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Best Pet Insurance for Dogs 2020

We've looked at the latest independent research and reviews of pet insurance for dogs to bring you the Best UK Pet Insurance Companies for Dogs 2020.

Before you see the full list...

...check out our cover. We were voted the most trusted pet insurance provider at the 2019 Moneywise Customer Service Awards, we have thousands of 5-star reviews and we offer up to £15,000 of cover with our Complete policy. Find out more and get a quote.

We've transformed pet cover for dogs. Our policies are easy to understand; we have cover no one else offers, such as money back if you don't claim; our claims are online and form free; it doesn't cost more to pay monthly; and all our vet fee policies come with unlimited video calls to UK-registered vets.

Best pet insurance for dogs

How we came up with our top 10 dog insurance list

To create this list, instead of comparing dog insurance costs, we reviewed expert research into the quality of dog insurance policies in the UK.

We used research from independent financial services review firms and awards given to the companies.

These services look at the quality of cover, for example, the level of vet fee cover, and ratings of the service customers receive.

The rest of this article focuses on explaining how to find the best policy for your needs, for example, why the cheapest policy isn’t always best when it comes to pet insurance for dogs.

Don't forget we have a separate review covering the best pet insurance for cats, a review for people with multiple pets that looks at the best multi pet discounts policies available, and comparisons of the pet insurance options for rabbits and exotic pets.

Compare the best pet dog insurance policies

  • Bought By Many Complete - up to £15,000 vet fee cover for accidents and illness that will renew each year. Dental treatment included in the £15,000 of vet fee cover. Cover for advertising or reward if your pet goes missing. £6,000 of cover for loss, theft or death. £2,500 for vet fees for travel in the EU. There is a choice between a £69 or £99 excess for pets under 9. Bought By Many was voted the most trusted pet insurance provider at the 2019 Moneywise Customer Service Awards. Get a quote
  • More Than Premier - up to £12,000 vet fee cover for accidents and illness that will renew each year, although there is a £4,000 annual limit for each injury or illness. Dental treatment is covered up to £2,000. £1,000 for a reward if your dog goes missing. £200 'farewell' cover for euthanasia, cremation or burial. You can claim up to £2,000 if your dog accidentally damages someone's home. There is a £100 fixed excess. Get a quote or read our full review
  • Direct Line Advanced Cover - up to £8,000 vet fee cover per condition and includes up to £1,000 to treat dental disease. Up to £100 to cover euthanasia. You have to add extras such as third party liability and cover for loss, theft or death. There's a £95 excess. Direct Line scores 8.8 out of 10 from more than 1,000 customer reviews on Reevoo. Get a quote or read our full review
  • M&S Bank Premier - up to £7,000 vet fee cover that renews each year, this limit includes cover for dental injury and illness. £1,000 for a reward if your dog goes missing. £750 reward for a missing pet. £200 to cover euthanasia, cremation or burial. Up to £1,500 for loss, theft or death. There is a £100 excess. Get a quote or read our full review
  • John Lewis Finance Premier - up to £12,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year, this limit includes cover for 'dental care'. £1,000 for a reward if your dog goes missing. You can claim up to £750 if your dog accidentally damages someone's home. Up to £1,500 for loss, theft or death. £100 to cover the cost of euthanasia and £100 for cremation. You can choose an excess between £60 and £500. Get a quote or read our full review
  • LV= Prestige - up to £10,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year, this limit includes cover for dental treatment. £500 for a reward if your dog goes missing. You can claim up to £750 if your dog accidentally damages someone's home. Up to £1,500 for loss, theft or death. There is a £75 excess. Get a quote or read our full review
  • Petplan Ultimate - Up to £12,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year. It will cover dental treatment. £2,000 for a reward if your dog goes missing. Up to £2,000 for loss, theft or death. There is a £110 excess for accidents and illness. Petplan scores 4.3 out of 5 from more than 3,000 customer reviews on Feefo. Get a quote or read our full review
  • Animal Friends Prestige - Up to £6,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year. £1,000 for a reward if your dog goes missing. Up to £1,500 for loss, theft or death. You can claim up to £750 if your dog accidentally damages someone's home. There is a £99 excess. Animal Friends scores 8.6 out of 10 from more than 5,000 customer reviews on Trustpilot. Get a quote or read our full review
  • Tesco Bank Premier - Up to £10,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year, this limit includes cover for dental treatment. £200 for a reward if your dog goes missing. Up to £1,000 for loss or theft and £1,500 for accidental death. £200 to cover euthanasia, cremation or burial. A choice of excess that starts at £60. Get a quote or read our full review
  • Sainsbury's Bank Premier Plus - Up to £13,000 vet fee cover that will renew each year, this limit includes cover for dental treatment. You have to add extras such as cover for loss, theft or cremation. There is a £99 excess. Get a quote or read our full review

All policies come with at least £2m of third party liability cover. Bought By Many, More Than, John Lewis Finance and Petplan have the highest level of liability insurance, with £3m of cover.

'Best dog insurance' is not the same as 'cheapest dog insurance'

Many dog owners who haven’t bought pet insurance before understandably opt for the cheapest pet insurance they can find.

While this approach can offer short-term savings on the cost of dog insurance, price is not the same as value, and it can lead to nasty surprises when you make a claim.

For example, time-limited policies tend to be cheaper but don't cover a condition for the lifetime of your dog. Lifetime policies do if you renew each year.

Find out about the best lifetime pet insurance.

Cheaper policies may suit some owners but make sure you know what you're buying.

We understand pet insurance can be complicated so we've created guides to help owners make sense of it:

Pet insurance with immediate cover

Pet insurance for older dogs

Pet insurance with dental cover

Surprising pet insurance exclusions

Pet liability insurance

Pet insurance renewals

What does dog insurance cost?

Best multi-pet insurance discount

Pros and cons of pet insurance comparison sites for dogs

In general, services like Go Compare, Compare the Market and Moneysupermarket have been great for consumers.

They’ve encouraged competition between pet insurance companies, made customer reviews and recommendations of pet insurance policies more transparent, and brought prices down for dog owners.

However, there have also been some negative consequences to their popularity. Some insurance companies are now creating cheaper dog insurance policies that have low levels of cover, with the objective of appearing at the top of pet insurance comparison tables.

Price comparisons are a great resource but if you use them be sure to check the policies have enough cover for your pet and that you compare policies with like-for-like cover levels and features.

How cheap dog insurance plans compare to the best policies

Animal Friends’ Basic pet insurance policy is available for dogs for under £10 a month. It provides £1,000 - £4,000 of cover for vet bills – and as it’s a 'time-limited' pet insurance policy, it will only pay out for an illness for a period of 12 months, after that, you'll have to pay for treatment for that condition yourself.

There are similar limitations with cheap lifetime dog insurance policies.

With Helpucover’s Vital pet insurance there is no time limit on the payout but its £2,000 of vet bills cover is subject to a limit of £500 per condition per year.

By contrast, comprehensive lifetime dog insurance policies from established market leaders, such as Petplan, More Than, and John Lewis Finance Insurance can offer up to £12,000 of vet fees cover with no time limit or condition-related caps.

Some policies even include added value features such as dental treatment cover, and complementary medicine.

Bought By Many's Complete cover is a lifetime policy that includes up to £15,000 of vet fees and dental work as standard. It's the most comprehensive policy on the market.

Lifetime (or ‘yearly limit’) insurance covers vet fees up to the stated limit every year.

This can be a good option if you worry about your pet developing a long-term or recurring illness. For example, Labrador Retrievers can be at risk of developing Hip or Elbow Dysplasia, if their parent dogs carried the gene. So long as you renew a lifetime policy each year, the level of vet fees will reset to the full stated limits that you started with.

With a lifetime product, it is important to note that your premiums will increase each year at renewal.

With a 'Per Condition' policy, a particular condition can become excluded once the condition limit is reached.

It's worth bearing in mind that many vets believe lifetime pet insurance cover is the best option for dogs.

Here's what vet Rory Cusack recommends: "Good quality means lifelong cover. Any of these policies that run year to year are hardly worth having, because you'll get an incident, there'll be an exclusion put on that for life and nobody else will touch it." (taken from the BBC story, Pet Insurance - Best Friend or will it bite you?).

What makes a great dog insurance policy?

Independent reviewers like Defaqto look at cover levels, the quality of a policy and customer satisfaction when putting together their research on the best dog insurance.

The top policies tend to have at least £10,000 of lifetime vet fee cover; at least £1,000 for a reward if your pet goes missing; at least £1,500 for loss, theft or death; and cover for dental treatment, euthanasia and damage your pet causes to someone's home.

Which companies provide which brands of dog insurance?

There are dozens of companies that offer pet insurance but many of their policies are provided by a handful of insurers.

We've grouped policies based on the insurance company that provides the cover for your dog, rather than just the brand they are marketed and sold under.

Brands can put their own spin on cover levels and customer service, although it's not uncommon for companies with the same provider to offer similar policies.

  • Provided by RSA: John Lewis Finance Plus, John Lewis Finance Premier, More Than Classic £8,000, More Than Premier, Argos Platinum, M&S Bank Premier
  • Provided by Allianz: Petplan Ultimate, Petplan Classic, Sainsburys Premier, Sainsburys Premier Plus, KBIS Select Plus, Pet ID Select Plus, The Co-op Insurance Select Plus, Animalcare Select Plus
  • Provided by BDML Connect: Aviva Platinum, Masterquote Gold, PDSA Premier, Petwise Health Insurance Gold, Protect Your Bubble Premier, LV= Premier
  • Provided by Zenith Insurance: esure Pet Plus, Debenhams Gold, Buddies Premier Plus, Asda Money Superior
  • Provided by U K Insurance Limited: Direct Line Pet Insurance, NatWest Private Pet Insurance, RBS Private Pet Insurance, Confidas Pet Insurance
  • Provided by Pinnacle: Helpucover Premier, Motability Premier, Post Office Money Premium Plus
  • Provided by other insurance companies: Animal Friends Insurance Prestige, Healthy Pets Insurance Gold, NFU Mutual Perm Health, Agria Pet Insurance, PetGuard, NCI Pet Insurance

You might have noticed some similarity in the policy names.

The similarities go deeper than that, and as a general rule, you can expect a similar experience from brands who share the same provider. For example, making a claim may involve a similar process with John Lewis Finance as it does with MORE TH>N (as they are both provided by RSA).

Pet Insurance Reviews

Learn more about the best pet insurance companies and find out what their customers think by reading our expert reviews.

If you'd like to see reviews of Bought By Many's insurance and groups check out our Feefo page where we have thousands of 5-star reviews. We're one of the only companies that publishes its claims reviews.

Follow these links to read more:

Update, April 2018

Since we first researched this review in 2013, the independent financial reviewers we have used have updated their ratings to reflect the latest changes pet insurance companies have made to their policies. This resulted in a number of movements in our rankings.

Green Insurance Platinum, Computerquote Ultimate, Helpucover Premier, and Argos Platinum, all dropped out of our Top 10 in April 2015 along with Petplan Classic.

In October 2015, we started to include customer satisfaction scores published by reviewers for the first time. This resulted in Animal Friends Prestige, John Lewis Insurance Plus, and Petplan Ultimate all gaining positions based on the strength of their customer service.

In 2016, on the strength of its customer satisfaction score, Petplan Ultimate climbed from 4th to 2nd place in our Top 10. February also saw some new pet insurance companies win 5 Star ratings by Defaqto (Bloomhill Insurance Solutions, Confidas, NCI, Costco, Post Office Money, and Caravan Club).

In February 2017, The Kennel Club was included in our Top 10 for the first time after it received a 5 Star rating from an independent financial review firm. One of Tesco's policies and an M&S policy left the list. John Lewis's Essential policy crept in.

In April 2018, Fairer Finance added more pet insurance providers to its pet insurance ratings causing M&S to gain a position within our top 10 again. Fairer Finance is an independent financial expert. We've taken their customer satisfaction ratings into account when updating our Top 10 Best Dog insurance list.

Pet insurance in Sweden

We've recently launched our unique cover in Sweden. If you like to find out more go to our Bought By Many Sweden site.

This article was written by Bought By Many. We were not paid to write it but we will receive commission if clicking on a link to one of the named insurers results in a reader taking out a policy with that insurer. We also charge for advertising space so a particular insurer may be highlighted in the article and, where insurers are listed, it can dictate where they appear in the list.

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