Pre-existing pet insurance helps to protect your cat or dog for a condition that they had before taking out your insurance. As well as pre-existing conditions, these policies can also protect your pet from accidents and new illnesses they develop. Different insurers have varying ways of defining and covering conditions so check policy wording carefully.
We do not offer cover for pre-existing conditions on new business policies.
Our new business policies do not cover pre-existing conditions.
Any illness, disease or injury that your pet has shown clinical signs for and/or you have sought veterinary advice or treatment prior to starting a policy will be considered as a pre-existing condition. Pre-existing conditions are excluded from cover.
If you require cover for pre-existing conditions you should contact a specialist provider.
Existing customers who have purchased a Champ policy will continued to be covered for any accepted conditions shown in your policy documents. Subject to the terms and conditions of the policy.
Pre-existing cover intends to provide cover for medical issues that a pet already has. They describe any illness, injury, symptom or condition that happened or first showed signs before your policy begins – regardless of whether your pet went to the vet for it. Our full definition is shown in the FAQs below or in our policy wording.
Most insurers don’t require you to tell them about pre-existing conditions prior to taking out cover, but they will be aware of this through the pet history when making a claim.
In some policy wording you may find that the limits for pre-existing conditions are lower than new conditions. So whilst the vet fee cover could be £7,000, you may find lower claim limits on pre-existing conditions, sometimes as low as £500.
Because most insurers don’t require you to tell them which conditions are pre-existing then you will be able to cover all of your pet’s pre-existing conditions up to a limit. But remember this limit for pre-existing conditions is usually much lower than the overall vet fee limit, particularly across the first, second and third year of your policy.
If you’re insuring 2 or more pets then you’ll receive a 10% discount off your total insurance premium. The offer applies to our Bronze, Silver, Gold, Premier and Premier Plus cover and will be deducted when calculating your quote.
If the unfortunate situation arrives where you need to make a claim on your policy, we can assist by paying your claim fast and efficiently and often payments can be made directly to your vet – so long as you and they agree. In 2020 we paid 95% of all claims made.
It hasn’t always been easy to switch your pet cover, but we’re changing that. Most providers will impose a 14-day wait time for illnesses if you switch, but so long as you are an existing pet insurance holder when you switch to us, we won’t.
Co-insurance is a payment in addition to the excess that’s shared between you and an insurer which splits the cost of claims, usually it’s an 80/20 split.
We want you to know exactly what your costs will be so we don’t impose a co-insurance payment on any of our plans.
The Scratch & Patch Careline which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is included for all cover levels. Our friendly UK based team are available whether you’re looking for pet care advice or looking for assistance with a quote or a claim.