Finding Cheap Pet Insurance - Is There Such a Thing

Finding Cheap Pet Insurance - Is There Such a Thing

Cheap pet insurance is out there, but you need to search carefully to be sure that you have found a policy that is cheap as in inexpensive, not cheap as in not worth it. We all are guilty of wanting a bargain. In today's economic climate more of us are watching our pennies. But we must be careful, because sometimes what looks like a bargain on the surface turns out to be a costly mistake. Want you want is to find a good solid pet insurance policy that covers all your health care needs and costs as little as possible. How do you find low cost, good value insurance?

Firstly, when shopping for cheap pet insurance, learn the terms that insurance companies use to describe the services they offer and withhold. An exclusion is basically an uninsurable condition. Sometimes insurance companies will apply exclusions to pre-existing medical conditions, but sometimes they also will apply an exclusion to conditions connected to your pet's breed. For example, in small breeds there can be a tendency towards hydrocephalus or mitral valve endocardiosis. Both of these conditions can lead to serious medical problems including blindness and congestive heart failure and many insurance companies will refuse to cover problems growing out of the condition.

Two other insurance terms you should become familiar with are deductible and pay out limits. The deductible is the amount that you will pay upfront for service before the insurance kicks in to cover the remaining cost. The deductible amount is a pre-set amount and won't change unless the policy itself changes. Pay out limits can be one of the hidden traps of cheap pet insurance. Basically a pay out limit is the total amount the insurance company will pay for a specific treatment or group of related treatments. Some pay out limits have annual ceilings, many others are a set amount over the life of an animal. Check these limits carefully, what may seem like a great deal of money for a lifetime limit can disappear quite quickly leaving you with practically useless insurance just when your older dog needs the most health care.

When you learn how the insurance companies structure their exclusions, deductibles and pay out limits than you will be instantly able to see when an offered policy is a good value for the money. Remember, cheap pet insurance is not always good. What you want in a cheap insurance policy is a good policy with fair exclusions, deductions and pay out limits at a price that you can easily afford.