Three Kinds of Pet Insurance

Like all types of insurance, pet cover can be a complicated business. As well as all the specialist policies you need for such animals as horses or exotics, there's also a huge amount to choose from even with your basic cat or dog insurance.

Despite the hundreds of policies available, each with their own set of features and good and bad points, there are in effect three main kinds of pet insurance available.

Time Capped

This is the cheapest and possibly most popular type of pet insurance, but it doesn't provide good cover for all illnesses. In addition to an annual maximum cost of treatment you can claim, there is also a time limit on paying for each condition. After, for example, 12 months have passed since the diagnosis, no additional treatment will be paid for.

This is usually fine for injuries or one-off operations, but for lifetime treatments such as diabetes it will only provide cover for the first year - and after that, you'll have to pay for the treatment yourself. And given that almost no policy will pay out for pre-existing conditions, you won't be able to trade up to a better policy either.

Condition Capped

In terms of both cost and cover, this type of policy is mid-range. Unlike time-capped policies, each condition will be covered for life - but subject to an overall cost limit. For the diabetes example above, the total cost of treatment for that illness can't be more than that stipulated in your policy. Once this level is reached, payments will stop.

Lifetime Cover

This is the most expensive type, but as you'd expect, gives the best cover. Treatment is fully paid for, up to the total annual limit, and will continue for as long as needed so long as the policy is renewed. Cover will also not be stopped once your pet reaches a certain age.

Which Pet Cover to Choose?

The answer to this question is that you should go for the best you can afford. After all, what's the point of having insurance if it doesn't cover the most expensive situations where you need the most help? By comparing quotes from a range of pet insurance providers you may well find that the differences in costs between the different levels of cover aren't as high as you might expect, and you'll be grateful for the extra cover if the worst comes to the worst and your pet develops a long term illness or condition.