Wondering how to choose pet insurance in Australia? Like most choices, it begins with knowing your needs. Or in the case of pet plans, knowing your cat’s or dog’s needs.
But how, you might say? You’ve yet to know what accidents might happen. Or what illnesses could strike?
While that’s entirely true, you can use solid data to drive your decision. That’s data like insurance providers’ offerings, your budget, your pet’s breed and common pet health considerations. How do you work magic with these stats? Let’s dig in to find out.
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How to choose pet insurance in Australia
Pet plans can often be filled with technical jargon (just one reason PD aims to make our documents super straightforward and easy to understand). Insurance jargon can be confusing for the best of us. So how do you go about choosing pet insurance to match your pet and your pocket in Australia?
Ideally you begin by checking out the pet insurance landscape. Start with asking and finding out the answers to a few basic questions:
- Which insurance providers are having customers say good things about them? That’s good things in terms of fees, communication and of course, claims.
- Which insurance providers speak directly to you? By this we mean easy to understand, clear and sensible.
Narrow it down
Once you’ve taken a look at least a handful that you’ve identified, you’ll probably be able to narrow it down to a few – let’s say two or three.
Now you can drill down your findings further. So what do you need for this?
To make the right choice, there are a few facts you’ll need to look at. Namely, your pet’s health profile and the profile of insurance providers – as in what they offer and how they go about communicating this. Like any good fit, you’re looking for the right match between what’s provided and what you’re likely to need based on your pet’s profile.
Choosing pet insurance is also a personal choice because in an ideal situation, once you’ve signed up, you won’t ever need to switch providers. In other words, if you’re browsing lots of insurance websites and there’s one that clearly tells you what you need to know, you’re likely on the right course.
Let’s begin by looking at the pet plans themselves – what type of information should you keep an eye on? From there you can look at what your fur baby needs to unlock the ideal choice for them and you.
Fetch the reimbursement rates
When it comes to choosing pet insurance in Australia, reimbursement rates are like your pet’s favourite toy. In other words, they should be impressive! Check how much the insurer will reimburse you for vet expenses in any claims cycle.
Some plans offer a flat percentage, while others have a benefit schedule based on a specific fee structure. You can check out more on PD Insurance’s three plans further down and under our dog insurance and cat insurance to see what annual defined limits we offer. When looking at annual defined limits, it’s always a good idea to familiarise yourself with any cover limits and claim limits, as these may vary by plan.
Choosing a pet insurance option that suits you well, essentially means looking at both your pet’s potential needs and your finances, now and in the foreseeable future.
While a percent could look good in terms of what you pay towards your premium, even if you’re left paying 10% of a bill, this could vary wildly depending on whether it’s a $200 or $10,000 bill.
Work out what suits you best in terms of what an insurer will pay towards a claim and what you pay each month. After all, your pet deserves top-notch care without breaking the bank. Pet insurance in Australia is there to protect your bank account.
Stake your claim when you choose pet insurance
Pet insurance in Australia should also afford you a quick claims turnaround. If you’ve got vet fees up the wazoo, the last thing you want is to be sitting out of pocket when you have other expenses to cover.
Claims should not only be quick but also painless in terms of what’s needed to make one. Do you need to file piles of paperwork? Can you submit online, on the phone, in person, or?
Ideally, you’re going to want to be able to submit online at any time that suits you. PD’s paperless 24/7 claims process is designed to get you reimbursed fast and reduce admin for your vet! We’re all about stress-free, sustainable options.
Unleash the waiting periods
Waiting periods in pet insurance can be as frustrating as trying to teach your cat to come when called. They’re the time you have to wait before certain coverage kicks in.
Why are there waiting periods? Insurance providers take on the risk of vet bills. They need to ensure that this support structure isn’t misused. For example, if someone knows their pet needs expensive treatment but signs up for cover without disclosing this and then tries to claim right away.
The waiting periods are in place to make sure pet insurance works for everybody. After all, our pets love us unconditionally and ideally, they’re protected in return.
Make sure you review the waiting periods for accidents, illnesses, and pre-existing conditions so you know what to expect. If your pet has been insured for 12 months with another insurance provider and you switch to PD Insurance, we’ll waive any waiting periods. Of course, the sooner your puppy or kitten is insured when they’re young and still likely to be at their healthiest, the sooner they can zoom through those waiting periods.
You can check out PD Insurance waiting periods under our product disclosure statements.
Tailor-made for your budget
Your pet’s health shouldn’t break the bank, but neither should their insurance. Consider your budget and find a plan with premiums that won’t leave you begging for treats.
Look for policies that offer flexibility in choice around payment options, discounts for insuring multiple pets, and the ability to select from a choice of plans to fit your needs. When you’re shopping for pet plans, know that PD offers a month-to-month payment model and no lock-in contracts to give you optimum flexibility.
Happily, you can expect pet insurance in Australia to be within your budget. In other words, it should be relatively affordable and can cost as little as around a dollar a day.
Read our article that answers ‘How expensive is pet insurance?’ to find out more about costs.
Choose your level of pet insurance cover
Often, pet insurance providers offer more than one level of cover. This is to allow wider access to pet insurance so more people can choose their pet insurance plans based on what they can comfortably afford.
PD Insurance offers three levels of pet insurance cover:
Accident cover
At the most basic level, all three cover pets for accidents. This means that a broad range of unexpected nasties are claimable under these pet plans.
Classic cover
As you go up the ranks onto the next tier of cover, your pet also gets cover for illness and hereditary conditions (the latter being genetic and often breed-specific as we mentioned earlier).
Deluxe cover
Switch up even more and you now also get dental cover, which as anyone who’s ever been to the dentist knows, can cost a pretty penny.
How to choose pet insurance for individual pets
As you browse these three levels of cover, keep in mind that your pet won’t be covered for illnesses or health conditions they already have. There’s no cat or dog insurance for pre-existing conditions.
This is just one reason that it’s important to choose pet insurance in Australia when you first get your pet. The younger they are, the more likely they are to be healthy. If they become sick after you’ve bought your pet plan, then they have the chance of being covered for that condition, provided it’s part of your selected plan.
Now that you’ve got a good idea of what to look for in pet plans, you can apply this to your pet’s individual needs.
What breed is your pet?
Purebred dogs are known to have around 600 genetic diseases. Purebred cats have around 250. That doesn’t mean you should panic. It certainly doesn’t mean your Poodle will definitely get hip dysplasia nor does it mean your Ragdoll is guaranteed to get periodontal disease.
It just means you have a lot of information at your disposal about vulnerabilities they’re likelier to have, based on their breed.
Your pet’s breed can help make a big difference to what safeguards you put in place since it gives you a lot of helpful information about them and their predispositions. If your pet is prone to specific health conditions based on their genetics, and you know this can rack up big vet bills, it helps you choose from pet plans that cater to these conditions.
For example, your choice of pet insurance cover in Australia could be one that offers pet dental insurance. And even if your breed isn’t predisposed to oral health issues as many are, you might factor it in as a possibility.
What common pet dangers should you be aware of?
While you can’t predict what dangers lie ahead, by reading common claims for other Aussie pets, you can get a good grasp of what the odds are. From dogs having intestinal obstructions from swallowing beach sand on their Frisbee to cats getting abscesses after fights over girls and territory.
The range of pickles, cuts and scrapes that pets can get into is literally limitless. As you can see, it’s not just about cat and dog health conditions by breed – because accidents can happen anytime.
Some of the commonplace conditions that can affect cats and dogs include (but are not limited to):
- Accidental ingestion, which is especially common in dogs
- Skin, ear infections and eye infections
- Cat and dog allergies are common just like human allergies
- Injuries. from falls, scrapes, car accidents and more
- Gastro (read ‘Why is my dog vomiting?’)
- Dog bites and cat bites
- Conjunctivitis can be allergic, viral or bacterial
- Abscesses can develop from bites and wounds or oral infections (read how to treat tooth abscesses)
- Parvovirus which can be vaccinated against, along with many other viral infections
These are some examples but they certainly aren’t the only ones. Costs to treat issues like these can range from tens to hundreds and even thousands of dollars. It’s worth knowing that while vet bills may appear expensive, unlike human medical care, these costs aren’t subsidised.
This is why part of choosing pet insurance in Australia for your pet is also about selecting the appropriate level of cover.
Insurance for the unexpected
Choosing pet insurance is like having a super soft landing under your fur baby wherever they go and whatever they’re doing. It gives you the peace of mind knowing you won’t have to make a head-over-heart decision on vet costs. It means saying ‘yes’ to vet treatments your pet needs, rather than scrolling through your bank balance trying to make ends meet.
With PD Insurance you get 1 MONTH FREE* when you sign up, PLUS if you’re with another pet insurer but want to make the leap, we’ll contribute to any switching fees they charge you.
Don’t wait for your cat or dog to have aches and pains or a rainy day. Click below and start your pet insurance quote today.