Animal Friends Pet Insurance | Specialist Cover for your dog or cat

Compare Pet Insurance

AFI Pet Insurance - Ethical Insurers

Pet Insurance has been said to be the most confusing of all personal lines insurances. You only have to look at the huge number of companies offering it and the multitude of products to see why!

So how do you, the buyer, compare pet insurance products and how do you make sure you're comparing like with like to be sure you're getting proper value for your money? Let's try and bust through the jargon.

The first step to compare pet insurance is to understand who you are buying from. There are lots of offerings out there - virtually every supermarket has some form of pet insurance - but you should understand that there are very few actual insurers who are behind them. Pet insurance offered by Sainsbury's, Halifax, The Post Office, and Argos are all underwritten by insurance giants Axa for example. Lost of other big names are all underwritten by RBS companies. These schemes are usually administered by special administration companies who have teams answering the phones with the name of the relevant company scheme.

At the other end of the scale there are specialist pet insurance companies who do nothing but sell pet insurance - you won't get your spuds from them! These include Animal Friends, Pet Plan, Pinnacle, Pet Protect and Healthy Pets. Companies like this tend to do everything in house from selling you a policy to providing you with your direct debit and then handling your claims, although it is worth asking if a company outsources any of these functions. At Animal Friends for example we do all of this in house with our own specialist staff handling every aspect of the insurance process.

Only you can decide what's best for you and your pet given your budget but you should know that pet insurance policies are very different and you must be aware of those differences so you can properly compare pet insurance and not make a mistake!

Pet insurance policies generally fall into three categories. Here is a brief description of each:

1. A 12 month policy. This will be the cheapest as it offers the most limited cover. This will only cover a condition for up to 12 months; when you renew your policy that condition will be excluded so if it needs continued treatment you will have to pay for it yourself.
2. A policy that offers so much "per condition". For example you will see "up to £6,000" per condition. This policy will cover a condition up to that maximum limit but after that is used up you will again have to pay for treatment yourself. Payment for the condition will end as soon as it reaches the financial cover limit so it may not give complete cover for a long-term ongoing condition.
3. A Full Lifetime policy. This is the most comprehensive form of pet insurance cover. It will provide cover for example for £4000 "per year per condition". That means it will give continued cover for ongoing conditions such as diabetes and arthritis. So if you make a claim in one year when you renew the next year you get exactly the same amount again for the same condition. So if the condition needed treatment for 5 years you would have up to £20,000 just for that one condition! Obviously this is more expensive then the other two types but you may think when you compare pet insurance that this offers the best value in the long term

You may also want to consider other benefits when you compare pet insurance although vet fee cover is by far the most important. All policies for dogs will offer important public liability cover should your dog cause an accident for which you would be legally liable. Other benefits such as holiday cancellation, advertising and reward etc. may also be offered.

So you may now be better equipped to properly compare pet insurance when you are looking to protect your furry friend. If you are still puzzled or confused then just give us a call on 0844 55 70 300 and we'll try to help!