Guiding you Through Pet Insurance
You’ve put the deposit down on your new puppy. Now you’re thinking about how to keep this new member of the family safe and protected. Well the first thing to consider for both them and your future bank balance is Pet Insurance. So where do you start?
Why Purchase Pet Insurance?
Let’s start with why you might need Pet Insurance. Most of us know that like private healthcare for us humans, vet fees do not come cheap. If your dog is unfortunate enough to develop a condition that cannot be cured, it could last it’s lifetime. This could mean a great deal of stress both mentally and on the pocket. This is where pet insurance comes in to lend a hand. For those lengthy or one-off expensive treatments, you’ll be glad you took out insurance right at the start.
What's the Average Cost of Insurance for a Puppy?
Based on stats from Animal Friends between January 2020 and January 2021, an average cost of insurance for puppies between the ages of four weeks and 12 months was £17.52 a month. And according to Associated British Insurers 2019, the average pet insurance claim for pets of all ages, amounts to around £793, suggesting pet insurance could help protect you from unexpected veterinary bills.
Cover you May Not Expect
Pet insurance doesn’t just cover you for unexpected illness. Here’s a three things you may not have thought about:
Accident Cover - If your dog is involved in an accident, your insurance will cover their vet bills to hopefully bring them back to full health. If your dog is the cause of the accident however and luckily doesn’t injure themselves, your insurance will kick in and cover that too. The public liability aspect of any pet insurance is something that is often overlooked. Should your pet be off the lead and cause a car accident for instance, this could run in to 10’s if not 100’s of thousands of pounds worth of compensation for the other people, vehicles and objects involved.
Theft or Straying – If your dog is stolen or stays, your insurance can contribute to the cost to advertise for your pets safe recovery as well as a reward for anyone who finds it.
Protecting you – As well as your pet, the insurance can help protect you too. Should you need to be in hospital for 4 or more consecutive days, your policy may contribute towards professional dog walkers or kennels where required.
Where to Look for a Policy
Like most insurance products, pet insurance can be compared on the various insurance comparison sites on the internet. These include the likes of moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com. You can also go direct to insurance providers such as Animal Friends, Pet Plan and Bought By Many.
Lets Get Started With Your Quote
I’m used to shopping for insurance. From life cover to home and contents and the various levels of cover required to run a business. When shopping for pet insurance however, a few new terms and phrases where used that in some cases I wasn’t 100% sure of their meaning. For this reason, we’re teaming up with our friends over at Animal Friends Pet Insurance to clear a few things up.
Key Insurance Terms Explained
The Legal Bit from Animal Friends Insurance - before we start, it’s worth knowing that as part of our governing body’s regulations, the FCA, we can only provide guidance on the insurance products available, we’re not able to advise anyone thinking of joining Animal Friends on which product they should buy. This is to ensure that our customers can get the right product that best suits their needs and the needs of their pet.
What would you like the cover for? Accidents | Accidents & illness
Accident Only policies are the most basic levels of insurance, offering cover for only injuries and complications arising from accidents.
Other levels of cover can offer you protection for your pet in the event of an accident or if they were to fall ill. There are still various options at this point that cater for individual needs.
- 365 days, or Time Limited policies, provide covers for accidents, illnesses and other conditions for a maximum of 365 days before they are no longer covered.
- Vet fee limit, or Max Benefit policies, allow you to claim for each injury or illness up to a specified financial cap
- Lifetime policies provide ongoing cover for vet fees from accidents and illnesses, up until the policy’s specific limits are reached. This policy limit is reset each year after renewal.
Now we’ve covered the main questions. Here's one I personally had when selecting the correct insurance product that you may be asking too:
Q: Your annual condition limit is £6k per year on a Prestige plan, but what does it mean when it says the lifetime condition limit is unlimited?
A: A Lifetime Condition Limit is the set amount that you’re able to claim for any one condition during your pet’s lifetime. This isn’t applicable on our Prestige policy as it has an Annual Condition Limit, meaning we’ll pay the vet’s fees for each condition but once the limit is reached, that condition will not be covered until the policy renews.
For example, if you chose the Prestige policy which has a condition limit of £6,000 and your dog was to develop a skin condition and suffered gastroenteritis, we would cover the cost of treatment for the skin condition up to £6,000 and also the treatment for the gastroenteritis case, up to £6,000 (subject to any applicable excess, co-payment or exclusions relating to any pre-existing conditions). When you renew your policy the annual condition limit is reset and you'll be covered for up to £6,000 again for each condition should you need it.
Additional Extras Included in your Plan
Q: I notice that when taking out an Animal Friends policy you get free access to Joii. Please could you explain to us what this platform is and how it works?
A: We’ve partnered up with Joii Pet Care to bring our customers a free alternative to traditional vet appointments. This service allows our customers to have access to expert advice, whenever and wherever they need it as well as unlimited video calls with qualified vets from the comfort of their own homes.
Q: What are common things you could use this platform for?
A: The Joii app offers online nurse clinics, video consultations with qualified vets and a comprehensive symptom checker while helping to prevent future health issues for your pet all of which are free with an Animal Friends cat or dog policy.
Joii’s face-to-face calls allows you to ask questions or share any concerns, providing priceless peace of mind in times of need and uncertainty. As part of our PupStart programme, customers can also use the app to access free 1-2-1 puppy clinics and training advice.
Reasons to Choose Animal Friends Pet Insurance
Creating better lives for animals has always been our ethos, that’s why we were founded in 1998 with a sole aim of providing affordable pet insurance as a means to help support animal welfare charities around the world.
Since then, we have donated over £5.6million to animal welfare and conservation charities worldwide and are now trusted to protect over one million of the nation’s pets.
We are utilising our voice to help our customers, and the general public understand the importance and benefits of responsible pet ownership and preventative health care. That is why we created a bespoke program for puppies under 12 months old called PupStart.
Puppy owners who take out an Animal Friends policy will have access to the free programme, designed to give essential advice, support and care to help during the first 12 months of a puppy’s growth and development.
Why Wait!
Now you’ve got all the information you need, why wait? You can schedule your insurance up to 30-days in advance. This means that even if the pups not arrived yet you can still get a quote. It’s also worth noting that some policies don’t cover claims in the first 5 – 14 days. Why not start your policy a few weeks ahead of bringing you pup home to avoid any unaccepted circumstances?
Get Your Quote Now
Follow this link to get your pet insurance quote from Animal Friends and in addition to a great policy you'll also get a £10 voucher back as you have been referred from this article > https://animalfriends.mention-me.com/m/ol/bf8kq-mark-jackson
Looking to stock up on treats & toys for the new arrival? Pop over to our puppy section before you leave and use code "PUP10" for 10% off.