Pet insurance

Pet insurance, primarily designed to cover the cost of veterinary fees for the treatment of illness and injury, is far from cheap - but many pet owners believe the cost is worth the peace of mind it brings.

Vet fees for treatment of common conditions include up to £500 for an abscess, £3,000 for injuries following a road accident, £1,000 for removal of a lump or tumour and £500 a year for arthritis - an ongoing condition, according to specialist insurer Petplan.

Almost half the UK's pets need veterinary care each year, says the Pet Health Council, with the financial commitment growing largely because of advances in vet treatment.

But, while you may be convinced pet insurance is worth buying, you may not be prepared for the nightmare of comparing policies. Be warned: they vary hugely in price and the type of cover they offer - and many providers offer several different levels of cover. It's a confusing market, not least because providers often use similar words to describe very different types of policies - beware of the overused phrase "lifetime cover", for example.

So it's essential to understand the different types of product on the market, read the small print and make sure you understand exactly what you are buying.

The test

As a snapshot test, we set out to get quotes for a non-pedigree kitten from Chorley, Lancashire, starting with a search on insurance comparison website moneysupermarket.com. This gave masses of quotes, but didn't distinguish between the types of cover on offer, missed out some leading players in the market and included some quotes which proved to be out of date when we checked them with the providers.

We therefore embarked on a time-consuming exercise of checking out individual policies and obtaining quotes from a selection of major providers, with the results shown below.

Test results

The test included policies from all the main providers in the market as well as the best value policies we came across of each type.

The test is by no means exhaustive. It doesn't include all the dozens of policies on the market and, of course, it only gives snapshot results for a moggy kitten in a particular postcode - apologies to dog owners but time constraints prevented us from getting quotes for a puppy as well. But the results will hopefully point all pet owners in the right direction when it comes to obtaining and comparing quotes for their particular animal.

Those on the tightest budgets will probably opt for a cheaper 12 month policy on the basis that, if you can't afford a fully comprehensive, cover-for-life policy, it's better to have some cover than none at all. The cheapest deal we found here was E&L Insurance's Bronze policy offering our kitty £2,000 cover per condition for 12 months at a cost of £4.35 a month, with an excess of £59.

Aside from this low-cost budget policy however, our test revealed that for our particular moggy it wasn't worth considering the other restrictive 12 months and maximum benefits policies at all. This is because Marks & Spencer's superior cover for life policy, which offers the most comprehensive vet fees cover overall with £7,000 vet fees per year for life at a monthly premium of £5.24 and an excess of £40, comes in cheaper than the lot.

In fact, the M&S policy looks such good value compared with its rivals that we felt compelled to triple-check the premium, excess and benefits to make sure we'd got it right.

The cherry on the M&S cake is that we found its website and online quotation system by far the easiest one to use.

Vet fees

Cover for vet fees is the most important policy benefit to consider and there are usually three different types of cover on offer.

Top of the tree and usually - but not always - the priciest are "covered for life" policies. These cover vet fees up to a certain amount per year and, provided you renew your policy, reinstate the same amount of fee cover each year no matter how many claims you make. A key point is that they will pay the costs of treating ongoing and recurring conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and eczema. Premiums are set annually and usually rise as the animal gets older and if it has a particularly bad claims record.

Ranked second in terms of vet fee cover and cost are "maximum benefits" or "financially capped" policies. Here there is a maximum amount of vet fees cover per condition. Even more restrictive, but often the cheapest, are "12 month" policies. Here again, there is maximum amount per condition but also a limit of one year during which vet fees can be paid for each condition after which the relevant condition is excluded from cover.

Routine treatments

It's important to note that pet insurance policies do not cover preventative and routine treatments such as neutering, vaccinations and flea and worm control.

Cost

Premiums are typically based on the age and breed of a pet and the area in which the owners live. Pedigree animals are generally more expensive to insure than non-pedigrees because moggies and mongrels tend to be hardier and healthier, attracting fewer vet fee claims. Animals living in London cost more to insure than animals living in other cities, suburbs or the countryside. The cost of cover also goes up the older the pet becomes, as the risk of illness rises. Some companies will only offer cover for dogs and cats under eight or nine years old. But if your pet is already insured when they reach these ages, the insurer will normally agree to continue cover though premiums might then go up sharply.

Most policies carry an excess or pre-payment of the first 10%-15% of the total claim or for a course of treatment for each illness or condition.

As a general rule, the cheapest pet cover starts at around £5 a month for a non-pedigree cat or £7 a month for a non-pedigree dog.

Other benefits

Policy extras may include cover for advertising and rewards for lost and stolen pets, complementary medical treatments, such as acupuncture, behavioural treatments, dental treatments, counselling in the event of the death of a pet and cover for your holiday being cancelled due to the pet needing emergency treatment.

Further information

Your local veterinary surgery will have information on different pet insurance plans. You can download a leaflet, A Guide to Insuring Your Pet, at pethealthcouncil.co.uk