Hi, was wondering if anyone could recommend a good company for pet insurance for my 9 week old puppy?
I have had various quotes and the best cover/price seems to be with Tesco so far.
What sort of cover do you have at the moment? I was a little confused as some where max. benefit with a 12 month limit on paying out on a condition, another was lifetime?
Funnily enough I work in insurance but nothing to do with pet insurance so some help would be appreciated.

Hi nicjane113,

I debated on this for a while, it's a bloody minefield, best advice is to go for lifetime and choose carefully.

There's a ton of information about insurance on this forum. Search 'insurance' and make a strong cup of tea, for there's a lot to get through.

Hope this helps.

I'm with animal friends insurance. Ive been very happy with them. You really need to go for lifetime IMO

I'm with pets at home, and would definitely suggest you get lifetime cover.

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Harvey - staffy
Chance - american bulldog (rescue)

19 snakes, 5 geckos, phibs, T's, inverts, fluffies and hedgehog.

ive literally just this moment bought my first pet insurance policy, iv never had one before.

i went with pet plan classic covered for life policy. ive tried looking on other sites etc before and found it sooooo confusing. but the petplan website was really simple to use and i understood it all. it might be a bit more expensive than other companies, but its still only costing me 76p a day! cant complain about that really.

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6th Jan 2008 - 22nd July 2009

Whatever company you decide to go for make sure it is a lifetime policy.
Lifetime cover means that if your dog gets an ongoing illness the insurance will pay out throughout the life time of your dog.
If you get a yearly plicy it'll pay out for the 1st year and that's it even if your dog needs ongoing treatment

I've heard good things about John Lewis and I'm with Argos on their top level.

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A dog Possesses Beauty without Vanity,Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.

Always go for a life time or life long policy, companies do varying amounts of vet cover a year, obviously the higher the amount the higher the premium. With this cover you get an amount to spend per year on vets bills, and then the following year as long as you renew the whole insured for amount gets re-instated no matter what you have claimed the previous year. This way if your dog developes an on going chronic illness, has an accident that later has compications, or something that re-occurs you will be insured as long as you stay with that company.

Some types of insurance may be cheaper and offer what seems like a good yearly amount of cover for vet bills, but they only cover an illness or accident for 12mths from date of diaagnosis or accident, which means if you do get later complications, or your dog gets a chronic on going illness, you wont be covered after 12mths.

Another type of policy is an amount per illness or injury with no time limit, but once that amount is used up, then you cant claim. I did have this type of policy at one point, I found however that they tended to lump illnesses and conditions together,
Into digestive tract problems not actually each individual one, or eye disorders, and things the animal has two of ie hips, eyes etc also counted as one. So it seems say if you had 7000 per condition and your dog heaven forbid got cateracts or hip problems you would have that to spend on each hip/eye but often it becomes collective not individual.

There are a few policies that give you an amount per condition, and are life long, so the full amount is re-instated each year. So it is amount per condition but also life long or life time. Even then some still have a total maximum benefit per condition.

A good way to check who is good, is to contact your vet ask if they accept direct payment, this way you would only have to pay the excess each time (which every policy has but that too varies in amount). If they do accept direct ask which companies, and then maybe get quotes from them.

Dont forget too most policies dont cover illness for the first 14 days. although some cover accidents. Anything the dog has in those first 14days is also likely to be classed as pre-existing which means it wont be paid out on at a later date. Also if you change companies further down the line, anything the dog has had that too will be classed as pre existing so you wont be paid out if you change. So it is important to get a good one from the start. Also usually the first 14days is a cooling off period, so read all the paper work when it comes to make sure the policy is as it was sold and meets what you need.

It is a bit of a minefield, and a lot of the problems people have later when they try to claim and cant is because the policy isnt what they thought it was when they took it out.

Hope this might help a bit.

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Thanks for all the help! The best I have found is John Lewis, anyone had any experience with them? It is £9.52 per month for £10,000 vets fees - as it says per policy period does this mean it is a lifetime policy? I have attached a policy summary if anyone would be good enough to look through it to see if it is good? seems good to me

Attached Files

John-Lewis-Pet-summary.pdf (101.5 KB, 3 views)

John Lewis is a perfectly acceptable insurer. I have good reports of them.

One thing you need to be clear about - you should get Life long cover - NOT Life Time. Life Time is often used as a descriptor for 'Per Condition' insurance, which isn't the same thing by a long way.

If it helps, have a look at my site (see sig below). Having been stuffed by an insurance company I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. The insurers there are all vetted. However, I'm about to remove Sainsburys because they are using the lifetime/lifelong trick and possibly Petguard, who have just changed underwriter and appear to be cancelling all their 'lifelong' policies - leaving a lot of clients unable to carry on insuring their pets fully.

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Things you should know before insuring your pet can be found at Important Facts about Pet Insurance. I can also try and answer questions about Pet Insurance via PM. I am not an insurance broker.

Hi AlbertRoss,

Thanks for your great site! Can I just ask why you don't list Tesco? We are thinking of going with them because we've heard good things from another family member who uses them. Are they not advisable, though?