In the second part of the series on the various types of pet insurance, I’ll explain a bit more about what per condition policies are.

Unlike time limited policies that limit your cover to a time period (generally 12-month), per condition pet insurance will limit your cover up to a financial limit per condition, but without any time restriction. Effectively, you’ll be able to claim for a condition for as long as you want until you reach your vet fees limit. The use of an example will make it more explanatory.

Example

Scooby the dog is covered with a condition capped pet insurance and benefits from up to £7,000 in vet fees per condition. Scooby is 12 years old and suffers from joint problems and arthritis. He therefore requires ongoing treatment for the next 2 years. Unfortunately, Scooby’s too old for an operation so the vet and the owner opted for medicines as well as hydrotherapy sessions:

Cost of medicines: £1,000 a year
Cost of hydrotherapy sessions: £2,400 (12 sessions at £200 each)
Total cost of treatment per year: £3,400

In this case, Scooby’s owner will still be able to claim £3,600 for that condition after the 1st year of treatment (vet fees limit of £7,000 – cost of treatment of £3,400) , meaning that Scooby will indeed receive the 2-year treatment his condition requires.

Once the financial limit is reached though, the condition will be excluded from the policy but the animal will remain covered for other conditions.

The fact there’s no time limit to the policy prompts some insurers to claim they offer lifelong pet insurance. This is absolutely wrong: pets are not covered for the lifetime of a condition with condition-capped policies. They are only with true lifelong cover, which I’ll see tomorrow.

Some insurers offering per condition policies: More Than, Liverpool Victoria, Direct Line, Argos, Petguard.