For a bit of fun, I filled in the form for an insurance quote online on the BOUGHTBYMANY pet insurance website. The intention was to see the end result and to check out the questions. My cat is what the insurance company call a “mixed”. This is a random bred cat in my language. My cat is six years and two months old and he’s been neutered. They ask whether I would like to see cover for a recent pre-existing condition, or conditions, which I declined as he has none (touch wood). The form also asks how much I paid for Gabriel. The answer is nothing in terms of purchase price because he’s a rescue cat. In fact, I was a foster carer at the time so when I first acquired him I fostered him on behalf of the rescue organisation. Subsequently I adopted him. The form then asks whether I would like to add another pet to save 15% and I declined that offer because I don’t have another pet.
The form then asks where my pet lives so I entered my postcode which is in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK, which is just outside London. You have to enter your entire address. I suspect that the address is very important for them in order to work out an accurate premium. They’re going to have very complicated algorithms to decide what to pay. As I live in a built-up area I would expect to pay more than somebody living in the countryside. However, there will be risks in the countryside as well such as poisons compared to cars in urban areas.
Let’s remind ourselves that insurance is about risk management. It’s about risk and reward. And peace of mind of course but you pay quite heavily for peace of mind. If like me you don’t require that kind of peace of mind then insurance is not really beneficial. You then have to enter your email address and finally you tell them when you would like the policy to start. You can’t put a date which is to far in the future because their algorithm won’t allow it. This is because they have to know what is happening right now, on the ground in real time, more or less, in order to calculate the risk. I entered, 1 February 2021.
At that point their algorithm works out the monthly insurance costs which in this instance worked out between £29.61p per month for ‘complete cover’, £23.17p per month for a ‘regular’ and £19.41p per month for their value policy. The value policy has an annual vet fee limit of £3,000 while the best cover has an annual vet fee limit of £15,000. The value policy covers £100 for ’emergency minding’ while their best cover is £2,000 for emergency minding. “Emergency minding” means boarding or sitting with a licenced pet minder if you or a family member need an unplanned hospital visit. In addition the complete cover covers dental cover for accidents, dental cover for illness, unlimited video calls, travelling with your pet, missing or stolen and death of your pet. The value plan excludes dental cover for illness, travelling with your pet, missing or stolen and death of your pet.
You can select which option you want at this point by clicking a button and you can view the policy document which is two pages long. The top cover works out at £355.32p per year which seems pretty reasonable to me. It is about the same as my car insurance. Although mine is more than usual because I have a nice car nowadays 🙂 !
THERE IS QUITE A COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF ARTICLES ABOUT CAT INSURANCE BELOW.
