Pet Insurance
One of the most important decisions after choosing which the right dog is for you and your family, is deciding on which is the best Pet Insurance for your furry friend and from which company you decide to insure with, next to purchasing/paying an adoption fee for a dog, the biggest expense you will have in their live is Vet Bills.
Just to give you an idea why Pet Insurance is a life saver for both your dog and you, here’s an example of how much I myself would have had to pay out in Vet Bills for our previous dog.
£6,000+ over 4 years for 2 instances of Cruciate Ligament damage which required TPLO Surgery and all the associated services, after care and medication.
Without Pet Insurance we would have had to remortgage or max our credit cards to the limit
At one time you would be limited to which companies offered Pet Insurance, but now there are a myriad of companies out there offering policies including some of the High Street brand’s you wouldn’t normally expect to offer Pet Insurance, but now they do.
The reason there are so many companies offering Pet Insurance now is because we as a nation spent nearly 6 Billion on pets last year according to a report in the Telegraph.
So for these companies it’s become a lucrative market to enter, so how is this beneficial to you and your dogs ; well all these companies want your business and will vie for your custom, so what you need to do is ensure that when you buy Pet Insurance from one of these companies, you treat it the same way as you treat your House/Car Insurance and look for the company that offer cover for every eventuality and some more you may not even have thought of… Remember your trusting them with your dog’s life, so don’t be afraid to ask questions on what might happen to your dog and how they as an insurance company would respond to it
Here are just a few questions that you might want to ask yourself and the Pet Insurance company when looking ;
- Are the policies and information provided reasonably easy to understand? Are the people you talk to knowledgeable and helpful?
- Can you see any veterinarian you want?
- Have premiums increased over the past few years? If so, by how much?
- What happens to coverage and premiums as your pet gets older?
- Are there any reasons you wouldn’t be able to renew your policy?
- Is there a limit to how much you can claim per condition? If so, how much?
- What kinds of care are excluded or limited? Are congenital or hereditary diseases covered? What about cancer? Is dental care covered?
- Are conditions diagnosed within one year excluded as preexisting conditions the next?
- Is there a maximum age for enrollment?
- Are there limits per incident, per year, per lifetime, or per body system? What are those limits?
- How quickly are claims processed and paid?
- Does the policy cover third party liability? What are the exclusions?
- What reputation does the pet insurance company have? Will they pay out if you claim?
- In what circumstances can your policy be cancelled or not renewed by your insurer?
These are just a few examples of the questions you should begin by asking, if the Pet Insurer cannot provide definitive or reasonable answers to these sorts of questions, then you shouldn’t be insuring with them, as these I would say are questions that all Pet Insurers should be able to answer.
If they can’t give you answers straight away, this might indicate that their Polices are underwritten by a 3rd Party, so you may have to call you back or ask that you call back for answers.
When asking these questions ensure that the person on the phone is taking notes of what you’ve asked and what their responses are and if you do decide to take their insurance after they’ve answered the questions, ask them if they can provide the notes for your records (this way there’s no chance of them reneging at a later date).
Hope all of the above is useful to you when looking for insurance for your furry friends and if you yourself have any suggestions for questions to ask of Pet Insurers before taking out a policy, please feel free to use the comment box below this post
As a final note on Pet Insurance here’s an interesting piece by Which? That covers some of the questions above and why it is important that you ask them “Age Old Problems With Pet Insurance”