Insurance World

One type of insurance that many people overlook is pet insurance. With pets often loved as part of the family and vet’s bills being extremely expensive, it really does make sense to insure your pet. Here are some reasons why you should get pet insurance, and things to look out for when choosing insurance for your pet:

Vet bills expensive

One of the main reasons to get pet insurance is the fact that vet bills are extremely expensive. If you pet becomes severely ill it could cost hundreds or even thousands to carry out an operation. Even simple things such as regular check ups or vaccinations cost money, so you could save yourself a lot with pet insurance.

Liability

Another reason to get pet insurance is to cover yourself for liability. Animals can be unpredictable, and something as simple as your dog running out into the road could cause a car crash and leave you facing a lawsuit for damages. Getting pet insurance will cover you for liability should your pet cause any trouble.

Peace of mind

Just as with human medical insurance, pet insurance gives owners the peace of mind that should anything happen to their pet they will have the money to try and put it right. You don’t want to be left in a situation where you can’t pay the vet bills and the only option is to put your animal to sleep. Having pet insurance will stop this sort of situation from occurring.

What are the costs?

With vet bills being so expensive you might think that insuring your pet would be expensive too. However, insuring animals is becoming cheaper and cheaper, with prices for dogs starting at as little as Ј7 per month. Obviously the price varies depending on the breed and level of cover you want, but prices really are affordable nowadays.

What do you get?

Depending on the policy you have, your pet is covered for a variety of things. Generally you will get a few thousand pounds of vet bills covered, around Ј2 million in liability cover should your animal hurt anyone or cause an accident, and a few hundred pounds in death benefit.

Things to look out for

Apart from the standard cover, there are a number of things you should look out for when buying cover for your pet. Obviously you want adequate financial cover at a good price, but what else? Well, lifelong cover is something you should look at, as is cover for advertising a lost or stolen pet. As your pet gets older they are likely to be more prone to illness, so lifelong cover is important. If your animal is lost you want to be able to get them back as quickly as possible so having the costs covered for putting up adverts can really help. If you shop around for the right deal you can get a comprehensive pet insurance package for very little money.

If you have ever wonder about the benefits of insuring your family pet, then you may want to consider the following pointers as to why you should consider pet insurance for your family pet:

1 in every 3 family pets will visit a vet this year for treatment
40 percent of all vet fees are caused by ‘unforeseen’ illnesses or accidents
less than 15 percent of family pets in the UK are covered by pet insurance
the average vet bill for care and attention needed following a road accident involving a cat or dog last year was circa. Ј750 - Ј1,000
2 out of every 3 pet owners in the UK have admitted to having gone overdrawn at some time during their lives in order to pay for their pet’s vet bills.

All of these are fairly scary statistics. They’re event more scary when you consider that will a simple family pet insurance policy, paying a minimum premium of somewhere between Ј25 and Ј75 (depending on the size of the pet), all of these are totally unnecessary.

If you want to get you pet insured and avoid any of these statistics happening to you, you can choose from:

Pet Accident Insurance

As the name suggests, with a pet accident insurance you are getting the basic minimum in pet insurance – accident coverage. Under this policy the insurance company will reimburse you for all costs and expenses you incur caused as a result of your pet having been involved in an accident (unfortunately, more often than not, this means a road accident).

Pet Accident and Illness Insurance

With pet accident and illness insurance you get full coverage insurance; namely, your insurance company will agree to pay for all the costs and expenses incurred as a result of your family pet having suffered any illness or accident.

Excess Amount

One thing you do need to keep in mind when arranging your family pet insurance is the excess amount. As with all insurance policies, the excess amount is the amount you and the insurance company agree you’ll pay before you are entitled to claim against the insurance policy. While it is always a good idea to set an excess amount that would cover you for any mundane visits to the vet, so as to keep the premium down if nothing else, you don’t want to se the excess too high that you end up having to pay for care and attention you thought would be covered by the pet insurance policy. It is, therefore, advisable that you have a look at some of your more recent vet bills and try and mind a medium between these sums so you have some idea of the excess before you set off arranging your family pet insurance.