Pet insurance helps to protect your pet should they suffer an unexpected illness or accidental injury. While you may be able to budget for the ongoing day-to-day expenses of keeping your pet healthy, an unforeseen sickness or injury can quickly mount up to thousands of dollars in vet bills, and that’s where pet insurance can help.

Insurance is the one thing we pay for that we hope we never need to use. But when needed, pet owners are relieved to have it, because you can never predict when something might happen to your pet.

Pet insurance can help pet owners when it comes to their pet’s health care costs. A pet owner can potentially claim up to $30,000 per year through their pet insurance, depending on the type of policy they have taken out.

While there are small variations between pet insurance policies, there are three main types of cover:

Accidental Injury Only policies cover stated events such as broken bones or motor vehicle incidents.

Combined Accidental Injury and Illness policies, also cover sickness, which can range from short term infections to major surgery.

There are also various Stated Events policies such as illness cover for indoor cats and ‘major events’ policies that cover specified accidental injuries and illnesses.

Your premium is calculated using a few details such as the breed and age of your pet, and the type of cover you have chosen.

For example, a nine-year-old Great Dane and a one-year-old Jack Russell Terrier have very different vet expenses, so you would expect to pay a different premium for these two pets.

You should also be aware that your premium will be recalculated when your policy renews. See “Will my premium increase every year?” for more information.

If you have a current policy and would like further detailed information regarding how your premium is calculated, please refer to your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).