Animal Friends Pet Insurance Review

You must be a resident in the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands or on a Ministry of Defence base in Europe as long as you can provide a BPFO mailing address.

Your pet must be older than 4 weeks and no older than 28 years.

Choose from 13 different policies covering the following vet fees;

• Accident only - Vet fees up to £2,500 per condition, with a lifetime limit of £15,000.
• Basic Plus - 12 months vet fees up to £1,000 per condition, with an annual limit of £4,000.
• Prime - 12 months vet fees up to £2,000 per condition, with an annual limit of £7,000.
• Prime Plus - 12 months vet fees up to £4,000 per condition, with an annual limit of £10,000.
• Max Value - Vet fees up to £1,000 per condition, payable until the limit is reached.
• Max Plus - Vet fees up to £2,000 per condition, payable until the limit is reached.
• Max Extra - Vet fees up to £4,000 per condition, payable until the limit is reached.
• Assure - Vets fees up to £3,000 per annum, reinstated at each renewal.
• Assure Plus - Vet fees up to £5,000 per annum, reinstated at each renewal.
• Super - Vet fees up to £1,000 per condition, reinstated at each renewal.
• Superior - Vet fees up to £2,000 per condition, reinstated at each renewal.
• Superior Plus - Vet fees up to £4,000 per condition, reinstated at each renewal.
• Prestige - Vet fees up to £6,000 per condition, reinstated at each renewal.

Animal Friends do not cover the following:

1. Costs for elective, routine preventative, or cosmetic treatment, but any costs as a consequence of not having the recommended treatments.
2. Vaccinations.
3. Spaying, Castration and retained testes.
4. Grooming, bathing or de-matting.
5. Breeding, whelping, kittening.
6. Flea and Worm control.
7. Dental or gum, or root canal treatments or investigations.
8. Pet bedding and blankets.
9. Behavioural problems, training or therapy.
10. Any claim for stem cell/gene therapy; Bone Marrow transplant or any related alternatives.
11. Any costs involved in the fitting or treatment of prosthetic/artificial limbs.
12. Any costs involved in organ transplants.
13. Cremation and disposal costs including post mortems.
14. Claims where your pet has been used in connection with a trade, profession, breeding or for monetary reward, or trained for purposes other than a domestic pet.
15. Any dogs used as gundogs or in connection with shooting, pointing, field work for the purposes of hunting.
16. Any dog listed in the dangerous dogs act including, Pit bull terrier, japanese Tosa/Tosa Inus, Dogo Argentino and Argentinian Mastiff, Fila Brasileiro or any breed crossed with one of these breeds.
17. Costs arising from your pet being overweight.
18. Un-licenced medication.
19. Cost of any food.
20. The cost of out of hours, or house visits unless necessary to prevent a life endangering condition.

See Animal Friends list of excluded cat and dog breeds

Your dog must be microchipped and the information held on record.

Your pet must be vaccinated against;

Dogs - distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus and kennel cough.

Cats - feline infectious enteritis, feline leukaemia and cat flu.

Your pet must be wormed regularly.

When on or near a designated road, ensure your pet is on a collar with a lead attached.

You must ensure when walking your pet that they remain under your control to prevent your pet escaping.

Your property must have adequate security to prevent your pet from escaping.

When loading your pet into a car, you must ensure the area is secure and your pet is on a lead.

All policies cover complementary medicine up to £500 for treatments such as;

• Physiotherapy
• Hydrotherapy
• Chiropractic manipulation
• Osteopathy
• Acupuncture
• Homeopathic or herbal medicines
• Laser Therapy

All treatments must be recommended by a vet and administered by a suitably qualified practitioner.

None of the Animal Friends policies cover the cost of food, even if it is prescribed by a vet.

None of the Animal Friends policies cover the cost of dental treatment, with the exception of the Prestige and Assure Plus policies, but only as a result of an accident or injury and providing your pet has had a dental examination within 12 months of the incident.

Apart from Accident only, All Animal friends policies cover Damage to Cruciate ligaments and or MRI/CT scans. The amount of cover differs depending on the policy you choose and is listed below.

Accident Only - Cruciate Ligament No cover, CT/MRI Scans £2,500.

Basic Plus, Super and Max Value - Cruciate Ligament £1,000, CT/MRI Scans £1,000.

Prime, Max Plus and Superior - Cruciate Ligament £2,000, CT/MRI Scans £2,000.

Assure - Cruciate Ligament £3,000, CT/MRI Scans £3,000.

Prime Plus, Max Extra and Superior Plus -  Cruciate Ligament £4,000, CT/MRI Scans £4,000.

Assure Plus - Cruciate Ligament £5,000, CT/MRI Scans £5,000.

Prestige - Cruciate Ligament £6,000, CT/MRI Scans £6,000.

Animal Friends policies cover the cost of putting your pet to sleep, provided your vet confirms in writing, that it was essential to prevent your pet suffering.

Animal Friends allow you to insure more than one pet under the same policy (cat, dog or a combination of both). There is no discount for insuring more than one pet.

Animals Friends do not cover any illness or condition that was known about prior to taking out insurance.

None of the Animal Friends policies cover any costs connected with the use of your pet for breeding.

All Animal Friends Pet Insurance policies (apart from Accident Only) cover emergency vets fees should your pet fall ill, or have an accident whilst abroad.

Cover is restricted to only those countries in the PETS scheme and cover is for a maximum of 3 trips, provided each trips lasts no longer than 30 days.

The policies do not cover emergency repatriation, quarantine expenses or replacement passports.

Annual policies are payable annually and run for 365 days.

Monthly policies run for each calendar month and are paid for on a monthly basis.

Animal Friends reserve the right to change terms and conditions of the policy upon renewal.

In respect of monthly policies Animal Friends reserve the right to amend cover upgrade benefits or increase premiums.

The websites states that if your policy is payable by direct debit, it will renew automatically. If you paid annually and set up automatic payments at renewal no further action is needed.

If you wish to cancel your pet insurance policy within the first 14 days, Animal Friends must receive your written request and provided you have not made a claim, you will be entitled to a full refund of premium.

If you wish to cancel your pet insurance policy outside the 14 day window, and have not made a claim, your will be entitled to a refund of the unexpired portion of the premium, less any administration costs.

If you need to make a pet insurance claim, you can download a claim form from the website. Completed forms must be posted or emailed to Animal Friends for them to authorise.

Animal Friends operate Pawtal (their online claims portal) which allow some vets to be able to submit a claim online directly to Animal Friends on your behalf.

If the total vets fees claim is likely to exceed £1,000 you must notify animal friends for pre-authorisation.

You are unable to claim vets fees for any incident within the first 14 days of commencement of the policy.

Any claim for death, if your pet dies from any accident or injury within the first 5 days of commencement of the policy.

Any claim for changes in your pets health or behaviour that causes death within the first 14 days of commencement of the policy.

Any advertising and reward claim if your pet goes missing within the first 14 days of commencement of the policy.

Any claim for theft where your pet has been missing for less than 45 days.

Each policy has a fixed excess, the first amount you are required to pay of any claim.

In this case, the excess is currently £99.00 in respect of any cat or dog insurance claim.

When your dog reaches the age of 8 and your cat the age of 10, you are required to pay a percentage contribution of 20% in addition to the fixed excess.

For example if your claim was for £1,000 you would be expected to pay £99.00 plus 20% of the remaining £180.20 total payment £279.20. 

Modern looking website, which offers a wide range of pet insurance policies. Detailed explanations are available for each type of cover, so that you understand the differences before you get a quotation. Helpful pet advice guides and examples of the costs of claims for different types of animals.

There is a useful section for existing customers, which allows you to register, view your policy and pet details, together with any exclusions, information on your premium, status on outstanding claims, or submit claims for repeat medication, all online.

Many queries can be answered by reading the frequently answered questions section, but Animal Friends do operate a live help chat. Our mystery shopper online query was satisfactorily answered in less than a minute.

Due the number of policies available, you do have to choose the type and level of cover you need before seeing the quotes, but it is fairly easy to change details to see the rest, the only downside being that you are unable to compare them all side by side.

Once you are happy with your choice complete the declaration check the policy wording, review the details or add another pet.

Due to the number of polices available, there were six policy wordings to compare. Fortunately they are all presented in the same format.

Headings are highlighted in colour and the policy summary at the front details the cover, significant exclusions or limitations and the policy limits in a well laid out format.

For a more detailed explanation of cover you can visit the relevant section listed in the index of contents.

The policy wording has a reading score of 50 out of 100 which is classed as fairly difficult to read.

The wording has an average reading age of 14 - 15 years. This means that a person with a reading age of 14-15 years should be able to understand the policy.

Due to the number of policies, we recommend reading them carefully to ensure you understand what is and isn't covered.

Animal Friends are listed on the following Comparison Websites. Go Compare, Money Supermarket, Confused, Compare The Market.

Not every comparison site offered the full range of Animal Friends products. Those policies that were available, did offer the same levels of cover and premium. However the policy names used by Animal Friends aren't used by the comparison sites, who only label them time limited, lifetime, maximum benefit etc.

If using a comparison site, we would recommend checking carefully to make sure you have the correct Animal Friends policy.

As an Animal Friend policyholder, you have access to free 24/7 vet video consultations for dogs and cats, a free symptom checker and treatment plans delivered to your door.

Trust Pilot have nearly 21,000 reviews for Animal Friends. They have an overall rating of 4.4 our of 5.

Review.io have 386 reviews and have rated Animal Friends 1.83 out of 5.

Pet Insurance Review have received 351 reviews and have rated Animal Friends 1.6 out of 5.

The majority of negative reviews relate to problems with claims, where Animal Friends class the condition as pre-existing, or the policy wording contains an exclusion that wasn't understood fully by the customer.

As with all Insurance, we strongly recommend reading the policy wording carefully.

The policy warrants Animal Friends reserve the right to charge an administration fee for cancellation of a policy outside the 14 day period. No information is provided on how much the charge is or the cost of any other administration charges.

If you refer a friend who takes out insurance, Animal Friends will send you and them a £10 voucher.

The majority of Animal Friends policies have a 3 star rating, which means that the levels of cover are on a par with the market average. The website is comprehensive and the company clearly specialise in Pet Insurance.

The 24/7 vet helpline is a useful addition. However there are a lot of different policies to choose from and each type comes with it's own policy wording, so you need to read them carefully and make sure you fully understand all the terms and conditions before purchasing.

How competitive are Animal Friends?

According to our latest premium research Animals friends policies are very competitive in respect of the lower level policies, (Prime and Prime Plus, Max Value, Max Plus, Max Extra, Super), but the Superior, Assure and Prestige policies are mid table in terms of price comparison.