Pet insurance payout calculator

Why the policy type matters most

Run the skin allergy or arthritis example and switch between the three policy types. The difference is usually bigger than anything the excess or the limit does.

• Lifetime cover gives each condition a fresh limit every year, for as long as you keep renewing. It is the only type that keeps paying for a condition that never goes away.
• Maximum benefit cover pays up to one total per condition, however long that takes. Once it is used up, that condition is excluded for good.
• Time-limited cover pays for a condition for 12 months from when it starts. From year two, a long-term condition is yours to pay for.

For a one-off operation the three can look the same. It is the long-term conditions, which are common in older dogs, where they split apart.

How the excess and co-payment are worked out

The calculator takes the excess off each year’s bill first, then applies the co-payment as a percentage of what is left, then caps the result at your limit. That is how most UK policies describe it, but not all of them. Some charge the excess once a year rather than per condition, and some describe the co-payment as a percentage excess on every claim. Your policy wording has the final say.

Co-payments are where older dogs get caught out. Many insurers add one automatically somewhere between age 7 and 10, commonly 15 or 20 percent. On a long-term condition that is a share of every bill, every year. Try the arthritis example with 0 and then 20 to see what that does.

What this does not tell you

It shows no premiums, because there is no public data good enough to estimate them and a guessed price would be worse than none. It also assumes one condition, claimed in full, with nothing excluded. Real claims can be reduced for pre-existing conditions, waiting periods, exclusions for your breed, or treatment the insurer decides was not necessary.

The default vet bills come from published sources: insurers’ own claims data, the Association of British Insurers, and a university referral hospital’s price list. Where no published annual figure exists, as for allergies and arthritis, the default is our own estimate and says so. Your vet’s estimate will always be better, so put that in if you have one.

If you are comparing policies, our UK pet insurance comparison lists the limits, excesses and co-payments for ten insurers, checked against their policy documents.