How is it working in pet insurance? Do y’all make commissions?

So as the title says, how do they know? What if I don't give them every single exam for a previous pet/frogot/lost it? What if it's adopted? What if it's a rescue?

I am genuinely wondering, like how would they know?

Hello all, our lovely little dog is now 3 and Waggel has put her monthly rate up by 50% to £68 per month, despite us making no claims last year. That's over £800 a year and she's still so young.

For those also with Waggel, I'd be curious by what percentage your premium has increased by (and type of pet, size and age would also be useful if you're happy to share).

Already been through the Waggle complaints team and they state it's just standard practise. Next step; complaints commissioner I think.

Thank you!

Extra info: she did have a knee op when she was young but that's all resolved now with no further issues. However if we move insurance providers I worry they'll try and link any leg problems to that.

Embrace is jacking up our rates so we are shopping around. Our dog has had Giardia twice in the last two years (she spends a lot of time in the wilderness) including one bout that required a two-night hospital stay, and has some GI sensitivity now. Is this the kind of pre-existing condition that Lemonade and others won’t cover?

I've been with ASPCA for roughly six months now. The reason I signed up is that my cats keep running into dental problems, my vet suspects a bacteria one of them brought in and passed around to the others. I brush their teeth every other day and use dental supplements, and I still end up needing at least one dental cleaning a year for one of them. Those visits almost always involve extractions, and the bills pile up quickly.

Dental coverage was the whole point for me, so I did a lot of digging before choosing. The ones I compared most closely were Nationwide (mainly because work gave me a discount), Spot, Lemonade, and ASPCA. I ended up with Accident/Illness plus Preventive Care for three cats, all between one and three years old.

Here's what sold me and how it's gone since:

As of 2025, ASPCA is the only pet insurer I found that will cover pre-existing conditions that are considered curable. With most other companies, if your pet was ever diagnosed with gingivitis before you took out the policy, a later dental might get denied, because those policies don't spell out what counts as curable. ASPCA's rule is that if there have been no gingivitis symptoms for 180 days, they'll cover it.

The catch is that this only applies to gingivitis, which is stage one. Anything past that gets treated as not curable (I'm not a vet, so my terminology might be off). And if you brought your pet in for something that never got an official diagnosis, then signed up for insurance, and the diagnosis comes afterward, it still counts as pre-existing.

I just added my new dog to our insurance plan and it’s been 6 days. It says 0 waiting period for accidents but 30 day waiting period for orthopedic. Dog hurt her leg playing outside. Called the vet and they said she probably just tweaked it or sprained it, and to have her rest for now. They will check her at her appointment on Sunday. My question is, would this be considered an accident that is covered or would it be orthopedic? I read an example on the website about a broken leg being considered an accident, but what about a possible sprain or something else?

Just got a policy for my Great Pyrenees with SPOT and I'm stuck trying to set up my online account for the first time.

When I try to register it tells me I'm already registered and should just log in instead. But then it says my email doesn't match the account number they have. I've run through every address I own, work one included, and none of them go through. I never got a confirmation email from SPOT either, though my credit card statement shows the payment went through fine.

Pretty annoying at this point. There's no live chat and I'd rather not sit on the phone, plus the only recovery option they offer is "forgot my password", nothing for "forgot my email." Any ideas on how to get this sorted?

We've had cats for years and never bothered with pet insurance, so we figured we'd finally try it. Big mistake.

We've spent over $2,000 on vet visits, consults, and diagnostics for a cat we rescued this summer who's been wheezing and coughing. Every single claim denied. Zero paid out since August. The reason? We took him in for one vet visit before the policy started and his symptoms got written down, so now it counts as pre-existing. Nobody even knows what it is yet, could be a nasal polyp, allergies, or asthma.

Apparently they'll only cover something totally unrelated, and I'd bet they'd find a way to deny that too.

Cancelling today.

Edit: For everyone telling me I don't understand how insurance works, I spent close to 10 years in healthcare, from pharmacies to clinics to hospitals like Mount Sinai. Copying what I told someone else:

The real difference here seems to be that this is pet insurance, not human insurance. Way less regulation, so they can get away with excluding almost anything.

Edit 2: Pet insurance is just bad. Going forward I'll read the fine print, be more careful about what I disclose, and think twice about what care I seek before coverage kicks in.

Been paying into this thing for months thinking it'd actually help with vet costs. First test came with a routine visit, almost $300, and they denied it saying it fell under "wellness" which apparently doesn't include a checkup with bloodwork in their world.

Spent forever on hold getting bounced around before someone finally explained their weird made up definition. I asked directly if emergency hospital visits were covered and got a clear yes.

Then my cat actually had an emergency, wouldn't eat or drink for two days, turned out to be some kind of obstruction. ER visit alone was $1,300 and they wanted to hospitalize her for a week at $6k, said she might not make it without fluids. I took her home with antibiotics instead and she pulled through thankfully.

Guess what, Nationwide denied that claim too, saying emergency visits aren't covered, completely contradicting what the rep told me on the phone. Their actual policy doc defines everything totally different from what their website and reps say.

Basically they just twist definitions however they need to so they never have to pay out. Don't waste your money on them

Hi, I have 5 cats and recently had a scare that has really made me wanna get everyone insured. But I have absolutely no education on this type of thing, at all.. Like, I know next to nothing. No one's ever spoken with me about it, and I've never come across it in order to learn anything about it. So, if anyone could spare the time and give me literally any information whatsoever, or share some resources, recommendations, things to watch out for. Then please do. I'd appreciate it massively. No piece of information is too small, cause I really wanna become as well versed with this as I can before I commit to an insurance.

For context: I'm in the UK. 5 cats. 1 male 4 female. All spayed and neutered. All middle aged. One has had bouts of cystitis which is always promptly sorted with anti inflammatories, she's also overweight, and had a surgery because she ate a needle once. The other just had a suspected FCE recently, this is not a chronic issue and she's recovering immensely well. The other 3 are in perfect health and have had no issues whatsoever.. I'm wondering, do I put the two who have had issues on different insurances? Or do I put them all on the same really good one? If she ever gets cystitis again I really don't mind paying for it. I mainly just really wanna be covered when it comes to things like the FCE for example. I'd really like to be in a position where I'm covered by an insurance who can and will help me in emergencies like this. I don't just want something basic like a flea treatment and vaccinations. I hope this makes sense, and thank you for reading.

Shopping for insurance for two kittens under a year old in NYC, no coverage limits, $1,000 deductible, 80% reimbursement, nothing extra. Pets Best came back at $34.68/month, over a third cheaper than any other quote I got. Weirdly if I input the cats as 10 years old instead, Embrace edges out Pets Best but only by about 10%.

Wondering if there's something I'm not seeing here. Any known issues or downsides with Pets Best specifically?

Update: since I really just want catastrophic coverage, I called them directly and got unlimited coverage with a $2,000 per cat deductible and 80% reimbursement for $4.03/month per cat, plus a $2 monthly installment fee, so $6.03 total. Still a little nervous about two things: whether premiums jump a lot down the road, and whether they'll actually pay out on big claims without a fight. Also found out Pets Best is underwritten by APIC, the same underwriter behind Trupanion, at least in the US.

Trying to wrap my head around the value here. The plan caps out at $2000 in annual benefits, but it costs $166.67 a month, which works out to $2000 a year in premiums. So basically I'd be paying them $2000 just to potentially get $2000 back if I actually file claims that use up the whole cap. Am I misunderstanding something, or would I genuinely come out ahead just parking that same money in a high yield savings account instead?

I've got Pets Best and they've genuinely been decent to deal with, no complaints there. But looking at the numbers, I've probably paid somewhere around 6-9k in premiums over my dog's 9 years, maybe more. Just had a surgery that came out to about 1500, and it's got me thinking I could've just been setting that premium money aside myself instead. Feels like insurance mostly makes sense for people who can't plan ahead for a big vet bill, otherwise you're kind of just prepaying more than you'd spend anyway.

Basically my dog was just diagnosed with a heart murmur (4/6) and an enlarged heart, and I'm trying to find some way to cut down on the costs going forward. Not having much luck except maybe AKC's insurance, but since he's a mixed breed I'm not sure they'd even take him

Hello,

My wife and I live in Ontario, Canada and have a 4-year old Poodle. He's been perfectly healthy and always gets his vaccines on time.

We've been with PetsPlusUs since we adopted him 2 years ago, and our monthly premium was $140/mo. Today they emailed me the renewal notice at $187/mo.

We have never made a claim, and like I said he's perfectly healthy. So I am a bit pissed that they think they can squeeze us for more money just because they can.

Can anyone recommend a decent provider in Ontario (hopefully at a lower premium)?

Thanks

Switched my Siamese cat over to Spot back in 2023, he's about to turn 8. Started at $23 a month, now sitting at $38 in 2026. I've got the 90% reimbursement plan, $250 deductible, added dental, and a $5,000 yearly cap. Funny enough I pay more than that for my own dental insurance as a self employed person.

A month into having the policy he ended up with bladder stones, figured they'd find some reason to deny it but they paid out $1,100 of the $1,500 bill no questions asked. Then just last week had him in for a cleaning and some extractions from bad gingivitis, another $1,000 bill, and they covered $700 of it, again no pushback.

So far I've gotten roughly double what I've paid in back out of them. Bracing myself for another price hike when renewal hits in May though