Pet insurance falls under the same Act as your car insurance. When you quote for car insurance, you must disclose your claims history. If you have a high loss ratio, companies may apply premium loadings, increased excesses or decline to quote completely. Pet insurance technically, may do the same. However, more commonly they will add exclusions or waiting periods for previous conditions.
Changing pet insurance can drastically affect the cover a company can offer you. Due to the nature of the Insurance Act under which pet insurance falls, it is imperative that pet owners choose the correct pet insurance for their pets from the beginning. Ideally, the first time you take out pet insurance for your pet should be the one that you keep for life.
Usually, medical aids for humans won’t apply lifetime exclusions on pre-existing conditions if you were previously on a medical aid; as long as they are disclosed up front. However, there are two major drawbacks you should know about which could drastically affect your cover should you change pet insurance:
Waiting periods
Some policies have waiting periods from the start date of the policy regardless of there being pre-existing conditions or not. Even if you put an 8-week old puppy on the insurance, these waiting periods will apply. Some popular waiting periods in the market are;
- 1 – 3 month waiting period for illnesses
- 6 month waiting period for any treatment relating to hips, elbows, knees, spine or foreign body ingestion
- 12 month waiting period for hereditary conditions
Firstly, on your previous policy, you would have gone through this initial waiting period and therefore you’d have a valid claim for illnesses. Secondly, if a condition occurs within a waiting period, it may be considered pre-existing and may become an exclusion on your new policy.
Pre-existing conditions
This is the biggest drawback if you change your pet insurance or if your policy cancels due to non-payment. Any condition that was treated, diagnosed or suspected before the policy starts will be considered pre-existing. Therefore, if you had previous treatments, i.e. allergies, virus, operations and others, the new insurance company may exclude any future treatments or diagnostic tests for these conditions.
Some companies disclose what their terms for your specific pet’s history will be upfront and others only do this investigation at claims stage. Be careful and make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into! Most clients who change pet insurance will do so without knowing that they have jeopardised their cover for their beloved pet in doing so.
Changing pet insurance should be a last resort. You may be better off where you are if the waiting periods and exclusions for pre-existing conditions are too drastic. It is very risky to expose yourself to waiting periods again. I would strongly encourage you to consider getting advice from a financial advisor when it comes to anything to do with short-term insurance. If you are considering changing pet insurance, consult us to make sure you get the right advice.