Pet insurance claims considerations
Things you may not know about making a pet insurance claimBefore making a claim
Your pet needs you most when they fall ill or get injured - we're here to help
It’s good to know a bit about your cover before you make a claim so we’ve pulled out some key points for you below.
- We've highlighted some of the key aspects of your pet's cover - please find the full details in your policy documents.
Pre-existing medical conditions
What's covered and what's not when it comes to medical conditions?
We want to help your pet on the way to recovery, but we can't provide cover for some pre-existing medical conditions. These include:
- Symptoms of illness
- Injury
- Behavioural problems
When you set up a policy, you'll need to tell us about any injury, illness or symptoms your pet's had so we can advise you if it'll be covered.
We may place exclusions due to something you tell us about. Some exclusions are temporary and can be removed, if you ask us, as long as certain criteria are met.
If you'd like to know if a pre-existing condition will be covered, we're happy to talk to you about it before you set up a policy.
Good to know: there's a 14-day waiting period before illnesses are covered on your policy, and a 48-hour waiting period for accidents.
Percentage excess
Older pets are more likely to need treatment so the cost of your pet insurance can increase. We keep prices down by adding a percentage excess to our Lifetime policies.
An excess is the amount you must contribute to the cost of any claim you make. This helps us keep your premiums lower.
If you have a Lifetime policy and you need to make a claim...
- You only pay the percentage excess on a policy year that started after your dog’s 8th or your cat’s 10th birthday.
- The fixed excess (and voluntary excess, if you have one) will be deducted and you'll pay 20% of the remaining vet fees.
Good to know: there's no percentage excess on Time Limited policies.
Dental care
We don’t cover scaling or polishing teeth, or any routine or preventative dental treatments. Our Lifetime policies offer more dental cover than our Time Limited polices...
Time Limited policies
We'll cover the cost of dental care if:
- The treatment's needed because of an injury.
- It's to remove the first milk teeth after your pet's over 6 months old, as long as they were insured with us before they were 16 weeks old.
Lifetime policies
All the benefits of the Time Limited policy, plus:
- Treatment needed because of illness (or injury).
Good to know: you'll need to make sure your pet has annual check-ups and any treatment your vet recommends is carried out within 6 months.
Related conditions
Health problems as a result of previous symptoms or conditions
Health conditions can be related when one of a pair (e.g. eyes, ears, knees) is affected by an injury or illness. For example, Kylie the Labrador ruptures her left knee ligament and 7 months later ruptures her right one. We'd treat this as a single condition.
Time Limited policies
These cover conditions for 12 months from the 1st treatment up to your chosen vet fee limit.
- You wouldn't have to pay another excess.
- In this example, you'd have 5 months cover remaining and what's left of your vet fee limit for treatment of her right knee.
Lifetime policies
These cover the cost of all treatments covered (up to your vet fee limit) each policy year and reset when you renew.
- You wouldn't have to pay a 2nd fixed excess if the treatment started in the same policy year.
- In this example, any balance left over from your 1st vet fee claim would cover Kylie's other claims, until renewal, when the cover would reset to your chosen vet fee limit again.
Related conditions
Health problems linking back to previous symptoms or a previously diagnosed condition are also treated as related
Suppose Kylie the Labrador goes on to get arthritis in her knees three years after her knee ligament repairs...
Time Limited policies
- The arthritis wouldn't be covered as more than 12 months have passed since the start of treatment for her 1st (left) ligament rupture.
Lifetime policies
- Assuming you had no other claims for Kylie that year, her arthritis treatment would be covered up to your full chosen vet fee limit.