
Dr. Jack Stephens founded Pets Best Insurance in 2005 with the aim of creating a pet health insurance provider that understands the ins and outs of the dog health care industry. Nearly two decades later, Pets Ideal remains one of the best pet insurance providers , offering comprehensive coverage and no upper age limits.
This guide from the Home Media reviews team covers Pets Best Insurance’s pros and cons, plan options, premiums plus customer reputation based on our in-depth research.
Pros and negatives of Animals Best
+ Provides a 24/7 Pet Helpline with veterinary experts
+ Has no upper age group limits for coverage
+ Offers an unlimited coverage limit option
– Has limited annual coverage caps ($5, 000 or unlimited)
– Takes an average of 30 days to process claims, according in order to our customer review analysis
Pets Best’s Plans and Coverage
Domestic pets Best offers several coverage options. Its accident-and-illness protection, called the BestBenefit plan, is available at three levels.
The Essential Plan is the most basic, covering accidents, illnesses, hospitalization, cancer treatments, emergency care, surgery, diagnostic testing, prescription medication and hereditary conditions. The Plus plan addresses everything inside the Important Plan plus exam fees. The Elite Plan offers the most extensive coverage, including everything in the Essential plus Plus plans plus insurance coverage for rehabilitation, acupuncture and chiropractic care.
Pets Greatest also offers an accident-only plan with a $10, 000 yearly limit, $250 deductible plus 90% reimbursement. This plan covers broken bones, animal bites, swallowed foreign bodies, open wounds and any injuries sustained from being hit by a moving vehicle.
The accident-only plan is ideal for family pet parents on a budget, starting in $6 per month for cats and $9 per month for dogs. Keep in mind that this plan doesn’t cover illness, disease, malignancy treatments or preexisting conditions.
Add-on Coverage
Pets Best provides 2 routine treatment add-ons for an added monthly fee.
EssentialWellness: The particular EssentialWellness add-on covers certain preventive care services such as spay/neuter surgery, flea/tick/heartworm prevention, microchipping and a wellness exam. It costs $16 per month* and provides annual benefits of $305.
*$14 each month in Washington.
BestWellness: This add-on covers everything within the EssentialWellness package along with a higher reimbursement level, offering yearly benefits associated with $535 with regard to $26 per month. *
*30 per 30 days in Washington.
Pets Best’s Exclusions
Like all pet insurance companies, Household pets Best does not cover preexisting problems . The company defines preexisting conditions as any sickness or injury your pet experiences before enrollment or even during your waiting period. Curable conditions this kind of as damaged legs and kennel cough are not considered preexisting since they can heal without further treatment.
In addition to preexisting conditions, Pets Best excludes the following treatment from its base plan:
- Alternative treatments such as herbal, holistic plus experimental therapies and medications.
- Non-veterinary expenses like taxes, administration charges, waste disposal fees, transportation fees, shipping and handling fees, bathing, grooming, and any service not performed under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.
- Parasite screening and therapy for fleas, ticks, heartworms, roundworms, whipworms, hookworms, tapeworms, giardia, coccidia, ear mites or scabies.
- Preventive care or elective care for example anal gland expression and removal, tail docking, ear cropping , nail trimming, feline declawing and dewclaw elimination.
Plan Customizations
Pets Best allows you to customize your policy with the following options.
- Deductibles: $50, $100, $200, $250, $500, $1000
- Annual coverage limits: $5, 000, unlimited
- Reimbursement rates: 70%, 80% or 90%
Pets Best’s Premiums
Pets Best’s premiums vary by your location plus desired protection level as well as your dog or even cat’s breed and age. The company’s premiums are typically lower than average , but may run higher depending on your location and pet’s breed in addition to conditions. You can also take advantage of House animals Best’s 10% multi-pet discount if you have multiple pets.
To give you an idea of Pets Best’s pricing, here are some sample quotes for various pets located in Nashville, Tenn. We obtained quotes for pets on Pets Best’s Plus plan with a $250 deductible, 80% reimbursement rate and even $5, 500 coverage limit:
Pets Best reviews
We read more than 100 Pets Best reviews on third-party websites such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot to get a sense of existing customers’ experiences. The company has overall mixed reviews. Some customers like its quick, pleasant customer service representatives but others mention high prices and a long claims process along with denied statements.
Though some negative reviews mention high pricing, we did not receive higher prices during our simulated quote process. We advise you to pay attention to your own quote’s details and compare Pets Best’s offerings in order to other pet insurance companies.
All of us reached out to be able to Pets Greatest about these reviews yet failed to receive a response.
Here are some samples of what customers had for you to say about Pets Finest.
“Pet’s Ideal has been wonderful for us, always lets us know what’s going on together with claims, together with always prompt with payments. I highly recommend them for any pet! and additionally based upon your needs they have a policy to suit you! very professional not to mention friendly. ” – Beverly K. via BBB
“We have always used Pets Best for our dog insurance. Now we have a new puppy, and had to possess his wellness check-up. I submitted the particular bill to help Pets Best, and in less than the week, all of us had most of the money paid back. The only items not covered were those that were not really part of the wellbeing check-up and also go against my deductible. I am very happy with typically the service we all received. ” – L. L. through TrustPilot
“When We got this policy, often the sales rep never mentioned the premium would go up every year, exponentially. I remember having a new detailed conversation using the representative about the budget, as well as we determined that it was affordable at $35 a month. The repetition failed to mention it would increase. I saw increases and just absorbed them, many of us love our own dog! But now, 5 years into it, [I’m] paying almost $80 a 30 days! I finally called yesterday and asked what the cap is – the associate said he couldn’t tell me : that I actually would just have to wait every year to see what underwriting increased it to. ” – Jenny B. by way of BBB
“Paid almost $1400 over 3 years for Pet’s Best insurance coverage and health and fitness coverage… dog is a Morkie only 4 years old. My partner and i submitted many claims that were denied (lots associated with stupid excuses) and ended up only being reimbursed around $400. ” – Jason Howe by means of TrustPilot
Animals Best vs . Competitors
See how Pets Ideal compares in order to other top pet insurance policy providers below:
The Bottom Line: Pets Perfect Insurance
Domestic pets Best is a good choice in case you have an older pet or perhaps want 24/7 support from vets. Some customers complained of high pricing, so you may want to be able to consider Lemonade for more inexpensive coverage options. Pets Very best also has somewhat limited customization options; Spot Pet Insurance is an alternative that offers more flexibility.
We all recommend getting quotes through at least three different dog insurance firms for you to find your best policy for your current needs.
Methodology: Our System for Ranking the Best Pet Insurance Companies
Our review of family pet insurance companies is based on in-depth industry research that includes reading hundreds of client reviews, simulating the quote and purchasing process, speaking to representatives on the phone to help assess the exact customer service experience and surveying 1, 1000 dog and cat owners nationwide to determine the most important elements of pet insurance coverage.
We scored each provider on a 100-point scale based on those elements. We then divided the particular points earned for each provider’s final score about a 5-point scale.
Here are more information about every factor and how they’re weighted:
- Monthly prices (25 points): How much each company charges for its pet insurance plans is an important part of some sort of customer’s decision. The best pet insurance companies combine comprehensive insurance and plan options using affordable rates.
- Plans (15 points): The top animal insurance providers offer accident plus illness plans, accident-only plans and well being or preventive care add-ons to give clients the option in order to choose a plan that’s best for their canine.
- Covered treatments (15 points): With this factor, most of us scored businesses based in the remedies and procedures they cover. Companies with a breadth regarding included treatment options and unique coverages received more points than providers with a lot more standard or maybe general policies.
- Customization choices (10 points): Customizing your policy is a valuable way to ensure you only pay for what your dog needs. Providers with more annual-limit, deductible in addition to reimbursement-rate alternatives earned typically the highest scores.
- Customer care (10 points): Many of us scored firms on their website accessibility and even overall usability, customer support availability, mobile apps (if any), money-back guarantees and veterinarian telehealth selections, awarding factors to the insurers with increased consumer experience offerings.
- Industry reputation (10 points): To determine each and every company’s industry reputation, most people reviewed up-to-date ratings together with accreditation information from this Bbb (BBB) and obtained companies with their years of experience in the industry and their state accessibility.
- Waiting periods (10 points): Companies with shorter accident, illness and orthopedic waiting intervals between often the sign-up and additionally coverage start date have scored higher than organizations with longer waiting durations.
- Eligible age (5 points): A few companies don’t offer guidelines for pets that are more than a certain age. Most of us deducted details from companies that have got age limits for covered pets.
We use our rating system to be able to compare not to mention contrast every single company against key factors to help us determine the best family pet insurance firms in the business. Additionally , we keep the research up to date and revisit our evaluations on a regular basis.