The best policy for you will depend entirely on your pet and your circumstances. This can take a lot of research, as well as a lot of careful perusing of small print!
Here’s a simple guide:
There are, broadly speaking, 3 different types of pet insurance:
Lifetime/ covered for life
- Cover is provided per condition up to a set amount each year.
- There is no time limit on claiming for each condition.
Maximum Benefit
- The policy will pay out a maximum amount for each single condition.
- There is no time limit over which this amount can be claimed.
- Once the maximum amount has been claimed for that condition, it will be excluded from future cover.
I have found that these policies are often the most confusing and many have been purchased believing they are the ‘Covered for life’ policies as described previously. In a sense if you never spend the total amount of money in the kitty ( sorry excuse the pun), then yes you have been covered for the pet’s lifetime!
Time limited
- Will cover a condition for twelve months from when it is first detected (or up to the renewal date, depending on the policy which will tend to be be less than 12 months).
- The policy will pay out a maximum amount for each condition.
- After 12 months that condition will be excluded from the cover.
- Premiums and policy excesses will rise when the pet reaches a certain age.
These tend to be the cheapest of all the insurance polices. They can be great for one off accidents, but not so great for long term illness. If you do find yourself with a long term problem, you cannot get cover else where as this is now a pre-existing condition and will not be covered.
You only have one opportunity to get it right and this has to be a pre-emptive decision.
So,what should I look for in a good policy?
- Is the insurance company reputable?
- Have you compared the excesses and benefit levels?
- Have you checked that the premium and excess don’t increase every time you make a claim?
- Will the company insure your pet into its old age?
- Check that the insurer will not place exclusions at renewal for an illness that has occurred in the previous policy year.
- Check if your insurance will cover the following: Congenital and hereditary illness, hip related conditions, dental treatment, behavioural problems, dietary food.
Things to remember:
- If you change your policy any condition that you’ve already claimed for will be excluded on the new one. The same will apply if you let a policy lapse.
- Your insurance premium will depend on a lot of factors– your pet’s age, their species, their breed as well as where you live.
- The above may mean that if your pet’s breed is particularly prone or predisposed to a health problem, eg. hip problems in large breed dogs, then it may not be covered.
- Be aware that premiums and excesses will probably rise as your pet ages.
- You will have to pay yourself up to whatever figure your excess amount is.
- Some policies will be voided if your pet’s vaccinations are not kept up to date, especially if your pet suffers from a disease covered by vaccinations.
- General preventative healthcare such as vaccinations, neutering and flea and worming treatment are not covered by insurance.
It is important to remember what is a good policy for your friend's dog, may not be the right policy for you. The small print is boring, but please remember this is what you are paying for, and when you want to use this policy you are never in a ‘good place’.
Notes:
The costs of veterinary care in this article are to give you the reader a benchmark and idea of rough costs. Your vet will be able to provide you an estimate of costs before treatment commences. It is always a good idea to have your insurance company pre-approve treatment for complicated cases before you commence. This is known as a pre-authorisation request and gives you confidence that the bill will be settled by your pet insurance company.
No comments:
Post a Comment