Insure your happiness

In the UK, the cost of insuring your dog can depend on

• Your pet's breed

• Their age

• Where you live

• The policy you choose

On our Value policy with £3,000 of lifetime vet fee cover, 10% of dog owners paid £14.88 a month in August 2022.

That rose to £25.51 for our Complete policy, but that means just over £10 a month extra for some of the most comprehensive pet insurance cover in the UK, including:

• £15,000 vet fee cover a year

• Dental cover for accidents and illness

• Cover while travelling abroad with your dog

• Cover if they’re lost or stolen

The best way to find out exactly how much it’ll cost to insure your dog is to get a quote – it only takes a few moments.

The cost of vet treatment varies around the country, which means your home address can affect how much you pay for pet insurance.

Typically, dog insurance is cheaper outside London and the South East of England.

These are the average costs of insuring your dog with ManyPets across the UK in 2021:

• Scotland £381.37

• Wales £431.87

• North East £454.16

• South West £446.55

• West Midlands £446.82

• East Midlands £471.93

• North West England £481.67

• East of England £515.03

• Northern Ireland £524.87

• South East £544.27

• Greater London £573.85

The average cost of dog insurance in Greater London is 50% more expensive than in Scotland.

Generally, the cost to insure a one or two year old dog is much less than the cost of insuring an older dog.

Your insurer may also ask you to pay around 20%-35% of the cost of any claims for dogs aged over nine years old. This is called a co-payment.

Most of our policies are available for dogs of any age and we ask owners of dogs over nine to cover 20% of any claims.

Many people see the cost of their dog insurance increasing over time, and feel that the insurance company is acting unfairly – but higher costs for older dogs reflect the fact that visits to the vet are more likely.

Some owners opt to 'self-insure' by paying a fixed amount into a savings account each month, so that there is a reserve to draw on if their dog gets sick, instead of continuing to pay the insurance premium. The risk is that you may need vet treatment before your savings have built up or the cost of treatment will be higher than what you've saved.

Smaller dogs usually cost less to insure than bigger dogs and mixed breeds usually cost less than pedigrees.

Mixed breeds were some of the cheapest to insure. These are the average costs for cover with us in 2021:

• Small mixed-breed – £116.46

• Medium mixed breed – £133.82

• Large mixed breed – £174.23

The cost of pedigree dog insurance varies significantly between breeds and the cost of insuring cross-breed dogs (such as Cockapoos or Labradoodles) will reflect the cost of insurance for the dominant breed.

In 2021, according to ManyPets’ data the most expensive dog breed to insure was Bernese Mountain Dogs at £954.04 a year. The cheapest was Jack Tzus at £268.63 (based only on breeds where we insured 50 or more of that breed).

Dogs with a propensity to develop breed-specific medical conditions also tend to be more expensive to insure.

Find out more about the average costs to insure different breeds and all their other costs.

Some ways we can help you save money on your pet insurance are:

• Increase your excess – you can usually bring down the price of dog insurance quotes by increasing the excess, but not all pet insurance companies let you do this. Some ManyPets policies include the option of a voluntary 20% co-payment, in addition to our choice of excess options of £69, £99, £130 and £160. Just remember that opting for a higher excess does mean you need to make a bigger contribution to the costs if you need to claim.

• Multi-pet discounts –If you have two or more pets, multi-pet discounts can reduce your costs. ManyPets has a discount of up to 15% for pets on the same policies, the highest multi-pet discount available (our multi-pet discount is not currently available on our Value 2k policy).

• MoneyBack option – You can choose to add MoneyBack to get 20% of your premiums back if you don’t need to make a claim.

We can also help you save money on looking after your pet with discounts on a flea and tick treatment subscription and free pet house sitting for a year.

How can I save money on dog insurance?

Dental cover for accidents is included in all our policies within the vet fee limit. Our Complete policy includes cover for dental illness and accidents as part of the £15,000 vet fee limit.

Vaccinations are not covered by pet insurance because they are classed as routine procedures.

We have two limits related to death. All our policies include £150 if your pet has to be put to sleep. It is your choice how you use it, it could be used to cover the cost of the procedure or for pet cremation or memorial costs.

We have a separate limit that can pay out the value of your pet if it passes away because of an accident or illness. There is a £6,000 limit included in our Complete policy as standard and our other policies, apart from Value, offer up to £1,500 as an add-on. Please check our policy documents as there is an age limit for some death claims.

Pet insurance isn’t compulsory in the UK and you don’t legally have to have it. But it can give you peace of mind that you can pay expensive vet bills and get your cat or dog back to health.

There are no life insurance policies for dogs although our pet insurance policies can offer a payout if your dog passes away, similar to life insurance. Our Complete policies includes up to £6,000 cover for death as standard and our other policies offer lower limits as an add-on. Please read our policy documents because some death claims have an age limit.