure than older dogs. However, the saying you can’t keep an old dog down springs to mind, but I digress. As your dog gets older, and you make more claims against your pet insurance plan, your premiums will rise, and some pet insurance plan providers will not provide a pet insurance plan for pets over a certain age, so you will need to research the market.
When you have made your mind up and chosen the pet insurance policy that is suitable for your requirements, you will usually be sent a form that you will have to fill in, sign, and return it to the pet insurance policy provider. Again, as with all form filling regarding insurance, honesty is the best policy, so always declare anything that may affect the cover provided by your pet insurance policy, because if you don’t, the pet insurance policy may not pay out in regard to your claim.
| How to claim? | Top |
If your pet becomes ill or has an accident, the first thing to do is to take your pet to the local vet and get treatment. The next thing to do is to notify the pet insurance policy provider as soon as possible, as to what has happened to your insured pet, and they will send you a claim form. When the treatment for your pet is completed and hopefully successful, or when directed to by the pet insurance policy provider, fill in part of the claim form that refers to you and take it to your vet who will fill in the remainder of the form. It is the usual practice that the vet sends the completed claim form to the pet insurance policy provider.
After due deliberation, your pet insurance policy provider makes you an offer against the claim, which you either decline or accept. If you accept, the pet insurance policy provider sends out the agreed payment.
| Who gets the money? | Top |
Who the payment goes to is usually decided by your veterinary surgeon .The easiest way is for the pet insurance policy provider to pay the claim directly to the vet, but some vets want you (as the patient so to speak) to pay them directly, and then you keep the pet insurance payment when it arrives. It is important to see which payment option is preferred by the vet before registering with them.
| Excess Payment | Top |
An excess payment is one that is paid by you for each condition that you make a claim for, the cost of excess payments associated with pet insurance policies vary widely from provider to provider, but for a rule of thumb, generally speaking, for dogs the excess payment is usually around 60.00 GBP against the cost of the veterinary treatment, and for cats the excess payment is usually around 45.00 GBP against the cost of the veterinary treatment.
| Low Cost Pet Insurance | Top |
By shopping around, low cost pet insurance can be found. Tesco offer a good pet insurance policy, as it remains the same even as your pet gets older. You can also get a 10% discount if you insure more than one pet on line. Tesco’s pet insurance policies provide cover up to 2,5k GBP or 4k GBP.
Esure offer some good choices for people looking for low cost pet insurance. They offer discounts for purchasing on line, multiple pet insurance policies, and if your pet is micro chipped. Their pet insurance plans cater for a lot of eventualities including some that are not covered by other plans.
M&S offer pet insurance that has a fairly high maximum cover of 7k per year. They also offer 5% discount when ordering pet insurance on line and 5 % discount for every additional pet insured. However, you don’t get the 5% for ordering on line if you get the 5 % for more than one pet. With M&S you can also adjust the amount of excess payment you make against a higher discount.
More Than offer a 15% discount for both taking out a policy on line and insuring more than one pet. More Than have excess charges for dogs that is either 15% or 75.00 GBP depending on which is the greater, and for cats, 15% or 55.00 GBP depending on which is the greater.
| Pet Travel Insurance | Top |
We take out travel insurance to protect ourselves against disaster striking us when we jet off to our holiday locations, so if we intend to take our beloved pet with us, why not arrange travel insurance for them as well. If for any reason whilst abroad, the family pet becomes ill or has an accident, with travel pet insurance any bills associated with treatment are covered.
| Finally | Top |
Pet insurance is already very common across Europe, and is becoming more popular in the UK as well. Pet owners are realizing the advantages of pet insurance and pet travel insurance, giving your pet protection, both at home and abroad.
As with all insurance, before signing anything, read the small print to make sure that you fully understand just exactly what your pet is covered for and not covered for, and do your research to make sure you get exactly the right policy for your pet, and not bark up the wrong tree (Ouch), you know that your pet deserves it.
