4Paws Pet Insurance Review

Your pet must be at least six weeks old, but no older than 8 for dogs, 10 for cats and 7 for rabbits, at the time of the quote. (For some select dog breeds the maximum age is 7)

You must be a UK resident, the pet must be owned by you and living at the address given.

Your pet must have no aggressive tendencies or be used for monetary gain.

The 4paws policy covers the cost of veterinary fees for the treatment your pet has received to treat illness or injury up to the limits shown on your schedule.

4Paws offer four choices of cover:-

Time Limited - covering up to £3,000 per condition for a maximum of 12 months.

Maximum Benefit - a maximum benefit of £2,000, £4,000, or £7,000 with no time limit until the monetary limit is reached.

Lifetime - a yearly benefit of £4,000, £7,000 or £12,000. The limit renews every year as long as you renew the policy and is the most comprehensive of the covers available.

Lifetime contribution cover - Similar to the lifetime benefit but with a contribution by you of 30% towards the cost of any claim.

4Paws will not cover;

1. Dogs used for security, guarding, track racing or any form of racing, coursing, commercial breeding, or for any business, trade or profession, or monetary gain.
2. Any dog that is, or is crossed with a Pit Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Perro De Presa Canario, Dogo Canario, Japanese Tosa, Fila Brasileiro, Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, Saarloos Wolfhound/Wolfdog, or any wolf hybrid.
3. Any dog that has aggressive tendencies.
4. Any dog that must be registered under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and 1997.
5. Routine check ups, dental examinations or vaccinations.
6. Preventative Treatments, grooming, killing and controlling fleas.
7. The cost of spaying, unless essential treatment for an injury or illness
8. The cost of treatment for a retained testicle if you pet is over the age of 16 weeks.
9. The cost of house calls or treating your pet outside of surgery hours unless the vet confirms it is essential.
10. Any costs associated with transplant surgery or any prosthesis other than hip or elbow replacements.
11. Death from illness, if your dog is aged 8 years or over and your cat aged 10 years or over.

The policy requires you to take all reasonable steps to prevent any injury or illness and maintain your pet's health.

Take your pet for a yearly dental examination.

Keep your pet vaccinated against the following:

• Dogs - Distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parainfluenza and parvovirus.
• Cats - Feline infectious enteritis, feline leukaemia and cat flu.

All 4paws policies cover complementary medicine used to treat an injury, including Acupuncture, homeopathy, Chiropractic care, hydrotherapy, and Osteopathy.

Policies cover the cost of prescribed food, (up to policy limits) provided it is used to dissolve the first occurrence of bladder stones or crystals in urine.

The amount is limited to a maximum of 40% of the cost for up to six months.

The policy covers the administration of liquid food, for up to 5 days to keep your pet alive if it is hospitalised.

Dentistry covered up to the vet fees limit in respect of work required as a result of injury or illness, provided your pet has had a check up within the last 12 months.

The policy also covers products to treat behavioural illness as part of a structured behaviour modification programme, limited to a maximum of six months.

4paws covers the full cost of MRI and CT scans and damage to Cruciate ligaments subject to the overall vets fees limits.

4paws do not cover the cost of having your pet put to sleep or assist with disposal of the body or the cost of any post-mortem examination.

4paws policy will allow you to insure all your pets under one policy, including a combination of dogs, cats and or rabbits.

You will not be able to cover any injury or illness that first showed clinical signs before your cover commenced. This includes any injury or illness that is the same as, or has the same diagnosis as any existing injury or illness that occurred before the policy commenced.

Policies do not cover any costs relating to breeding, pregnancy or giving birth.

The policy will cover treatment connected to false pregnancy, provided your pet has not suffered more than 2 episodes in the past.

Under the Maximum Benefit and Lifetime Policies you are covered for veterinary treatment whilst abroad up to the appropriate vet limits, for up to 45 days each policy year. The term abroad only applies to European Union member states and Territories who are included in the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS).

The policies also include cover for emergency repatriation, quarantine expenses and costs associated with the loss of your pet passport.

The 4paws policy runs for twelve months, at which time it can be renewed. If you have a lifetime policy and there are no breaks in policy cover, the benefits will be reset and allow you to continue claiming treatment for any ongoing condition.

Provided there has been no material changes 4Paws will issue renewal terms at least 14 days before the renewal date.

The renewal will be based on the current information they hold and it is your duty to let them know of any material changes that may affect the price or cover.

If you have selected a continuous payment method (credit/debit card or direct debit) and you have not contacted the company to cancel the renewal, the policy will automatically be renewed.

You have a statutory right to cancel your policy from it's original purchase or renewal within 14 days.

Cancelling the policy within 14 days entitles you to a full refund of premiums, providing you have not made a claim.

If you cancel the policy outside the 14 day period, the Insurer is entitled to make a charge for cancellation and you may not receive a pro-rata refund.

You may cancel the policy by phoning or writing to 4paws, details of which are on their website.

The claims section on the website allows you to download, complete and then upload your claim form. 4paws state that claims will be settled in 5 - 10 days. If your pet has not yet received treatment and you would like 4paws to pre-authorise your claim, you can also upload the details. They will respond within 48 hours.

4Paws will settle claims directly to your vet, leaving you to settle any excess.

You are unable to claim for injuries that occur in the first 24 hours of your policy (maximum benefit and time limited policies only) and any illnesses or signs of illness within the first 14 days of your policy.

In the case of emergency the 4Paws emergency pet claims line is open 24/7.

The amount of excess per claim you have to pay varies from policy to policy.

Time Limited Policies - Dogs £75 Cats £65

Maximum Benefit Policies - Dogs £80 Cats £80 (Select Dog breeds £125)

Lifetime Policies - Dogs £90 Cats £75

Lifetime Contribution Policies - Dogs £105 plus 30% Cats £85 plus 30%

Dog liability Insurance excess - £250

When your pet reaches a certain age, you will also be required to make a percentage contribution to any future claims, in addition to the fixed excess.

Time Limited Policies - An additional 10% of any claim for all other pets aged 4 and over.

Maximum Benefit Policies  - An additional 10% of any claim for pets aged 4 and over.

Lifetime Policies - An additional 15% of any claim for select dog breeds aged 7 and over and all other pets aged 10 and over.

(The policy wording includes a specific list of "select" breeds).

The website is nicely laid out. Whilst there are quite a few insurance options to choose from, each type of cover is clearly explained. You are not able to read the policy wording unless you proceed with a quotation.

The site does not have an online chat facility. However 4paws responded within 24 hours to a question submitted via their contact us form.

Obtaining a quotation was fairly quick and the results were clearly presented allowing for a simple easy side by side comparison of the cover levels and premiums.

It is easy to choose from the different options and the relevant Insurance Product information documents and Policy wordings were available to read prior to taking out a policy.

Each policy wording is only 9 pages long and although from different insurers, the layout is broadly the same.

Important claim and emergency telephone numbers could be more prominently displayed. The wording does not include a summary of cover so you are unable to compare sums insured.

Each section of cover states clearly what is and what isn't covered and how to go about making a claim under each individual section.

The policy wording text had a reading score of 52.9 (out of 100), classed as fairly difficult to read.

The text had an average reading age of 15 - 17 years. This means that a person with a reading age of 15-17 years should be able to understand the policy.

4Paws are listed on GoCompare, Money Supermarket, Confused.com and Compare the Market. Whilst the cover and the policy wordings were the same, not all policies were available with these companies.

During our mystery shopping exercise, we found that when comparing the same cover, you could save up to 16% on premiums by obtaining quotes directly from the 4Paws website.

There is no specific pet helpline, apart from the emergency pet claim line and Customer care line.

4Paws have been reviewed by customers on Trustpilot and Feefo.

The Trustpilot rating was 2.3 out of 5 based on 37 reviews.

The Feefo rating was an average of 4.6 out of 5 based on 3120 reviews.

Most of the negative reviews relate to

1. Non receipt of policy documents, although most of these were about 12 months ago.
2. Slow claim response times.

4Paws reserve the right to charge up to £10 for new business and renewals, although this will always be quoted in advance.

4Paws have a special offer this summer with £40 off lifetime dog insurance. Use the code Doglife40

A good choice of policies, something to suit everyone. The website is nicely laid out and easy to get quotes.

We awarded the Life Premium, Life Plus and Maximum Benefit policies a 4 star rating as their levels of cover are above the industry average, but fall just short of the 5 star rating.

How competitive are 4paws Pet Insurance policies?

4 Paws are competitive for the levels of cover and the types of policies they offer.

4paws don't quote for pets over the age of 8. The standard and maximum benefit policies, require an additional claim contribution of 10% on any pet over the age of 4.