Take Comfort With The Best Pet Insurance Of 2022
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If you’re a pet owner who worries about meeting the cost of hefty vet bills, pet insurance is a no-brainer. But how do you go about finding the best deal? We carried out some research (March 2022) to identify the best providers based on some key criteria including cost of premiums, level of cover per condition, per year, and excess costs. You can find full details about how we ranked the providers in our methodology, below.
Compare Best UK Pet Insurance Providers Of 2022
What's our methodology?
Using our comparison service, powered by CYTI, we analysed pet insurance providers based on their least expensive lifetime policies for cats and dogs – lifetime policies being the most common type of pet insurance (more details below).
We searched for the minimum £1,000 annual cover, and assessed each pet insurance provider on the following criteria:
- Monthly premium: The amount you pay each month for the policy
- Cover limits: For each condition and for maximum pay-out in vets’ fees, per year
- Vet excess: The amount payable each time you claim for veterinary cost, and whether this increases as your pet gets older
- Whether the policy charges co-payments: An additional contribution to the remaining amount of each claim depending on your pet’s age, either as a fixed percentage or fee
- Any extras: Such as cover for vet help lines and acceptance of pre-existing conditions
We overlaid this with editorial judgment to award the providers with Forbes Advisor star ratings.
Note, the data has been collected based on a young dog or cat (born December 2020) that has been spayed or neutered, chipped, with up-to-date vaccines and which has not been the subject of any complaints or legal action in the last five years.
Any pet that falls outside of these criteria may be categorised as ‘high risk’ which would require a policy with a higher level of cover and/or at a higher cost.
All policies pay out in the event of death by accident or illness.
Why pet insurance?
The primary purpose of pet insurance is to cover the cost of veterinary fees which can run into thousands of pounds in the shake of a tail.
But pet insurance covers other costs, too. For example, these might include emergency care abroad, the cost of a reward and advertising if your pet is stolen, or cattery and kennels fees should you be admitted to hospital.
However, no pet insurance pays out indefinite sums and policy types vary. A good starting point to finding the best pet insurance for you is choosing between a lifetime policy or non-lifetime policy.
Lifetime pet insurance
Also known as ‘lifelong’ or ‘renewable benefits’, lifetime pet insurance is the most comprehensive type of policy – and for that reason also the most expensive.
It covers the cost of treatment for injury throughout your pet’s life as well as illness and health conditions, even if they continue to occur.
But there are annual limits. Lifetime policies cover vet fees to a maximum amount each year and, when this limit is reached, the policy stops paying out. Some policies however (including the top three in our tables), offer unlimited payout in vet fees every year.
Crucially however, lifetime pet insurance policies ‘reset’ every year and the money becomes available again.
All policies impose an annual limit for each condition, too. Say, for example, the policy covered an unlimited amount in vet fees but a ‘per-condition’ annual limit of £1,000.
If your dog underwent a £1,000 cancer treatment and needed a further £2,000 operation for cancer in the same year, you wouldn’t be fully covered for the second treatment. In this case, you would need to pay the £1,000 shortfall out of your own pocket.
However, your pet could contract an endless number of other illnesses in the same year and would be covered up to £1,000 for each of them.
Non-lifetime pet insurance
There are several other pet insurance options available too, which are less comprehensive but cheaper than lifetime cover.
Maximum benefit: Also referred to as ‘money limited’ or ‘condition capped’, maximum benefit pet insurance policies allow you to claim up to a set amount for each injury, illness or condition simply for as long as the money lasts.
When the fixed sum has been reached, your pet will no longer be covered for that condition for the remainder of the policy.
But, while there is no time limit for how long it takes for the cash to run out, you won’t be able to renew limits every year. For example, if you use 30% of your condition-specific benefit one year, there will be 70% remaining both for the next year and for the duration of the policy.
Bear in mind that if the same condition returns in a different part of your pet’s body, it is likely to be classed as ‘recurring’ and you won’t be covered.
While generally more affordable than lifetime cover, maximum benefit pet insurance is not designed for long-lasting conditions. Should one occur in your pet, it will be easy to reach the financial limit after which time you’ll have to fund treatment yourself.
Time-limited: With time-limited policies, the clock starts ticking from when the condition first occurs – and stops usually 12 months later when it will no longer pay out for that condition. As well as a time limit, these policies can impose a fixed sum for each condition too.
If the condition returns after 12 months or you reach your financial limit for that condition – whichever happens first – the policy will not pay out.
While coverage may be on the lighter side, time-limited insurance is the cheapest pet insurance option that covers both illnesses and accidents.
Accident-only: As it says on the tin, accident-only pet insurance offers cover only for accidental injury – and up to a fixed sum for treatment costs. However, it may also include an amount towards the cost of illness-related emergency treatment.
Some accident policies carry a 12-month time limit which means they provide cover for a maximum of one year from the date treatment starts for each condition. So, if your cat broke her leg after being hit by a car, treatment relating to this injury would not continue beyond 12 months.
As an accident-only policy does not cover illness, it tends to be the cheapest pet insurance available.
Multi-pet insurance
Many pet insurance providers offer a discount to put more than one pet on the same policy – in some cases up to 15%. You can usually add more than one cat or dog or combination of the two.
In addition to the savings, which can certainly add up over the course of your pets’ lifetimes, multi-pet insurance can prove more efficient because you will only have one renewal date to remember and one set of paperwork to manage.
Cover outside vet costs
The following claims, which fall outside the cost of vet fees, may be included as part of a comprehensive pet insurance policy or available as an optional extra:
- Dental cover: the cost of dental care if treatment required is linked to an illness or injury
- Kennels/cattery costs: if you fall ill and need to stay in hospital – usually for more than four consecutive days
- Third party liability cover: if your dog causes injury or damage to someone’s property and you are sued. Liability cover should start at £1 million. The same cover does not apply to cats which are considered ‘free spirits’ in the eyes of the law
- If your pet is lost or stolen: you may be able to claim for advertising and reward costs if your pet has strayed or is stolen, and up to its purchase price it is not recovered or does not return
- Holiday cancellation: if you can no longer go away due to your pet being sick or in an accident
- If your pet dies: up to the purchase price of your pet if it dies prematurely due to illness or injury – up to a stated age limit. It may also include euthanasia costs (putting your terminally ill pet to sleep) as well as burial or cremation
- Treatment for behavioural problems: such as aggression, separation anxiety, and fear of loud noises
- Care abroad: cover for emergency care for your pet when taken overseas
- Alternative treatments: such as physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, acupuncture and osteopathy
- Accidental damage: breakages and damage your pet causes to your home (check this is not already covered under your home insurance).
Bear in mind a monetary cap will apply to all cover.
What pet insurance doesn’t cover
As a rule, pet insurance will not cover pre-existing conditions, annual boosters, worming treatments, whelping costs and routine check-ups and injections such as flu, parvovirus and tetanus.
Neutering, microchipping, breeding complications, pregnancy complications and alternative therapies are also often excluded.
Insuring more unusual pets
According to the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), cats and dogs account for 95% of all pets owned in the UK – so policies that cover these animals account for the vast majority of pet insurance offerings.
However, affordable cover is also available for other common pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs.
When it comes to more unusual pets, the choice of insurers becomes more limited. Some providers offer exotic pet insurance, which typically covers animals that are not indigenous to the UK – snakes, lizards, bearded dragons, iguanas, turtles and tortoises, for example.
Horses can be insured under equine-specific plans.
Insurance for birds – including parrots, canaries, cockatiels and love birds – can fall under exotic pet insurance or be sold as standalone cover, while it’s almost impossible buy pet fish insurance at all.
Insuring pedigrees
Pedigrees cats and dogs – the offspring of two animals of the same breed which are registered with a recognised club or society – are unsurprisingly more costly to insure.
That’s because, not only are pedigrees more likely to be stolen with their value running into thousands of pounds in some cases, they are more susceptible to hereditary disorders associated with their breed.
For these reasons, a lifetime pet insurance policy is generally the best option as – so long as you keep up the premium repayments – all conditions will be covered for the duration of the policy, even if they are recurring.
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