How to Compare Pet Insurance Plans: What to Look for Before You Buy

If you've ever tried to compare pet insurance plans, you know that it can get pretty frustrating pretty quickly. You get one quote for $35 a month, you get another one for $65 a month, and another one for $80 a month. And you're like, oh, okay, the $35 one a month is obviously the best deal. But that's not necessarily the case, because there are details buried in the plan. What's the deductible? What's the annual limit? What do they cover? What are the pre-existing condition terms look like? So it can be complicated, and there are ways to make it easier. So I just wanted to walk through that with you and see if I could help save you some time and make sure that you get the best option for yourself and your pet moving forward. My name is Rachel Goldstein. I'm someone who just has gone through the process a lot. I have three dogs, two cats. I've tried to figure out what the best insurance is. And again, I have just seen how frustrating it is. So I just want to try to make it easier for you. Okay, so my number one tip is comparison tools can save you a significant amount of time. So a place like Best Money, for example, they can help you research pet insurance providers, and you'll be able to compare some of the major plans and see what each of them offers. So I would use something like this at the beginning of the process, because this is where you start doing your research. So if you start researching on your own, and you go website by website and look for plan by plan, you're going to spend way more time than you need to. When I would start looking at the individual companies and websites and talking to them is after I've used something like Best Money to build my shortlist. And just to give you an idea of what one of these tools looks like, I'm going to go through a bunch of things on here. But just to start, so this is bestmoney.com. You know, they have all sorts of different things. So you go to pet insurance plans. And the first thing they do is they just have, you know, a list of what they are considering their top plans. So this is a good place to start. Just by, you know, looking at what they have to say, they provide some more details. And so this is a good place to start with your for your short list. And before I keep going through kind of like how to best use that tool, the one thing I want to say is just make sure that you're comparing the same type of plan with the same type of plan. So there's accident plans, accident and illness plans, there's plans that have preventative measures covered. It's important that the prices you're comparing are actually the same for the same plan, because otherwise you're going to end up like I was saying in the beginning where you're finding a $35 a month quote and an $80 a month quote and think that the $35 one is automatically better and that might not be the case. So when you use bestmoney.com, you'll see again that there's all these different plans. For the first one, you'll view plans and you'll actually see it all laid out, which I'll show you is this, but I'll come back to that in a second. For the others, you're usually visiting their site. So when you go to their site, they're going to ask you for more information. You want to check their prices, get a quote. So then you'll sort of, you know, go through the process of however they want you to do it. But just so I can show you how different coverage can be based on the details, I'm going to start with spot. So here we've got accident and illness coverage, $2,500 annual limit, 70% reimbursement rate, which means anything that's covered, you get 70% of that back with an annual deductible of $500. So this is $34.97 per month, which is pretty reasonable, but an annual limit of $2,500 is, you know, if they have a serious accident or injury or illness, that's not that much money. I know from personal experience, my dog has had to have surgery once, multiple times, but let's say the first one was $6,000, right? So the only reimbursement I would get from that is up to $2,500, 70% of that. So, okay, let's say you want a $10,000 annual limit. Then you go up to $81 a month, $82 a month almost. That's a very significant jump. So you can sort of just toggle through, like maybe you only need $5,000 per year. And you can look at the reimbursement rate, 80%, which will also increase the price, again, pretty significantly. And then the lower the deductible, the higher the monthly payment, of course, because, you know, then you have to spend less to start getting coverage. This isn't to say that you need to go look at spot pet insurance. It's just an easy way to see and toggle through and just so you know that like if you're comparing a $39 plan to a $100 plan, there are so many different variables that go into it. And then it also kind of just goes through what it covers, orthopedic conditions, extras you can add on. And then you can also view all the exclusions. This is just sort of an overview. It's not going to be detailed. But it's definitely a good place to start. So you can, you know, figure out if this company is an option for you. And if it is, then you can start looking at some of the other companies and compare the prices for similar plans. Another thing that I think is super helpful, again, we'll just stick with spot pet insurance because that's where I am, is you can look at sample policies. So you can, you know, scroll down and find sample policy. And then it's going to ask you to pick your state. I'm in Pennsylvania, so we'll do that. And I'm going to choose accident and illness just because that's what I would, that's what I have, it's what I would get. And then you'll get an actual sample policy, which is actually really helpful. You'll get, you know, waiting periods, what's covered, deductibles, what's not covered, how to submit a claim, I mean, all of these things. And some of the most important things that maybe you haven't thought about, one is waiting periods. Okay, so like, you can even just, you can search waiting periods. And it'll take you down to that section. And it'll give you, you know, the general conditions. It'll tell you, like, for example, there's a 14 day waiting period for diagnosis, treatment, or surgery related to any illness. And then it talks about which illnesses that includes. So that means, you know, your insurance policy doesn't kick in the second that you get it. So these are important things to know. That's one of the most important. And then, of course, you know, there's the deductible, what happens if you cancel, how the renewal works, pretty much anything that you need to find is in here, in this sample policy. And when you go to other websites, you'll be able to find sample policies from them as well. Ultimately, I think comparing pet insurance policies is much easier once you know what you're actually looking at. Using a tool like BestMoney, go through each option, like I showed you, find sample policies, figure out what the waiting periods are, what the cancellation is, what the deductibles are, all of that information, so that you can actually compare them. And then again, once you have that shortlist, let's say you come up with three, and you like those companies, you like the policies, that's when I would start to maybe reach out to them directly, get legitimate real quotes, see if you have any questions, how do you get reimbursed, do they pay the vet directly? Most of them don't for the most part, but some do, so it's always worth asking. And just getting as much information as you can before you make that decision so that you know exactly what's in the policy. So yeah, I hope that's helpful. It definitely can be confusing, but there's good insurance policies out there that can be very useful for you and your pet.