Petplan Pet Insurance Review: Everything You Need to Know

Life is pretty unpredictable and a twist of fate or turn of events could leave you in desperate need of veterinary attention for your beloved furball - and that's where cat insurance comes in. Which is why we're looking at the plan that we think is the best pet insurance for cats that you can get to protect your kitty.

Here's why it matters and why every cat owner should seriously consider taking out cat insurance. One day, you’re enjoying a lazy afternoon with your feline friend, the next, she’s hacking up furballs and avoiding her dinner. When something seems a little off about your four-legged friend, it’s essential to ensure that you have a way to help them. 

On average, routine veterinary care for cats costs between $90 and $200. However, unplanned problems like unexpected injuries, illnesses, and accidents cost a lot more. 

Would you have the extra money available to pay thousands of dollars for your cat’s care? If not, then you’re going to need cat and kitten pet insurance. 

We've conducted extensive independent research with our team, our own cats and in the huge network of cat owners and lovers that we interact with every day (we regularly survey our social media followers for their views - that's well over 1 million cat lovers - and they help us collect the data we rely on for our reviews).

After analysing the data we've collected, we discovered that Petplan was the preferred choice for cat pet insurance. (Note that our readers in Australia like PIA).

We concurred as several of our team have their furry friends insured with Petplan and have had long-term positive experiences.

Petplan is one of the most popular insurance providers for pet parents around the world. Offering a wide selection of plans to choose from, as well as online quotes, they supports thousands of cat loving people and their cats every year. 

So, is Petplan right for you?

What Kind of Cat and Kitten Pet Insurance Does Petplan Offer?

Petplan promises an easy way to look after your pet, no matter what happens. 

The company is one of the biggest cat and kitten pet insurance providers in the UK, and it’s gaining a lot of attention across the US too as it's trusted brand appeals to cat ownere looking for value and a trustwhorthy supplier for therir pet insurance. With Petplan insurance, you can defend yourself against the costs of various unexpected bills. Petplan even covers online consultations for no extra charge. 

Petplan cat insurance is a popular choice for many pet parents for a variety of reasons. For instance, there’s no sign-up fee to get you started. 

Petplan is also one of the more forward-thinking  cat insurance companies on the market today. When COVID-19 hit, and it was more difficult for people to visit a vet practice, Petplan jumped into action with virtual visits. This means that you can have a quick online chat with your vet for no extra charge. 

Petplan cat insurance covers everything from boarding fees up to $1,000, to customizable deductibles. The only way to get an accurate price is to contact the company for a quote. However, they are very flexible and you can choose a payment plan and start date that’s suitable for your budget. 

Plus, Petplan pet insurance provides discounts for families who work harder to keep their pet healthy. If you follow the company’s recommendations, you could save a small fortune on your policy.

Petplan focuses on lifetime pet insurance. That means that you get absolute coverage for the full life of your pet. This doesn’t stop you from switching to another  cat and kitten pet insurance provider later if you want to, however.

Do I Really Need Cat Insurance?

Before we jump into our evaluation of the Petplan cat insurance coverage package, let’s start simple.

Why do you need cat insurance in the first place? 

The simple answer is that we can never predict what might happen to our furry friends with absolute certainty. No matter how much you dedicate your time to looking after your kitty, there’s always a risk that something will go wrong. While a cat’s vet bills are often lower than the cost of caring for a dog, unexpected bills can go extremely high. 

Many people living on a budget just wouldn’t be able to afford an excessive pet treatment bill. This means that you’re left with either searching through your family and friends for extra money or having to find a way to cover that big bill you hadn't planned on! Alternatively, you could fail to get your cat the right treatment when he or she needs it. 

Ultimately, for peace of mind alone, there’s nothing better than having the right pet insurance. If you can’t afford pet insurance to cover your animal, then you might need to ask yourself whether you can afford to look after a four-legged friend.

Key Features to Expect from Petplan Cat Insurance

As a lifetime insurance provider, Petplan gives pet parents everything they need to look after their furry friends. Currently, the company has an A.M. Best rating of A+. 

With Petplan, you need to submit all of your claims within 90 days of treatment, or you won’t be able to claim for what you paid. Additionally, claim periods can take around 30 days. However, most of the time you’ll get your money back a lot faster – particularly if you submit the forms online, or through the Petplan app. 

There’s a 30 day free look period, so you can explore the cat insurance experience before you sign up for real. If you’re not happy within that thirty days, you can just cancel your subscription. For especially healthy pets, there’s also a no claims credit strategy. 

For every 12 month period between renewals on your plan that your pet goes without any claim reimbursement, you get a 15% discount on your policy. However, the highest you can go with this discount is 30%.

The higher the price of your  cat and kitten pet insurance policy, the more coverage you get. For instance, if you have a policy with an annual limit of $15,000 or more, then you get the following extra coverage options:

What Can Petplan Cover?

So, what can Petplan cover with your cat insurance policy?

Before you can get cat insurance coverage for your pet, you’ll need an examination to ensure that there are no existing conditions to cover. Keep in mind that a pet with pre-existing conditions might need a more expensive level of coverage.

If your cat hasn’t had a vet exam within 60 days of the policy date starting, then the price of the next vet exam might be excluded from your coverage. Beyond that, Petplan covers a lot of different things besides your vet bills. Some of the things that you can get included in your  cat and kitten pet insurance plan are:

What doesn’t Petplan Cat Insurance cover?

Cat insurance can give you some much-needed peace of mind regarding the health and safety of your cat. However, it’s important to remember that all insurance has limitations. You won’t be able to get cover for absolutely everything. Plus, there are some aspects of your insurance that might require extra payments. 

The main thing that any cat pet insurance policy won’t cover is your excess. The excess is the amount that you always need to pay when making a claim. For instance, you might choose an excess of $100, and you would pay that amount before the Petplan coverage took over.

The excess that you pay for your cat insurance will depend on you. If you want to pay a smaller surplus, you’ll usually need more expensive premiums. If you’re happier to pay a bigger excess, then your cat insurance premiums will fall. Other things not covered by Petplan include:

How much does Petplan Cat Insurance Cost?

You can’t put a price on peace of mind and a healthy cat. However, it’s always important to consider the expenses associated with your cat insurance. With almost all insurance companies, it’s important to remember that the price you pay will depend on a lot of factors. 

You need to get a quote from Petplan to figure out exactly how much you’re going to be spending. Factors like the age and breed of your pet will make a significant difference to your coverage.

There are also things like pre-existing conditions to consider as they will increase the price you have to pay to protect your cat's health.

That's why it's always a great idea to get cat insurance in place when your cat is still young - prefrably a kitten - so that you won't have to deal with any age related price hikes nor any pre-existing conditions.

Plus, your kitten will be protected right from the get go which has to make you feel less concerned.

And, of course, it costs nothing to get a quote, so you might at lest do that so you know what the exact cost is right now for your cat.

The good news is that the price of Petplan cat insurance is usually quite affordable.

According to the reviews that we’ve reserahed and checked, you get a significant amount of coverage compared to other providers. This means that although there may be cheaper companies out there, it’s unlikely you’ll find too many companies with the same cat insurance coverage at a similar price. 

One of the key factors affecting your policy costs with Petplan is the annual coverage limit you choose. Options start at around $2,500 and go all the way up to unlimited. The lower your limit is, the less you’ll need to pay on your monthly premium. However, we’d recommend getting the highest level you can reasonably afford, as you never know what might happen. 

Petplan catinsurance also has $250 to $1000 deductibles that adjust your costs too. The more you spend on your deductibles, the lower your premium will be. The cost of each cat insurance policy is unique to your pet’s age, breed, health conditions, and so on. 

Another point to consider may be waiting times.

When you’re keen to get your kitty covered by the right pet insurance, you don’t want to wait around for months at a time. There’s a waiting period to consider for all Petplan policies. However, the company does endeavor to get you up and running as soon as possible. There are also some cases when you might be able to back-date your plan.

Petplan Cat Insurance Quote

Whenever we review some thing like the best cat insurance we always trial it ourselves.

Several of our team have their cats insured with Petplan, we’ve surveyed our social media followers and we’ve talked to cat insurance experts and insiders. But, we also wanted to see what a new Petplan quote would offer for one of our cats that doesn’t have any pet insurance at the moment.

So, we got a quote for Luna.

Luna is a 2 year old domestic shorthair living in Boulder, Colorado with one of the writers on our team. She’s a gorgeous smokey dark grey kitty with no pre-existing health conditions.

As you can see, if we go for the ‘most popular’ level of cover for Luna, the monthly cost is $31.86.

That’s with up to $15,000 of cover every year and a deductible of $300 and reimbursement of 80% of any and all costs.

You can see what that includes from the details that the quote page gives you after just below your specific price for your cat.

However, as we cover in other parts of this review, you can change all three of those settings and that can change the monthly premium significantly as you can see in the example below.

This is still the same quote for Luna at the same address in Boulder. Nothing else has changed.

But, just by varying the annual limit, the annual deductible and the percentage of vet’s costs that is recoverable under the pet insurance has a massive effect on the monthly cat insurance charge.

As you can see, this makes the options available to you to get cat pet insurance for Luna now range from:

$15.99 per month to $59.74 per month.

You get to decide how to balance how much you can afford to pay every month against the total amount of insurance cover.

Petplan’s ‘most popular’ price comes down pretty much in the middle.

Can You Cut Costs on Petplan Cat Insurance?

So, is there any way to reduce the costs of your Petplan cat insurance?

Well, as we mentioned above, you may be able to reduce the cost of your premiums if you have a lower yearly maximum on your account and a higher excess and a lower percentage of costs covered. We’d often recommend choosing the higher excess over the lower maximum if you can. This will ensure that you have as much coverage as you need for unexpected events.

Other ways to reduce the cost of your cat insurance is to make sure that you compare your options. Petplan is a great choice, but there are other alternatives out there that could be cheaper. It’s often a good idea to shop around before you sign on the dotted line. Here are a few extra tips to keep in mind if you think you might struggle to afford pet insurance:

Another good idea? Make sure that you get your cat insurance when your kitty is still young and healthy. The longer you wait to access your insurance, the more likely it is that your pet will suffer from health problems or conditions that develop over time.

And, of course, you can't plan or have the foresight to know whaen Mr Suggles might get porrly or get in an accident and it's ytoo, late to get that cat insurance in place after the worst happens.

Our motto has always been to get prepared. That means that you really ought to get cat insurance in place as soon as you can when a new cat comes home to live with you. Better safe than sorry.

Pros and Cons of Petplan Cat Insurance

Petplan cat insurance is one of the best-rated options on the market for a reason. Setting up a policy tailored to your feline friend is quick and easy. Plus, many people agree that the customer service from Petplan is excellent. If anything goes wrong and you need some help figuring out what to do next for your pet, Petplan cat insurance has you covered. 

However, there are some downsides to this company too. Here are some of the pros and cons that we’ve discovered when researching the Petplan insurance experience.

Petplan Cat Insurance Review: Verdict

So, is Petplan cat insurance worth it?

As one of the highest-rated and most comprehensive pet insurance solutions on the market, Petplan will appeal to a lot of customers. However, it might not be the right choice for everyone.

Petplan is definitely an excellent option to consider if you’re looking for broad coverage and peace of mind when looking after your pet. However, although it’s also always a good idea to check out the alternative cat insurance companies available today, Petplan comes with our seal of approval and pour highest recommendation.

First and foremost we like to advise our reader's that it's best to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to the health of your cat. That means we think cat insurance is a very sensible investment and one that you should put in place if your budget allows. It is great for peace of mind.

Then when it comes to choosing the best cat insurance, do look around, but our choice is Petplan.

Affiliate disclosure : We Love Cats and Kittens is a participant in several affiliate programs including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and the Chewy affiliate program. These are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on their sites. If you click on links in our blog posts and articles we may be paid a commission.