PET INSURANCE - WHAT's COVERED
Things you may not know about making a pet insurance claimBefore making a claim
Your pet needs you most if they become ill or get injured - we're here to help
You'll find full details in your policy booklet, but we've covered some key points below.
- Here, we've highlighted some of the key aspects of your policy - you can find 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 any pre-existing medical conditions. These include:
- Any signs of illness
- Injury
- Behavioural problems
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.
Variable excess
As pets get older the risk of illness increases and therefore your excess may increase too. The excess is the amount you will need to pay towards your pets treatment. We will notify you a year in advance if your pet is reaching an age where your excess needs to change to include a 20% contribution towards your claims.
- Good to know: we have a choice of excesses available to help you manage the cost of your policy. The higher the excess you choose the cheaper the price, but the more you will need to contribute when you claim.
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 policies...
Time limited policies
We'll cover the cost of dental care if:
- The treatment's needed because of an injury
Lifetime policies
All the benefits of the Time limited policy as well as:
- Treatment needed because of illness (or injury).
Good to know: you'll need to make sure your pet has annual check-ups and 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.