Frequently Asked Questions

Your pet has to be 8 weeks old at the start of cover, and there is no upper age limit. We do not stop offering cover when your pet is older, as long as there has not been a break in cover.

Unfortunately, our policies do not cover pre-existing conditions. Please see the policy terms and conditions for further information.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for information on Dental Cover.

Our policies do not cover dogs used for working, trade, profession or business.

Yes, you can still arrange cover if your pet is not vaccinated. However, unvaccinated pets will not be covered for the illnesses that could have been prevented from the vaccination.

We offer direct debit payments in monthly instalments. These are interest free and include Insurance Premium Tax at the current rate. (Subject to validation checks during your quote)

There is a waiting period of 14 days for illness cover which means that no claims can be made for illness within the first 14 days of the policy and the first 48 hours for accidents.

Please see our Make a Claim page.

A claims excess is your contribution to the cost of treating your pet when you make a claim on your pet insurance policy. Here at Purely Pets you can choose from a range of excess options during your quotation. Changing excess will adjust your quotation price, but please make sure you can afford to pay a higher excess in the event of a claim.

A claims co-payment is a compulsory contribution towards the cost of a claim and is in addition to your excess. All of our policies feature a co-payment of 20% when a pet reaches the age of 6. A co-payment cannot be removed for the life of the policy. For example if you made a claim of £1400 the initial excess of £140 would be deducted and you would then be required to pay 20% of the remaining £1260 balance, which is £252. Therefore the total you would be required to pay towards the claim is £392

On average, we typically aim to process claims within 4 weeks once all supporting information has been provided. However, we are currently experiencing delays. As a result, it may take longer than usual to process your claims. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please rest assured that our team is working hard to speed up the process and improve our response times as soon as possible. We would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.

We can pay you or the vet, just select your preferred option when submitting an online claim.

To protect our environment, all documentation is sent via securely to your online policy portal, Manage My Policy. When your policy renews, your renewal notice, along with your schedule of insurance and policy wording will be sent to you 14 days before your renewal date. We are trying to become a greener company by reducing the amount of paper we print, but if you would prefer to receive a copy of your documents by post please give us a call on 0330 102 5748.

If you do not receive your documentation, please check your spam or junk email, as sometimes internet security settings may divert them here. If they are not there then call our friendly customer services team on 0330 102 5748.

You can cancel your policy at any time, simply call us on 0330 102 5748 to speak to a friendly member of our team. If you want to cancel in the first 14 days, providing you have not made a claim you will receive a full refund of your paid premium. If you want to cancel after this time then you will be charged for the time your pet has been insured. If you have made a claim on your policy and you want to cancel, then the full premium for the year will become due. 

Please refer to your schedule of insurance for information on who underwrites your policy.

Alternatively, you can review this information within the Terms of Business document here.

Insurer decisions are led by the statistics they hold. For Pet Insurance they will look at the following factors when deciding which risks they want to provide cover for; health profile of the breed, third party liability costs incurred for that breed as well as the specifics for your risk such as your dog’s age and where you live.  If any of these factors are deemed as too high of a risk in the insurers statistics, they may make the decision to either restrict cover, significantly increase the premium based on the risk, or simply not offer cover to certain breeds or certain ages of pets. Whilst we do not cover your breed at the moment, this isn’t to say we never will. You may notice different pet insurance providers have different breeds they will and will not cover, which again will be the result of the individual insurers statistics.

There are multiple factors that will affect your premium. These include, but are not limited to;

1. The age of your pet, as your pet ages the risk of them becoming ill increases
2. Your claims history, if your pet has been unwell and you’ve had to make a claim this may indicate that you’re more likely to claim in the future and will impact your premium
3. Advancements being made in veterinary treatments and inflationary increases both impact the cost of treatment and medication, which inevitably have an impact on insurance premiums

Depending on where you have obtained your quote, some comparison sites will offer a new business discount which will apply to your policy in the first year – this discount will not apply at renewal.

Additionally, new policies generally contain a waiting period before your cover actually starts and will often exclude anything your pet has shown symptoms of, or has been treated for, prior to your policy starting. As renewals do not have these terms, the higher premium reflects the higher risk being carried by the insurer compared to a brand-new customer.

It is also important to check that all of the details you have entered match those on your current policy including your pets breed and date of birth, also check that the cover level and excess is the same.

Purely Pets offer a range of policies you can switch between so if you are looking to reduce your premium, but keep existing conditions covered, contact us now to see your personalised options and specific terms that would apply on 0330 102 5748

No, this ruling only applies to home and motor insurance.