Buying pet insurance can be a tricky business as many people consider simply saving money themselves on a month by month basis to cover an unexpected pet costs, such as emergency medical bills and medicine courses but what many don’t think about is the issue of legal expenses – which can run into tens of thousands of pounds.

You are probably quite right in your thinking that buying pet insurance is a sure fire way of spending yet more money on your cat, dog, rabbit or whatever other pet you may see as part of the family and to a certain extent you would be right. Remove the legal issues and there would be little need for cover but with the slight possibility of a massive legal bill to contend with you may be unwise to live life without it as that person could decide to sue you personally!

So, how do you go about buying the best pet insurance out there and how do you avoid paying out for inadequate cover? This whole site is dedicated to bringing you the very latest and best pet insurance deals and below we uncover some of the best tips for buying pet insurance:

As with all insurance you should compare prices of each policy, which you can do using our handy comparision engine and when you are looking for the right choice for you consider things like the policy excess and make sure you read the small print!

So, if we concentrate on the policy excess for a moment some insurers use very high excesses to save themselves – and cost you – money on any claim, so ensure you check it and make a decision based around what you can afford to pay before the insurance kicks in. The more that is the cheaper the policy will be.

You should also understand eaxactly what some pet insurers mean when they advertise ‘lifelong cover’ as this kind of policy can fall into a few basic types, the first and most common of which is time-capped cover. This is where a ‘lifelong and ongoing’ condition such as arthritis is covered only for a specific period or up to a certain figure in monetary terms. After this time you would have to foot the bill.

the next step up is financially capped cover, which means they will pay out each year for a specific ailment but only up to a pre agreed amount of, say, £3,000. This capped amount should be negotiated while you are buying you pet insurance cover.

Then, as the name suggests, there is ‘real’ lifelong cover and this really will cover your pet up to a substantial amount of money every year for the rest of your pet’s life. Insurers that include this kind of cover in their policies include Marks and Spencer and More Than.

And while you may just be thinking of vet bills and legal cover pet insurance can actually be handy for a number of different things, including paying for advertising if your pet goes missing, the cost of buying a new pet if your current one passes away or is lost, paying for damage caused by your pet and lots more.

The important advice here is always to read the small print and if the pet insurance offer sounds too good to be true then it probably is! Check out the pet insurance deals on this site for an idea of what is available.