Summary

Keeping your pet healthy is becoming increasingly expensive. This has led to a boom in pet insurance. Here are 10 key questions to ask to ensure you get the policy you need.

Pet Insurance - Check out 10 key questions before you buy

Author Michael Challiner

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If your bones and joints are strong and flexible, they move smoothly. And that means life can be fun, and appreciated fully. But for one in seven people, movement is ( online car insurance ) restricted by a musculoskeletal disorder - arthritis, back pain, fracture, osteoporosis, or sports trauma. Faced with such pain and discomfort, you may be pleased to pay £3,500 for orthopaedic surgery or hydrotherapy to get those painful joints flexible again. But would you be so willing to spend the same money on your pet Labrador? (cheap car insurance)

Veterinary care has developed fast over the last 10 years and as pets get older they are increasingly likely to suffer illness that can be lengthy and expensive to treat. ( life insurance quotes ) Take diabetes for example. Its relatively common in dogs over the age of 6 and whilst it can be successfully treated, the treatment is ongoing and expensive - one vet estimated that treatment could cost around £2,500 per year. Eczema is yet another condition which can require a long period of treatment.

But as with humans, pets can require emergency treatment at any time. In fact one in three pets make an unplanned visit to the vet every year (source Mintel). Labradors and Golden Retrievers can have conditions such progressive retinal atrophy, Setters can get canine leucocyte adhesion deficiency (can someone tell me what that is?!), Alsations are prone to hip dysplasia and Boxers and Spaniels are susceptible to dodgy hearts. ( car insurance policy ) And then there are always those accidents and scrapes in which our pets are so likely to become involved. Your puss may have nine lives but you might have nine vets bills! With a series of x-rays costing £400 and an MRI scan putting you back £1,500 the case for pet insurance becomes compelling. (best loan)

Against this background, pet insurance is becoming the fastest growing form of insurance in the UK. Halifax, Petplan, PDSA, Petwise, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers are all names in the market. Indeed, competition for your business is so fierce there are over 60 mainline insurers offering over 220 different policies. This flood of choice makes the job of choosing a policy somewhat complicated.

So lets try and keep things simple. Pet Plans fall into three basic groups. The first limits the amount paid per condition; the second limits the total paid annually; and the third and usually cheaper, but only suitable for one-off emergencies, limits the claim to per condition per 12 months. Not too good for diabetes!

So faced with all this choice what should you look out for? Heres 10 key ( life insurance quotes ) questions to ask:

• Are claims covered annually or on a "per condition" basis? (home insurance quotes)

• If the cover is "per condition", what is the time limit?

• What is the excess per claim? (car insurance cover)

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