Pet insurance in a nutshell

The Christmas buzz is about to hit full swing and if you're cosidering adding a furry family member to your household we want to warn you of the cost of doing so. January is a popular time for considering the pros, cons and feasibility of pet insurance… The Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, is quite right in stating that “insurance is about making unpredictable events predictable in case the unpredictable happens.” It covers situations in which your beloved pet becomes unexpectedly ill or injured, when vet bills can simply become unaffordable. However, even if you have a healthy household income and money for those rainy days, insurance can still work out cheaper in the event that you actually need to make a claim! So how do you go about getting insured? The best way to ensure a fair price nowadays is through a price comparison website. These sites provide the very best way of discovering the best policies out there for your specific pet and allow you to directly compare similar quotes.

Be sure to keep in mind;

• Cheap will mean less cover. Consider the breed of your pet and the health issues they may be pre-disposed to and make sure these are covered at the very least
• A higher excess may mean smaller monthly payments. But make sure you would be able to easily cover this excess in the event of a claim
• Always declare medical conditions. It may be tempting to ‘forget’ a long-standing health condition that your pet has, but ultimately the insurer is unlikely to pay out in the event of a claim
• Always read the small print. Quite simply, be sure of what you are signing up for!

In order to ensure you are fully covered according to the policy you have opted for, you should always ensure all of the details you provide are accurate.

However, from August 2016 the law changed to help those who accidentally provide incorrect information and ensures that “insurers will be unable to unfairly reject customers’ claims because they have given the wrong information about an irrelevant element of their policy” (see full info here). This does suggest that insurers are not keen to help the pet-owning public and yet that is not the case. In December 2015 for example, the RSA (one of the UK’s leading pet insurers covering Tesco and More Than pet insurance) launched their ‘Preferred Referral Network’. This network benefits the pet-owner by ensuring the highest standards of veterinary treatment are provided at competitive costs. And the good news is that we have a brilliant referral network here at easipetcare!

So that is it – insurance in a nutshell! I hope this will be of some use to you and your family :-)

Best wishes,

Judy.xxx

 Judy Walker B.Vet.Med MRCVS. Founder of easipetcare - find out more  about Judy here!