Review: Legal and General Pet Insurance
By
Phoebe McCrostie
In Summary
Legal & General is a relative newcomer to the pet insurance market, but it has a long history in the world of insurance.
Its premium policy – Accident and Illness plus – has received a solid rating from industry experts. It offers two, slightly less comprehensive but often cheaper policies - Accident and Illness and Accident Only cover – these, however, are rated less highly.
See if Legal & General made it into our Top 10 Pet Insurance list.
Or, compare prices for Legal & General Pet Insurance at Go Compare.
Background to Legal & General pet insurance
For more than 175 years, Legal & General has been offering financial services, although its pet insurance is fairly new – it only introduced its current policies in 2013.
Launched primarily for dogs and cats, Legal & General insures animals over 8 weeks old, save for a few excluded breeds. It’s worth checking their pet insurance policy document for a full list if you are unsure.
Overview of the cover provided by Legal & General pet policies
Legal & General offers three levels of cover – Accident Only, Accident and Illness, and Accident and Illness Plus.
General benefits of all three policies include up to £3,000 in veterinary fees per condition, a vet finder service, and no extra charges for paying in monthly instalments.
In terms of the individual cover options, Accident Only cover has a maximum financial limit for each animal’s new medical condition. Once this limit has been reached, the issue is then re-classed as a pre-existing medical condition, and cover for this illness or injury is excluded.
Both its Accident and Illness, and Accident and Illness Plus policy, allow pets to be covered for ongoing medical conditions for as long as your insurance is in place. Maximum veterinary fees per condition are £3,000 for accident and illness plus, and £2,000 for the other two policies.
Other ‘Plus’ policy benefits include up to £100 special diet cover, £1,000 complementary medicine cover (£500 for other policies), and dentistry cover up to £3,000 for mouth damage as the result of an accident.
Did this cover get Legal and General into our Top 10 pet insurance list? Follow the link to find out.
How much does pet insurance from Legal & General cost?
There is no set price for pet insurance, as the exact cost of your Legal & General premium will depend on several factors. For example, the age of your pet can cause the price to increase, as can its medical history, and the level of cover that you choose to take out.
However, as an example, a medium-sized, year-old male mongrel would cost £7.26/month for Accident Only, £14.47/month for Accident and Illness, and £22.26/month for Accident and Illness Plus.
It’s worth noting that Legal & General doesn’t charge extra to spread the cost of insurance payments across 12 months – this could be an affordable alternative option if you would like to take out a comprehensive policy, but cannot cover the full premium cost in a single lump sum.
What Legal & General pet insurance customers say
There are very few online customer reviews available for Legal & General pet insurance, as the provider has only been offering this service since 2013, so there has been relatively little time to build up a bank of feedback in comparison to other insurance companies.
Customer feedback website Pet Insurance Review gives Legal & General 1/5 stars although this is only from 2 reviews making it difficult to generalise.
You can see our Top 10 Pet Insurance companies, created by combining customer reviews and industry ratings.
What the expert reviews say
Independent financial organisation Defaqto has given Legal & General a 5/5 star rating for its accident and illness plus cover, its accident and illness cover is ranked 2/5 stars, and it accident only cover has received one star.
Legal and General didn't make the cut for out Best Pet Insurance rankings; see who did here!
