Pet Insurance Discount

Looking to save money on pet insurance? Direct Line offers 12 months for the price of 10 when you buy online before 20th May 2009.

2 covers for cats and dogs

Choose between Essential and Advanced policies. Essential covers vet fees for a maximum of 12 months for each unrelated illness or injury, and up to £4,000 per condition. Advanced will give you £6,000 in vet fees for each condition, with no time limit. Both policies include 3 useful helplines Read more about Direct Line pet insurance latest offer

The credit crunch is affecting every aspect of customer spending, including pet insurance. Petplan recently said they were increasingly concerned with the effect of the recession on pet care in general, and pet insurance in particular.

However, customers have been urged to keep their pet’s wellbeing at heart and not cancel their policies. How would you cope should your pet need veterinary treatment and you don’t have cover? With pet health insurance you can relax, safe in the knowledge that your pet will have acess to the latest veterinary medicine, and only for a few pounds a month.

Clarissa Baldwin from the Dogs Trust says “Sadly we are seeing the results of the deepening recession at some of our rehoming centres, and especially an increase in dogs with medical problems whose owners have been unable to pay for ongoing treatment.  We fully appreciate that it’s really difficult for people not to make cutbacks in their spending, but we would urge the public not to see insurance for their pets’ health as a non-essential.” Read more

In periods of economic uncertainty it’s always a good idea to have cover for your cat, dog or rabbit. And because every penny matters, finding cheaper pet insurance online makes perfect sense. Here’s 6 tips to help you reduce the cost of your monthly premium.

1. Insure your pet as early as possible

Young puppies and kittens may be prone to mishaps in the first few months of their lives but they’re quite unlikely to develop any medical condition. As pets get older they become increasingly subject to illnesses, just like humans. Claims become more frequent and cost more to the insurance company. When pets are young, they’re less likely to engender a claim, hence lower premiums.

2. Select a higher excess

Companies will sometimes give you the possibility to reduce the cost of cover if you select a higher excess. Remember that you only have to pay the vet fees excess should you make a claim. Otherwise, it’s money saved on your pet insurance quote!

Read 4 more tips to get the cheapest pet insurance possible

As of Monday 17th January 2009, all Argos and Homebase pet insurance policies will be underwritten by Agria International Forsakring AB.

Agria are a specialist pet insurance underwritter that already provide healthcare cover under brand names such as The Kennel Club and Crufts Pet Insurance. Now, they will underwrite Argos and Homebase pet insurance after AXA alledgedly decided to streamline their pet insurance operations. The change is of immediate effect for new customers. For existing policyholders, this switch may be effective at renewal time.

What does this mean for Argos and Homebase customers?

• Smaller prices for new customers: from £3.99 per month before 5% online discount
• No change in the cover provided
• No change in the policy wording
• No change in the claim payment process
• No change in location of the customer service – remains in the UK

Read more about Agria and the changes to Argos and Homebase pet insurance policies

Lifelong pet insurance may be a bit more expensive than per condition or 12-month covers but it’s definately worth the few extra pounds a month  in the long run. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider buying lifelong cat and dog insurance.

1. Ongoing conditions are covered for life

As long as you renew your policy each year, medical conditions will not be excluded from your policy even if you have started claiming for them. With other types of pet health covers, conditions are excluded after a certain time or when a financial ceiling is reached, leaving you out of the pocket should further care be necessary.

2. Your vet fees limit is renewed every year

Unlike per condition policies which give you a specific amount of money for each specific condition or 12-month plans that provide you with a fund for a limited time period, lifelong pet insurance will give you a yearly fund that gets replenished every year, on your insurance anniversary date. Say if you buy Marks and Spencer Premier cover, you will get £7,000 to spend on veterinary fees each and every year.
Read more reasons to buy lifelong pet insurance

Pet insurance should be mandatory reckons Keith Hall, manager of Hallswood Animal Sanctuary in Norwich.

42 animals have already been left at his rescue centre since Christmas (23 cats and 7 dogs) as the credit crunch starts to bite. Most of the time people struggle to pay vet bills but they also abandon pets with medical problems before getting a new one. Mr Hall says “People have started using animals like mobile phones – they just exchange them.”.

As a promoter of responsible pet ownership, Mr Hall therefore believes that pet insurance should be mandatory: “I can’t believe that you have to have your car insured by law but you don’t legally have to get pet insurance“.

Read more

Get a Direct Line pet insurance online quote before 31/03/2009 you could win a £1,000 worth of pet food.

Every customer requesting a cat or dog insurance quote on www.directline.com/pet will be entered into a prize draw to win £1,000 worth of pet food, paid into Pets at Home vouchers.

Each week, 1 winner will be drawn, making it 13 chances for you to win the prize!! No purchase necessary! Just request a quote online and you will be automatically entered into the competition.

Find out more about Direct Line pet insurance

Helpucover (former Pinnacle pet insurance) is now offering healthcare cover for rabbits.

Helpucover has been specialising in lifelong pet insurance for years now and recently extended its range of policies to rabbits. With only a few companies providing rabbit insurance, Helpucover will prove a sensible choice for a monthly budget of about £10.

More about Helpucover Rabbit Insurance

Despite the credit crunch, specialist pet insurance provider Animal Friends Insurance (AFI) has reported a 40% increase in sales. The success of the non-for-profit organisation lies in 3 things:

• a new, more comprehensive website coupled with an increased visibility online
• a wide range of policies: lifelong and per condition available, from £500 to £6,000 per year in vet fees
• cheap prices: from £6.36 per month

Credit Crunch encourages pet owners to buy pet insurance

In period of an economic downturn, people tend to make more rational decisions with their money. They see pet insurance more positively as they realise pets are likely to visit the vet each year and engender heavy vet bills.

Read more about AFI pet insurance

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) urged dog and cat owners to buy their pets the present of pet insurance this Christmas. Anyone who gives and receives a pet this year should ensure they have some sort of insurance cover. A survey conducted by the association showed that 31% of people considered purchasing gifts for their pet and acknowledged that insurance is a very important part of responsible ownership.

A dog is for life not just for Christmas

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Dogs Trust tagline “A dog is for life not just for Christmas”. According to Clarissa Baldwin – Dogs Trust chief executive, there are still 1.8% of dogs bought as gifts: as many as 131,400 per year. Read more

In time of an economic downturn, it’s even more important to buy pet insurance says Mike Powell from financial research company Defaqto. According to the general insurance expert, pet insurance should be seen as seen as part of general pet healthcare and shouldn’t be cancelled because of economic difficulties.

“If you can’t afford to pay for insurance cover, how can you realistically afford to pay a vet bill?” asks Mr Powell. As credit is getting more and more difficult to obtain, cat and dog owners without pet insurance may struggle to borrow money to pay for expensive vet bills. There were reports earlier this year that vets were often forced to put pets to sleep because their owners couldn’t afford treatment. Read more

Comparing lifelong pet insurance online can be tedious. There’s no such thing as a moneysupermarket.com for pet insurance, so if you’re looking to compare price and level of cover you would have to go to each single insurer’s website, enter all your details each time and write down the quote outcome.

Luckily, you’ll find below a shortlist of pet insurance companies that provide lifelong cover and a couple of quote examples to give you an idea of prices.

Go and compare lifelong pet insurance premiums

With PDSA pet insurance, you can protect your pet but also help animals in need of veterinary care all over the UK. When you take out Petsurance from PDSA, 20% of your premium will go towards UK’s number 1 veterinary charity, which helps sick and injured animals.

PDSA Petsurance: per condition pet insurance

Some insurers impose a 12-month limit on claims for a specific condition. After that period the condition is excluded from the policy and no further claims can be made. However, with PDSA there’s no time limit. Your only restriction is the financial limit you can claim for a condition: between £2,000 and £7,000 per condition depending on your cover level. This ensures your pet can receive the best of care for ongoing conditions that require longer treatment.

Read more about PDSA pet insurance

Pets are great companions. They’re part of your family and bring joy to the household, at Christmas time especially. It’s no surprise then that British pet owners buy presents for their four-legged friends. But when it comes to choosing the best gift, you may want to consider pet insurance seriously.

You care for your pet and you want them to stay happy and healthy. Unfortunately, they get up to mischief and have accidents, especially at a young age. They may also catch illnesses such as diabetes, various infections or even cancer. Should this happen, would you be able to afford the cost of vet bills?

Veterinary medicine advances at an amazing pace and conditions previously thought incurable can now be alleviated with positive results – but comes at a high cost. With pet insurance, you can claim back your veterinary expenses and, more importantly, you won’t have to make the heartbreaking decision of putting your pet to sleep because you’re financially unable to provide for them. Read more

Are you looking for pet insurance for your older cat or dog? If so, you’ve probably already found out it isn’t an easy task.

Upper age limit

Most companies are happy to insure young pets, simply because they are less at risk of illnesses. The older your pet gets, the more veterinary care they will require, so the more they will cost in claims. That’s why some insurers decide not to insure older pets: it’s just not worth it for them as they are too exposed to paying claims while not receiving enough in premiums. Therefore, they impose what’s called an “upper age limit“: this is the age limit above which the company will not insure your pet. Read more for find out pet insurance for older pets