Covermy Pet Pet Insurance Review

You must be the owner of the pet (dog or cat) which resides with you at an address in the United Kingdom.
Your pet must be at least eight weeks old.
Your pet must not be used for monetary gain in any way, including breeding and showing.
You must register your pet with a UK Veterinary Practice before the policy start date.
Your dog must be microchipped.
Your pet must not be overweight, relative to it's breed type and age.
Your pet must not have been the subject of any complaint, policy complaint, incident, legal action or third party claim.
You must make sure that your pet has an annual veterinary check up and that all worming treatments and vaccinations are up to date.
Your dog should be vaccinated against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, kennel cough and parvovirus; Your cat should be vaccinated against infectious cat flu and feline leukaemia.
You agree to provide proper care and attention to your pet at all times, including taking reasonable precautions to stop accidents, injury or damage to property.
If you take your dog on a designated road, it must be on a lead and under your control at all times. The lead and collar must be in good condition and fit your dog correctly.
You must make sure that your pet cannot escape or stray from your property and any area where it is kept must be secure and properly fenced.
When loading your dog into or out of a vehicle, you must ensure the area is either secure or your pet is on a lead.

Covermy Pet Insurance offer three types of policy:

Time Limited - Covers vet fees up to £3,000 per condition. Cover is limited to 12 months from the date the condition was noticed or the benefit limit, which ever comes first.
Maximum Benefit - Covers vet fees up to £4,000 per condition. There is no time restriction, each claim is only limited by the benefit amount.
Lifetime Policies - Covers vet fees up to £2,000, £5,000 or £10,000 per year for conditions combined. The benefit limit is reinstated upon renewal and covers long terms conditions, provided the policy is renewed.

We often see complaints because a claim has been declined or the agreed settlement amount is less than the customer was expecting. Whilst not always the case, a common reason for this is due to a lack of understanding of the policy by the customer.

It is essential that you read your policy wording carefully and familiarise yourself with the terminology. We have produced a Comprehensive Pet Insurance Buyers Guide to help explain the different types of cover. We have also listed below the important exclusions that we think you should know about.

Covermy Pet do not cover;

1. Any claim for cosmetic, elective, routine, or preventative treatments or procedures.
2. The cost of vaccinations, including the cost of any claim that results from not having your pet vaccinated.
3. Castration, Spaying (including spaying to prevent the re-occurrence of false pregnancy), or the removal of retained testes.
4. Grooming, bathing, nail clipping or de-matting, umbilical hernias and dew claws.
5. Costs involved in the control and elimination of fleas, ticks, skin mites and worms.
6. Any claim relating to Behavioural problems, which includes the diagnosis and investigations into, where the result is behavioural problems. This includes the costs of Pheromone products, DAP diffusers and Feliway.
7. More than one claim for ingestion of a foreign body during any one period of insurance.
8. The cost of any claim caused by your negligence (including the treatment of obese pets and symptoms incidental to obesity or mal-nourishment).
9. Out of hours vet fees, except where your vet considers this to be life saving for your pet.
10. Any claim for hospitalisation, transportation by ambulance and home visits unless your vet has confirmed that to move your pet would endanger your pet’s life.
11. Any claim where the cost of a referral consultation exceeds £200.
12. Any claim for unlicensed medication unless your vet can confirm it has been clinically proven to treat that condition.
13. Any costs involved in your pet undergoing treatment for; and/or fitting of; prosthetic and artificial limbs including the actual cost of the prosthetics and/or artificial limbs themselves and any associated costs involved in the rehabilitation of your pet after such a procedure.
14. Stem cell or gene therapy; PRP, IRAP; OATS, Bone Marrow transplant or any related alternatives.
15. Any claim for housing, including cages or bedding (including warming blankets) for your pet.
16. Any costs associated with routine or investigative laboratory tests or procedures unless the clinical signs or any symptoms exist and the tests and procedures are to diagnose a specific condition.
17. Any claim if it is as a result of an Associated Condition and the Condition is bilateral.
18. Any claim arising where the pet is not being looked after by yourself or family members including but not limited to Pet Sitters, Walkers, Kennels and Catteries.
19. Your pet if is used in relation to any trade, profession or business, breeding, guarding, security, fighting, track racing, coursing or beating or used as a gun dog, hunting or in connection with shooting of any kind whether for business or recreational purposes. This includes taking your pet to work or living on a premises that sells alcohol.
20. Any claim relating to your pet being aggressive or difficult to control.
21. The following breed of dogs; Akita, American Bandogge, American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Pit Bull, Anatolian Shepherd Dog (Karabash), Boerboel, Bully Kutta, Caucasian Ovcharka, Cane Corso, Chow Chow, Dogo Argentinos, Fila Brasileiro, Gull dong, Japanese Tosa, Canary Dogs or Perro de Presa Canario, Wolf or wolf hybrid or any cross of these breeds, including any “type”, as defined in the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, or considered to match the description of a prohibited “type”.
22. Death due to Illness where your dog is more than 8 years old or your cat more than 10 years old at the date of death.

Complementary treatments are covered under all policies as follows:

Time Limited up to £250.
Maximum Benefit and Lifetime £2,000 up to £500.
Lifetime £5,000 up to £750.
Lifetime £10,000 up to £1,000.

Treatments are defined as physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic manipulation, acupuncture, laser therapy, homeopathy or herbal medicines and a maximum of ten hydrotherapy sessions.

Note: Claims for complementary treatment, are included within the vet fees benefit limit and is not a separate limit.

All policies exclude the cost of food, including any food prescribed by a vet, or vitamins and mineral supplements

All policies cover dental or gum treatment, but only as a result of accidental injury. All other dental treatments such as cosmetic dentistry, routine cleaning, descaling etc are excluded.

Covermy Pet Insurance covers MRI/CT Scans and Cruciate Ligament claims as follows:

• Time Limited policy & Maximum benefit policies MRI/CT Scans upto £1,500 Cruciate Ligament claims upto £1,500.
• Lifetime £2,000 policy MRI/CT Scans upto £1,500 Cruciate Ligament claims upto £1,500.
• Lifetime £5,000 policy MRI/CT Scans upto £1,500 Cruciate Ligament claims upto £2,000.
• Lifetime £10,000 policy MRI/CT Scans upto £2,000 Cruciate Ligament claims upto £2,500.

Note; If treatment of a claim involving a cruciate ligament includes a CT or MRI scan, those costs will contribute towards this overall veterinary fees Benefit Limit. This limit forms part of the overall veterinary fee limit and is not a separate veterinary fee limit. This limit is available per limb, but does not reset upon each renewal.

All policies exclude the cost of having your pet put to sleep, including the cost of cremation or burial, post mortem costs, coffins or caskets.

You can cover up to 4 pets (dogs or cats) under the same policy.

All Covermy Pet Insurance policies exclude your pet's pre-existing medical conditions, which are defined as:

"Any diagnosed or undiagnosed condition which has occurred or existed or has shown signs or symptoms of existing in any form before the policy start date. This also includes any diagnosis, or any clinical signs caused by or resulting from an accidental injury or illness your pet had on an associated condition before the policy start date."

The definition of an associated condition is one that falls into any of the below categories:

• Bilateral Conditions are any Illness or Accidental Injury that affect one body part of which can happen on both sides of the pet’s body. E.g ears, eyes, knees, cruciate ligaments). For example, your pet could have hip dysplasia on the left leg and then the right leg. Bilateral Conditions are most common for orthopaedic issues like cruciate ligament damage, hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia. When applying the benefit limit or an exclusion, under the terms of your policy bilateral Conditions are considered as one and the same condition, even if this is not a medical fact.
• Recurring Conditions that are related to or caused by a previous lllness or Accidental Injury that may return or your pet may become prone to, regardless of the number of times the Illness returns.
• Related Conditions that are related to or caused by a previous illness or accidental injury shall be treated as the same illness and will be subject to one benefit limit being applied to that illness irrespective of where the clinical signs or any symptoms are noticed in or on your pet’s body and whether diagnosed or not, unless your vet confirms these are unrelated.

Breeding and conditions which relate to the breeding cycle including but not limited to whelping and kittening or any medication or treatment to prevent pregnancy, treatment for pregnancy (including false pregnancy) and giving birth or rearing puppies or kittens are all specifically excluded under Covermy Pet Insurance.

There is no cover under the CoverMy Pet Insurance policy for taking your pet abroad.

Under a new CoverMy Pet Insurance policy, any claim for accident and injury are excluded for the first 5 days and all illness excluded for the first 14 days.

The standard policy excess is either £50 or £100.

If a condition spans 2 policy years the fixed excess is re-applied each year.

For selected breeds of dog under 8, all other dogs over the age of 8 and cats aged 10 or over, there is an additional contribution to any claim of 15%.

The website is nicely laid out and there is plenty of information on each type of policy, including a breakdown of cover and comparison of costs. There are a few frequently asked questions, but the company operates live chat for any additional queries.

The quotation system is easy to use, but it can be frustrating to have to keep returning to the questions stage to change the type of policy or level of cover you want.

The website does not provide a side by side comparison of cover or premiums. Even the lifetime policy with 3 different levels of vet fees isn't displayed side by side to allow you to compare.

Each cover level has it's own 29 page policy, that includes a useful summary of cover and an index to aid navigation.

The layout is plain black text without any colour coding assistance, which makes it a bit more difficult to get through.

In readability tests the text scored 35.8 out of 100 which is classed as difficult to read, with a reading ability of between 18-19 years of age (college level) required to be able to understand the content.

Covermy Pet can only be found on Compare the Markets website. However all the Covermy Pet quotes automatically include the 15% co-insurance payment, no matter what your pets age is, whereas if you visit Covermy Pet direct, for any dog under the age of 8 or cat under the age of 10, you have the option whether to include it or not.

Other than a claims phone number there is no pet health helpline.

Covermy have nearly 4200 reviews on trust pilot, with an overall rating of 4.6/5. The reviews left were for all the different types of insurance offered, but it appears that most customers are happy with the service they provide.

Covermy Pet Insurance make the following administration charges:

New Business Up to £10.00
Renewals Up to £10.00
Mid-term Adjustments Up to £10.00
Cancellation Up to £30.00
Cancellation in the first 14 days Up to £10.00
Duplicate Documents Up to £10.00

Currently there are no special discounts or promotions.

During our research, we found Covermy Pet insurance to be competitive, for all three types of policy they offer.

However they don't offer as much cover as some other policies and some of the inner limits are lower.

There are a lot of terms and conditions/eligibility criteria, so make sure you read the policy carefully.

You must submit claims within 90 days of any condition first occurring.

Make sure you have selected enough cover to fulfill your pet's needs, as you are unable to upgrade or downgrade the policy at any time.

Your pet must not be overweight for that particular breed, as any claim would not be covered. If you are unsure, it's best to obtain confirmation from your vet.