Top pet insurance compared

About Top pet insurance compared

Pet insurance is easy to buy and hard to compare. Vet bills arrive without warning, so the decision comes down to what a policy pays for, what the year costs and how fast a claim moves when a pet is admitted. This ranking covers 136 brands that place pet cover among other personal lines, from comparison sites that gather policies from several carriers to insurers that write their own. Pet cover appears in 100% of them, so the line itself is no help for narrowing the list. Cost, trust and the way the account works do that work. The main trade-off is price against flexibility: the median entry premium is €8.88, the lower quartile is €3.98 and the upper quartile is €32.43, and the full spread runs €0 to €670.88. A small starting figure can sit next to a fixed annual term, while a monthly model spreads similar cover over the year. Read the entry premium, the payment terms and the support line together, and treat the quoted figure as a starting point rather than a quote for your pet.

How we picked

Scores combine weighted signals. Trust carries 40%, cost carries 35% and offer carries 25%, so the balance leans towards who stands behind a policy and what it costs rather than how many products a site lists. Every member is read from the company's own pages and terms: legal entity and headquarters, the lines sold, the payment model, the entry premium, support channels and, where the company publishes them, claim routes. Qualifiers from the source are kept, so a figure that applies to a particular line or a particular country is marked as such instead of being presented as a pet price. Site-wide figures come from the dataset behind this page, which covers 494 brands, of which 332 carry licence details. Partners are listed first and everything else follows in score order, so a sponsored position never hides the rest of the table. Entry premiums are the published starting figure for a policy and carry no excess, limit or pet age, which is why the fee line is read beside the payment and support lines rather than on its own.

Our top picks

1. 1. HanseMerkur Reiseversicherung AT

   HanseMerkur Reiseversicherung AT is in this ranking as an insurer rather than a comparison site: HanseMerkur Reiseversicherung AG, based in DE and founded in 1977. Its book of lines is short, travel, pet and gadget, so pet cover is one of the few things on offer. The entry premium of €1.50 is quoted for travel health cover abroad, and the published cover limit applies to inpatient treatment abroad, which tells you where the sums sit in the terms. Claims run through online form and phone and the service is limited to applicants up to 65 years of age, with support on phone, email and help centre.

   • Premium from: €1.50
   • Insurance types: Travel, Pet, Gadget
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • Entry premiums start at €1.50, under the €8.37 recorded across the site.
   • The company is an insurer, so HanseMerkur Reiseversicherung AG carries the risk on travel, pet and gadget cover and settles its own claims.
   • Support runs on phone, email and help centre, and claims can be opened on online form and phone, so a call or a form covers both.
   • On entry premium the brand ranks 39 among the 252 brands compared.

   Cons

   • Inpatient treatment abroad is capped at 300,000 EUR for inpatient treatment abroad, so a long stay or a private room runs into your own pocket.
   • Eligibility ends at up to 65 years of age, which closes the policy for older travellers.
   • Claims start on online form and phone, with no written claims address given.
   • Lines stop at travel, pet and gadget, against auto, home and renters at Good Sam Insurance Agency.

2. 5. CosmosDirekt

   CosmosDirekt sits in this ranking as a direct insurer, Cosmos Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, founded in 1950 in DE, selling pet cover next to auto, home, life, motorcycle, travel, landlord and income protection. Monthly payments are available on a monthly model, and its entry premium of €1.73 is the figure published for risk life cover on the same site, so treat it as a starting point for the pet section. The book is capped by age, applying to applicants up to 64 years. Claims go through online and phone, online or by phone, and support runs on phone, email and help centre, so phone, email and a help centre cover a claim filed late in the evening.

   • Premium from: €1.73
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 5 more
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • Premiums start at €1.73 on monthly policies, under the site median of €8.37.
   • CosmosDirekt is an insurer, insurer, so the policy and the payout sit with the same company, Cosmos Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft.
   • Cover spans auto, home and life, letting a household place several lines with a single provider.
   • Claims can be filed online or by phone, online and phone, and support runs on phone, email and help centre.
   • Traded since 1950 in DE under BaFin supervision, which gives a long operating record to weigh.

   Cons

   • The €1.73 entry figure ranks 44 of 252 brands on price, better than most, yet the floor across the site is €0.
   • Support runs on phone, email and help centre only, with no chat line or community forum in that list.
   • auto, home and renters at Good Sam Insurance Agency adds renters and health cover, so a reader needing those lines goes elsewhere.
   • The travel policy stops at up to 64 years, leaving older travellers outside that cover.

3. 7. CHECK24

   CHECK24 sits in the middle of this ranking on breadth and reach. It is a comparison site in DE trading as CHECK24 Vergleichsportal GmbH, founded in 1999, with pet cover inside a list of lines that also runs to auto, home, life, health, travel, motorcycle, dental, income protection and gadget. Its entry premium of €0.69 sits below the ranking median of €8.88, on a monthly model with monthly payments available, and support covers chat, email and phone including chat, email, phone and a help centre. The catch is how a pet claim is made, since CHECK24 Versicherungscenter online claim form, insurer online claim form and post points to an online claim form at the CHECK24 insurance centre, the insurer's own form, or post.

   • Premium from: €0.69
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 7 more
   • Provider type: Comparison site

   Pros

   • One account reaches auto, home and life, so several kinds of cover can be arranged in the same place.
   • Monthly payments are the model on offer, monthly, which spreads a policy charge month by month.
   • Support runs on chat, email and phone, so a question can go by chat, email, phone or the help centre.
   • Registration sits with the German chambers: D-UC2S-PFVJD-82, D-FPD7-IQZPB-00 and D-I6KJ-85T6H-31.

   Cons

   • comparison site places CHECK24 outside underwriting, so the cover limit, the wording and the payout are set by the insurer you choose.
   • The claim route follows the insurer too: CHECK24 Versicherungscenter online claim form, insurer online claim form and post means the form sits with the site's insurance centre, with the insurer, or goes by post.
   • Monthly payments are the only model listed, monthly, so nothing annual is shown beside the monthly figure.

What to look for

Entry premium as a starting figure

The median entry premium in this ranking is €8.88, the lower quartile is €3.98 and the upper quartile is €32.43, with the lowest quoted at €0 and the highest at €670.88. A low figure is a starting point, not a quote for a specific pet.

Who stands behind the policy

The field splits between insurers at 39.3%, brokers at 30.4% and comparison sites at 28.9%. An insurer sets the terms on its own book, a broker places cover with a carrier, and a comparison site shows policies from several carriers side by side.

Monthly payments and the payment model

Every entry here runs on a monthly model, and monthly payments are available at 95.9%, with 4.1% staying on a single term. Vet costs arrive in lumps, so how a policy is paid for can matter as much as what it costs.

Support when a pet is unwell

Phone is the most common channel at 90.5%, with email at 78.6%, a help centre at 82.5% and chat at 43.7%. Outside office hours, the difference between a phone line and an inbox is a same-day answer against a wait.

Pet cover next to other lines

Pet cover appears in 100% of the entries, so it never separates them. Household lines do: home shows up at 80.1%, travel at 58.1% and auto at 74.3%, which matters to anyone holding more than one policy.

Licence details on file

Of 136 brands in this ranking, 105 carry licence details, and each member shown here names its legal entity. A named entity and a named claim route are the first things to check before entering any payment details.

Frequently asked questions

Top pet insurance compared by country

• Australia
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV