Question 1

Once my full policy starts will I be able to claim on it immediately?

Accepted Answer

If you have had 4 weeks free insurance issued by your vet, breeder, microchipper or the charity where you adopted your pet, cover for illness and injury on your full policy will both start immediately as long as you take out the policy before your free cover ends.

Question 2

What happens if I forget to buy my full policy before my free cover expires?

Accepted Answer

You can still take out a full policy. Cover for injury will start immediately and cover for illness 14 days later. However, due to the break in cover, any illness or injury occurring before your policy started (including during your Free Cover) may not be covered. Find out more about our approach to pre-existing conditions here.

Question 3

How are Petplan premiums calculated?

Accepted Answer

Petplan has been providing dog, cat and rabbit insurance for over 45 years, and we use this experience to help us price policies accurately for each individual pet. We design our policies to pay out, so we price policies to enable us to cover the cost of the veterinary care your pet may need. The size, breed, location and age of your pet are some of the factors we’ll take into consideration when calculating your premiums.

Petplan's pricing approach is different to most other pet insurance and one of the reasons why over 90% of customers renew each year. Our Claims Pricing Guarantee means that you will never pay more for claiming. Your price will increase every year as your pet gets older and the cost of treating pets increases, but with Petplan you won’t pay more for claiming. In fact if your pet needs treatment we want you to claim.

You can find out more about our Claims Pricing Guarantee here.

Question 4

Do you offer Legal Liability cover?

Accepted Answer

Yes, our Covered For Life® and Essential dog policies automatically include Legal Liability cover – in addition to cover for Vet Bills, Pet Therapies, Emergency Boarding and Holiday Cancellation. Our Legal Liability insurance covers dog owners for compensation, legal bills and the associated costs related to defending claims brought against them. Please do note that Legal Liability cover is not included in the 4 week cover. To find out more, visit our helpful Legal Liability Cover page.

Question 5

What is the excess?

Accepted Answer

The excess is the amount that you will need to contribute towards the cost of your claim, whether it’s for Vet Bills, Pet Therapies or Legal Liability. We’ll simply take the amount off your claim settlement. This amount varies depending on which plan you’re on, the age of your pet and what benefit you’re claiming under.

The excess you need to pay will be deducted from your claim will always be shown on your Certificate of Insurance which you will receive once you’ve activated your policy. If you are an existing customer you can log in to My Petplan and check the My Policies page for details of how your excess works including how much excess you will pay.

Question 6

Will I get the same policy benefits on my full policy as I do on my free cover?

Accepted Answer

There are some additional benefits included on our Covered For Life® and Essential plans. We recommend you check the plans available to ensure you have the right cover in place for you and your pet.

Cat and dog policies

Our Covered For Life® plan has been designed to provide ongoing help with Vet Bills. You can continue to claim year after year for the same condition up to your chosen yearly limit, providing you renew each year with no break in cover, giving you peace of mind when you need it most. There are three different levels of cover to choose from; up to £4K, £7K or £12K in Vet Bills every year.

Our Essential Plan provides short term help with Vet Bills. You can claim for 12 months treatment up to £3,000 per illness/injury. Once you reach either of these limits, the condition will no longer be covered.

Rabbit policy

Our Covered For Life® plan for rabbits provides ongoing help with Vet Bills. You will receive £2,000 every year for Vet Bills and can continue to claim year after year for the same condition providing you renew each year with no break in cover.

Question 7

Why choose Petplan? / Why should I insure with Petplan?

Accepted Answer

Petplan have specialised in pet insurance for over 45 years and we’ve helped millions of pets through illness and injury. Today, we’re still the UK’s No.1 pet insurance provider insuring over 1.4 million pets – that’s more than any other provider. Our unrivalled experience in pet health allows us to design our policies to cover as many illnesses and injuries as possible which is why we are able to pay 97% of all claims we receive. It’s no surprise over 90% of our customers renew with us each year.

What’s more, our Claims Pricing Guarantee means that you’ll never pay more for claiming. You can read more about this here.

As pet owners ourselves we know becoming a new pet owner can be like becoming a parent. It’s a journey we call Pethood, and we’ll ensure we’re by your side every step of the way by offering you advice and information to help support you and your pet.

Don’t just take our word for it, read our customer reviews on both Feefo and Trustpilot.

Question 8

Does Petplan only insure dogs, cats and rabbits?

Accepted Answer

As well as dogs, cats and rabbits, we can also insure many different animals. Visit our Other Insurance page for details on the small, large, furry and even scaly pets we can help provide cover for. Or, to insure horses and riders, go to our Petplan Equine website. To insure all other mammals as well as reptiles and birds, please visit our partner Exotic Direct (or call 0345 982 5505).

Question 9

If I activate my full policy during my free cover will I still receive my full 4 weeks free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can activate your full policy from the first day of your 4 weeks free cover and still benefit from the remainder of your free cover period. Your full policy won’t take effect until your final day of free cover, unless you choose otherwise.

Question 10

What do we mean by continuous cover and why is this important?

Accepted Answer

Continuous cover means ensuring there is no break in cover between your 4 weeks free cover and the annual policy you purchase to continue your pets protection. As long as you purchase the annual policy before your free cover expires then the cover is continuous.

If you allow the free cover to end before purchasing a policy it will be underwritten as a new policy. That means that any signs of illness or injury prior to you purchasing a policy will be considered as pre-existing and are unlikely to be covered on the policy. What’s more unless you have continuous cover you will have a 14 day deferment period on your new policy, which means any illness that shows clinical signs in the first 14 days will not be covered.

As long as you purchase a policy before your free cover ends you will have continuous cover, conditions which arise during the free cover period will not be considered as pre-existing and you will have no deferment period for illness on the policy you purchase.