In Summary
Helpucover offers a full range of pet insurance policies for dogs, cats, and rabbits. Their most comprehensive policy, Helpucover Premier, was ranked 7th in Which's Top 10 lifetime pet insurance policies. It was also given a top 5-star rating by Defaqto.
You can get a quote at the Helpucover website
Overview of the cover provided by Helpucover Pet Insurance policies
With 6 different insurance policies for dogs, 5 policies for cats, and cover for rabbits Helpucover clearly see customer choice as an important part of their offering. But differentiating between the policies – at least in the first instance – needn’t require sifting through the small print.
The most important thing to understand is that each of the Helpucover policies falls into one of 3 categories, based on the “level of cover” being offered: Lifetime, Time Limited or Per Condition. These same categories are used by many of the pet insurance companies, and you can find out more about how they generally work in our article on the cost of dog insurance. To give a brief summary of how they work with Helpucover:
• TIME LIMITED – your can claim up to £1,000 on vet bills, per (health) condition, but only for a maximum of 12 months. So if your pet requires continued treatment after the 12 month period, you would not be able to claim for that ‘additional’ treatment. Helpucover’s Time Limited policy is called ESSENTIAL.
• PER CONDITION – with a Per Condition policy there is no fixed time-limit. You will be able to make a claim each year, up to the maximum annual limit. Helpucover’s STANDARD policy, available for both cats and dogs, offers a maximum of £1,000. Dog owners have the option of STANDARD PLUS, which has a maximum of £3,000.
• LIFETIME – these policies continue to pay out even if a pet's medical condition lasts for a number of years. Helpucover have three Lifetime policies: PREMIER, CLASSIC and VITAL
The main difference between the three Lifetime policies is the annual amounts you can claim on Vet’s fees: Premier offers a total of £6,000 (with no limit per condition); Classic has a total of £4,000, limited to £1,000 per condition; Vital’s total is £2,000, limited to £500 per condition.
All of Helpucover’s policies include the standard basic features of pet insurance, such as death from accident or illness, and loss through theft or straying.
You can get a quote from Helpucover on their website
How much does pet insurance from Helpucover cost?
With almost all pet insurance companies, the cost of pet insurance varies widely depending factors like the age and breed of your pet, and which part of the UK you live in. But to give you an indication, the review by Which? obtained the following quotes:
- 5 year old mixed breed dog: £485 per year
- 5 year old Labrador Retriever: £658 per year
- 6 year old mixed breed cat (moggy): £291 per year
In the review by Which? on dog insurance, Helpucover Premier was ranked 7th most expensive out of a total of 15 Lifetime policies, making it mid-table. Meanwhile, Helpucover Classic was the 3rd cheapest of the pet insurance policies Which? reviewed.
So Helpucover are clearly not the most expensive pet insurance provider on the market. However, please be aware that “cheapest” isn’t always the same thing as “best”. For more information on this, see our article Top Ten Pet Insurance.
NB: The review by Which? did not include the other Helpucover policies (Vital, Essential, Standard, Standard Plus).
Get a Helpucover pet insurance quote tailored to your needs
What do helpucover pet insurance reviews from customers say?
Customers report on petinsurancereview.co.uk and money.co.uk that Helpucover pay vet fees quickly, but their premiums tend to go up after a claim (although this is a common feature for many other insurers). Additionally, some people have been caught out by the per-condition restrictions of their policy, though that can be avoided by making sure you know exactly what your policy covers.
How does Helpucover Pet Insurance compare to other pet insurance policies?
For Dogs, Helpucover’s Premier policy was one of our Top 10 – just squeezing in at number 10. See our article on the Best Pet Insurance for Dogs to see how Helpucover Dog Insurance stacks up against the competition. None of the Helpucover Cat Insurance policies made it into our Top Ten; to find out which companies did, see our article on the Best Pet Insurance for Cats.
You can see how much a Helpucover pet insurance policy will cost you by getting a quote online.
What do helpucover pet insurance reviews from the experts say?
Helpucover Dog Insurance: Independent Reviews
Which? Review (Updated September 2013)
Premier: 64%
Classic: 48%
Defaqto Review (2014)
Premier: 5 stars
Classic: 4 stars
Vital, Essential, Standard, Standard Plus: 3 stars
Helpucover Cat Insurance: Independent Reviews
Which? Review (Updated September 2013)
Premier: 67%
Defaqto Review (2014)
Premier: 5 stars
Classic, Vital, Essential, Standard: 3 stars
Note: For more information about the methodology used by Which? and Defaqto in their reviews, read our Best Pet Insurance for Dogs and Best Pet Insurance for Cats articles.
