Pet Insurance: All About Excess

So you’ve made the decision to take out pet insurance – fantastic. You can now be assured your beloved pet is covered should the worst happen, and you can provide for them in case of an emergency. Obviously, you’ve made the right decision. Find more information about Petplan insurances here!

Unfortunately, the process isn’t quite over yet. It’s not advisable to just sign up to the first pet insurance policy you see; in fact, that’s a sure fire way to ensure you end up being ripped off. Like any other type of insurance, pet insurance has its pitfalls and problems you need to avoid, and arguably the biggest of these is the issue of excess.

Huh? Excess?

If you’ve ever taken out any kind of insurance cover before, you might be familiar with excess. It tends to apply across the board, no matter what you’re actually insuring – but that doesn’t make it any less pleasant. Essentially, the excess is a nominal amount you pay if you need to use your insurance to pay for something. For example, if your cat gets injured and requires an operation to reset a bone, you’re going to want your insurance to pay for that. However, before the insurance company pays out, they will require you to pay the excess fee. You’ll usually have to pay this fee by debit or credit card, and then the company will take over and liaise with your vets to pay the full bill.

The Good Side

One of the great things about excess is that it can help lower your yearly or monthly pet insurance premium. Most insurance policies will have a default amount of excess – anything around 25 / $35 is usual – which you have to pay no matter what, but if you’re willing to agree to an excess above that standard amount, your premium should be lower.

However…

Before you go signing up for the most significant excess amount you can so you can save money on your regular payments, think for a moment.

One of the main reasons people purchase pet insurance is so they can be sure that they’re going to have the money available should their pet need it in case of illness and emergency. If you agree to an excess of, say, 250 / $300 – can you be sure you’ll have that amount every time at concise notice? Because if you can’t, then you won’t be able to pay the excess, and that means your insurance company won’t pay the vet bills.

Your Situation

What to do with this fee depends on your situation. If you are generally financially solvent and could afford a one-off short notice payment of around 100 / $150, then, by all means, set your excess to that amount. It might be worth saving that money in a particular bank account, just in case, it’s needed.

However, if you may have struggle raising that kind of cash at short notice, it’s probably worth just sticking with the default excess. Furthermore, speak to your insurance company about perhaps having a monthly payment policy where you have no excess to pay. Your premiums will be a little higher (around 1 / $1.75 per month), but it’ll give you the peace of mind that your pet is definitely covered no matter what your financial situation at the time of crisis.

adventurebimbling.com