• Online Shop
  • Opening Hours
Walton Lodge Veterinary Group's logo
Walton Lodge Veterinary Group's home page
Emergency 0208 841 2555
Bengeo 01992 538378
Hoddesdon 01992 450597
Bishop's Stortford 01279 654215
Harlow 01279 439359
Head Office 01920 822895
Stevenage 01438 364354
Ware 01920 466355
  • Book an Appointment
Book an Appointment
  • About Us
    • Services
    • Facilities & Technology
    • Patient Finance
    • FAQS
    • Vacancies
    • Wellness Screenings for Pets
  • Locations
  • Pet Advice
    • Insurance
    • Pet Nutrition
  • Pet Health Club™
  • Blog
  • Online Payment
  • Video Vet
  • Contact Us
    • 24-hour Emergency and Critical Care
    • Register Your Pet
    • Repeat Prescriptions

Pet Insurance Guide

Pet insurance: what do I need to know?

Pet insurance provides cover for veterinary fees in the event that your pet becomes injured or unwell. It can provide peace of mind that you’re in a position to afford all the veterinary care your pet may need.

With veterinary medicine employing expensive medical techniques and medication, and with pet owners caring more and more about their pets’ health, pet insurance is becoming increasingly popular.

There are many pet insurance companies now available, with many different levels of cover and policies to choose from. Insurance companies will cover most accidents and illnesses; some may cover dental treatments – but it’s important you read the policy terms and conditions as some companies may not. Preventative treatment (such as vaccinations & flea and worm treatment) is not covered by insurance companies.

As a veterinary practice, we support the idea of pet insurance but are unable to recommend any one individual insurance company. However, we can advise on the best type of policies to look out for.

The benefits of pet insurance

Pet insurance mainly provides cover for veterinary fees if your pet is injured or becomes ill. However, other benefits may include:

  • Third party liability cover if your pet injures someone or damages someone else’s property
  • Paying you the price you paid for your pet if they become lost, stolen, or die as a result of injury or illness
  • Paying the costs of looking after your pet if you have to go into hospital for emergency medical treatment
  • Paying the cost of your holiday if it’s cancelled due to your pet needing emergency surgery close to the date you were due to leave
  • Paying the cost of emergency veterinary treatment for your pet if you take them abroad under the Pet Travel Scheme

Types of pet insurance policies

Common Types of Policy:

12 month/Annual Policies:

These policies will cover a condition for 12 months from the point when it started; after that time, the condition will be excluded - even if no treatment has been given. Financial limits will also apply.

Maximum Benefit Policies (Individual Condition Cover)

With this type of policy, you can claim a maximum amount for each condition without a time limit. After the maximum has been reached, the condition will be excluded.

Lifelong Cover

Lifelong policies provide cover that ‘recharges’ each time the policy renews. As such, these policies provide ongoing cover for long-term conditions (arthritis, heart/kidney problems, skin disease etc.) Benefit limits can be ‘per condition’ or an annual amount for all conditions.

Policy types and cover included vary between insurance companies. Please read the terms & conditions for each policy carefully.

What you need to know

In most cases, insurance companies will not cover any pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is something that has been noted by you or your veterinary surgeon to be of concern with your pet before the insurance policy was taken out, whether or not treatment was required.

If you make a claim with one insurance company and cancel this policy to change to a different insurance company, the new company will usually exclude that condition and any previous noted conditions from your new policy.

It is important to find an insurance company that you wish to stay with throughout your pet’s life.

NB: Some insurance policies will add automatic exclusions for specific breed-associated conditions. Please read the terms and conditions for each policy.

Most insurance policies will deduct a policy excess. A policy excess is the amount you pay towards each condition per policy year.

Some insurance companies will also deduct a co-payment which will be a percentage of the treatment claimed.

Please check the policy terms & conditions to see if a co-payment is added or increased as your pet ages.

   
The Pet Health Club
My Family Vets
Cat Friendly Clinic

Explore

About UsLocationsPet AdvicePet Health Club™BlogOnline PaymentVideo VetContact Us

Respecting your privacy

Cookie PolicyPrivacy NoticeTerms of UseComplaints PolicyTerms of Sale for Veterinary Services

Get the latest Walton Lodge Vets news


Copyright © 2023 Walton Lodge Veterinary Group Ltd

Company's registered name: Walton Lodge Veterinary Group Ltd

Registered number: 07484262

Registered Address: The Chocolate Factory, Keynsham, Bristol, BS31 2AU

Menu

  • About Us
    • Services
    • Facilities & Technology
    • Patient Finance
    • FAQS
    • Vacancies
    • Wellness Screenings for Pets
  • Locations
  • Pet Advice
    • Insurance
    • Pet Nutrition
  • Pet Health Club™
  • Blog
  • Online Payment
  • Video Vet
  • Contact Us
    • 24-hour Emergency and Critical Care
    • Register Your Pet
    • Repeat Prescriptions
  • Book an Appointment
  • Online Shop
  • Opening Hours

Call Us

  • Call Emergency number
  • Call Bengeo
  • Call Bishop's Stortford
  • Call Harlow
  • Call Head Office
  • Call Hoddesdon
  • Call Stevenage
  • Call Ware
  • Book an Appointment

Our Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to offer you a personalised experience, personalised advertising, and analyse our web traffic. Click 'Accept our cookies' if you would like to allow all cookies. Alternatively, you can choose which types of cookies you would like to accept or disable by clicking 'Turn cookies on or off' below. For more information, please see our cookie policy.

About Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browser our website and also allows us to improve our website. See our cookie policy.

Cookie settings

We use 3 different types of cookies on our website. You can say which ones you're happy for us to use below.

Functional cookies

These cookies do things like keep the website secure. They always need to be on.

Analytics cookies

These cookies store information about how you use our website, such as what you click on.

Marketing cookies

These cookies do things like tell us if you've seen our adverts on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter.