Pet insurance helps you to avoid huge vet fees
We are a nation of animal lovers. Recent research conducted by Mintel suggests that 74% of pet owners in the UK treat their pets as one of the family! But if your pet is ill or injured do you have the money stashed away in your bank account to cover vets bills that could equate to thousands of pounds? Didn’t think so! With no NHS equivalent in existence for pets, proud owners of dogs and cats are forced to fork out for emergency treatment themselves; unless they have pet cover of course!
Pet health insurance is seen as an essential purchase if you have a pet. Its all to easy for a cat to go wandering and get run over by a car or for a dog to snoop around in your cupboards and eat something they shouldn’t have. But if you have to whisk your pet to the vet because of illness or injury, how will you cover these costs? The truth is that most of us can’t and if we don’t have a pet insurance plan we max out our credit cards to save the life of our beloved pet. Of course, if you have an animal insurance policy this covers such emergency medical costs and more!
What types of pet insurance are available?
As UK pet insurance is a relatively new thing in the insurance industry there is an interesting variation of policies on this theme. Most companies will offer dog insurance and cat insurance. Some even insure guinea pigs and rabbits!
| | Basic policies - These are available from all pet insurance companies. These automatically cover vet fees up to a maximum amount (varies per insurer) per condition. Depending on which insurer, this will either be for the period of a year or for the life of the pet.
Advanced policies – These tend to include higher levels of vet fee coverage per condition and some extras to tempt you to pay an extra premium for the insurance policy.
Additional cover “add ons” - This includes such things as holiday cancellation costs if your pet is ill, boarding costs if you have to go into hospital, third party liability if your pet injures someone or overseas travel cover. These will either be charged separately or included in the policy |
Where can you get pet insurance from?
Whenever you make a trip to the vet you will probably be able to pick up a leaflet of one of the many companies that offer dog health insurance, cat health insurance or even rabbit and guinea pig insurance! Most of these leaflets will provide you with numbers to call or websites to visit. It’s all too easy to get a pet insurance quote and buy online!
