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Pet insurance should be tailored to the animal’s and its owner’s needs.
In addition to covering vet costs, pet insurance can cover misfortunes such as the loss, theft or death of the animal. In the case of a pet such as a dog or a horse, it can also cover financial liabilities, in the event it injures someone or damages another’s property.
Before setting a price for a policy, an insurer will consider the type of insurance the pet owner wants, the type of animal and its breed.
It will also consider factors such as the animal’s age and health. Where the pet owner lives, and the cost of veterinary treatment in that area, can also help determine the size of premiums.
What determines the cost of pet insurance premiums?
There’s no denying that pets can be expensive, especially their vet bills. Treatment for a dog with diabetes can cost £1,200 over two and a half years, while surgery for a cat’s broken tibia costs almost £2,000.
Pet insurance can cover such expenses all for a monthly or annual cost. Exactly what an insurer will charge will depend on factors such as:
Type of cover
It’s no surprise that higher levels of cover usually come at an additional cost. Lifetime policies offer the most comprehensive insurance and are therefore usually the most expensive. They cover illness and accidents.
A lifetime policy may offer an unlimited amount of vet cover, or set an annual limit, such as £2,000. It also usually caps how much policyholders can claim per medical condition, such as up to £1,000.
Once this limit has been reached, a policyholder would have to fund any further treatment for said condition, but the policy would still pay out for other conditions where the limit has not been reached. On renewing the policy after a year, all limits are reinstated.
Maximum Benefit and Time Limited policies both cover conditions up to a fixed sum per condition. However, the latter also restricts how long a policyholder can claim for the same condition (usually up to 12 months from when a condition is first treated).
The most basic and inexpensive cover is Accident Only which usually pays out for injury caused by accidents, but sometimes can include cover for illness.
The table below shows how the monthly cost of pet insurance can compare, depending on policy type.
We ran quotes for a four-year-old pedigree Golden Retriever. We’ve assumed the dog is neutered, chipped, with up-to-date vaccines and has shown no signs of aggression or has been the subject of legal action in the past five years.
The quotes are for a minimum of £1,000 in vet cover annually.
Type of animal
Cats and dogs are some of the least expensive animals to insure and are the most popular pets in the UK. In fact, 24% of UK adults own a cat, while 29% own a dog, according to the vet charity, the PDSA.
This is how monthly insurance costs for a dog can vary compared to a cat’s. To collect the data, we used the profile of a Golden Retriever (as detailed above), and a pedigree Domestic Shorthair cat born in January 2019. We assumed the cat is spayed, chipped with up-to-date vaccinations.
The quotes are for a minimum of £1,000 in vet cover annually.
Affordable insurance for other far less common pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters is also available, as well as for horses.
For those with more exotic animals, such as lizards, snakes and parrots, insurance can be harder to find. These pets are not common in the UK and few providers cover them. Where they do, they can charge more to account for the higher costs for the specialised treatment they would need if they were to fall ill or get injured.
Breed
Pedigree dogs and cats are typically more expensive to insure than crossbreeds and mongrels. This is because pedigrees – the offspring of parents of the same breed – are more susceptible to genetic illnesses.
For example, French Bulldogs and Pugs tend to suffer from breathing problems due to abnormal windpipes as well as narrow nostrils.
Conversely, crossbreeds, which have parents of two different breeds, and even more so, mongrels which are a mix of three or more breeds, are the least prone to genetic conditions.
Larger pets may also cost more to insure simply because they require larger doses of drugs. Recovery from treatment can also take longer, and may be more complex compared to smaller animals.
Age
No doting pet owner wants to think about it, but like humans, as animals get older they are more at risk of illness and needing medical attention. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of their owners claiming for medical costs.
Some pet insurers don’t provide cover for older pets, while others will charge more for the policy to account for this risk.
An insurer may also raise how much they levy in excess per medical condition claimed for once an animal reaches a certain age (usually around 8 for cats and dogs). An excess is a set amount a policyholder must pay per medical condition claimed for.
Policies for older pets may also levy a co-payment as a set percentage or fee, after excess, in order to keep premiums as low as possible.
This means, if a policyholder makes a claim for £1,000 on a policy that levies an excess of £125, and a 20% co-payment on the remainder of the claim (£175), they will need to pay £300.
Policyholders do not need to pay an excess and co-payment upfront, as they are deducted from any payout following a claim.
Most insurers will not cover pre-existing conditions – medical conditions an animal had before taking out the policy.
For this reason it is best to get an animal insured as early as possible. Insurers offer cover for animals as young as eight-weeks-old. Pets who are insured from young can usually continue with their provider into older age.
Location
A pet owner’s location will indicate to insurers the level of vet cover they will need, as vet fees vary between regions. This is mainly due to a difference in the cost of living across the UK, with London and the South of England tending to be the most expensive.
The more costly a region is, the more expensive the pet insurance will likely be.
The table below gives an idea of how the cost of pet insurance differs between three cities in different parts of England, using the profile of the Golden Retriever detailed above.
The quotes are for a minimum of £1,000 in vet cover annually.
How can I keep the cost of my pet insurance down?
Like other types of insurance, there are ways you can keep your premiums to a minimum:
- Make sure you have the right level of cover for your pet. While you’ll want your pet to be adequately covered should something go wrong, there’s potential to pay for more cover than necessary if you don’t check the policy details. Avoid paying out for added benefits that you don’t need, by removing unnecessary add-ons or opting for a different policy.
- Check if you can apply for free treatment for your pet through charities such as the PDSA and Blue Cross.
- Have your pet neutered or spayed. From a pet insurer’s perspective this lowers the chance of your animal straying, and in turn the chance that you will claim for loss of your animal, for example.
- Keep up with your pet’s vaccinations, as your insurer will view you as less likely to claim for illness, and this will be reflected in your premiums.
- Train your pet. Owners with well-behaved animals, who have no previous claims against them for misbehaviour are seen as lower risk.
- If you have more than one pet, consider taking out multi-pet insurance for a typical discount of 10% to 15% on your policy. Do compare prices against those for standard single policies from a range of providers though, as multi-pet insurance doesn’t always work out cheaper.
Crucially, shop around for your pet insurance policy. You could get the same or similar cover cheaper.
How can I find a cheap pet insurance policy?
The easiest way to compare policies is to use an online pet insurance comparison tool. Simply enter a few details about your pet, yourself and the cover you need, and it will show you the cheapest quotes that fit your requirements within seconds.
