Dogs and cats should be insured in early life, Churchill suggested today.
Cats and dogs should always be insured when they are young, in order to ensure favourable premiums.
This is the recommendation of Churchill, which issued pet insurance-related advice today. According to the firm, premiums applications are very much a case of "the sooner, the better", and that many providers impose an age limit for granting cover.
Effectively, this makes dogs aged over eight and cats aged over ten near-uninsurable in the UK, due to older animals representing too high a risk for insurance firms to cover.
The insurers' stance is backed up by figures from PDSA, which released data recently showing that fully one in ten cats and dogs treated by the firm's vets were aged between 11 and 14. An increase in vet fees of 12 per cent annually has also been noted in research from Animal Friends Insurance - heightening the financial risk for insurers.
Chris Price, head of pet insurance for Churchill, said: "The sooner you purchase your pet insurance, the better…not only will this allow you take advantage of better premiums, but it will ensure that your pet is covered for any unforeseen circumstances, such as accidental injury, which can happen at anytime."
He added: "Most insurers will not cover pre-existing conditions so it's wise to have insurance before a medical condition develops. Like people, as pets get older, long term illnesses such as heart and kidney problems arise. This is the reason many insurers will not start to insure pets of an older age."
There are currently estimated to be around ten million cats and seven million dogs kept as pets in the UK.
