When it comes to buying pet health insurance, it can give customers great peace-of-mind to know the company they are insured with has been around the block a while and has solid, reputable experience to back them up. Fetch US is one such company as they are the sister company to Fetch UK, which was established in the 1970’s and is the oldest pet insurance company in the world. This allowed Fetch US to build its company on the shoulders of a giant that already had decades of experience; rather than starting from square one, Fetch US was able to jump right in with time-tested policies and market research. Aside from the years of business wisdom from their sister company, Fetch US also had a leg up in customer service as its founders got the idea for a pet insurance company when they couldn’t afford the bill for their very sick cat. From then on founders Chris and Natasha Ashton knew they not only wanted to provide customers with great policies, but also with top-tier customer service that came from caring about pets and pet owners and actually paying out policies. In 2016, Fetch US switched underwriters in order to provide a broader spectrum of policy coverage; unfortunately, this drove the cost of premiums up for existing customers. As such, some customers say Fetch US has slipped in terms of being the best, however, we at Petinsurer believe they just need a little more time to work out the details and will then make a comeback in a big way.
Even though they are working out some kinks right now, we still think they are a great company to insure with due to the range of treatments, ailments, and types of care their policies cover. You want exam fees covered? They take care of that. How about reimbursement for seeing a specialist? Yep, they cover that too. Or what about surgeries, hospitalizations, and outpatient care? Yes, yes, and yes again. In addition, a Fetch policy will also get you coverage for prescriptions, emergency visits, cancer treatments, and alternative therapy.
As with any insurance company, there are a few things that Fetch won’t cover, namely; Pre-existing conditions
Fetch also does an excellent job of offering a range of deductible and reimbursement options. Deductibles can be anywhere from $100 - $1,000 per year, and you can choose between 70% - 90% reimbursement rates. Fetch also has options for unlimited policy limits. Fetch also has kept their waiting periods relatively short with the bulk of policy coverage beginning midnight of the day you signed up, 5 days after policy start for accident coverage, and 15 days after policy starts for illness coverage. Here’s a full list of key info you need to know about Fetch coverage:
| Policy Coverages | |
|---|---|
| Deductible Type | Per Year |
| Deductible Options | $100 – 1,000 |
| Reimbursement Options | 70 - 90% |
| Policy Limit Options | $2,500 - Unlimited |
| Lifetime limits | Unlimited up to policy limits |
| Wellness Cover Cost | Not offered |
| Accidents & Illnesses |  |
| Vet Exam Fees | |
| Rx Medications | |
| Emergency Visits | |
| Hospitalization | |
| Surgery | |
| Cancer Treatments | |
| Specialists | |
| Outpatient Care | |
| Alternative Therapies | |
| Waiting Periods | |
| For Most States: | |
| Accidents: | 3 days |
| Illnesses: | 14 days |
| Cruciate Ligament Conditions: | 6 months |
| Routine Care: | 0 days |
| Deleware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, & Washington: |
|
| Accidents: | 0 days |
| Illnesses: | 14 days |
| Cruciate Ligament Conditions: | 30 days |
| Routine Care: | 0 days |
As mentioned, Fetch has a great choice of options for coverage, and here are 3 examples of how much you’ll get back for a covered condition:
Your new puppy decides to chew on your computer mouse (this actually happened with one of our puppies) and swallow the battery. The typical cost for this is around $2950. Let’s assume you choose a plan with $10,000 Policy Limits, $250 Deductible and 90% Reimbursement. You would expect to get back a check from Fetch for $2,405.
The pup is diagnosed with a skin allergy. While the cost this varies a lot, the typical amount you’ll pay to treat this is around $1,800. The good news is that as Fetch offer Annual Deductibles and you paid this deductible in your first claim, you’ll get back the $1,800 x 90% which comes to a total of $1,620.
After many years of happiness, love and joy, your baby, well he’s not a baby anymore, he’s over 10 years old, is sadly diagnosed with Cancer. The chances of this are high unfortunately – 47% of dogs will contract Cancer. Cancer can be expensive, very expensive. You will almost certainly pay over $10,000 and often that figure can jump much higher, to well over $25,000 in many cases.
Thankfully you chose a plan with unlimited coverage, a 90% reimbursement and a $300 deductible then you’d get back $13,434 from a $15,260 claim.
Well as you may imagine, the cost of pet insurance depends on a few key variables ; the breed of your pet, their age, and where you live. After that, it’s down to you how much coverage you want, how big (or small) a deductible you want to pay and how much of a reimbursement (the amount you get back after the deductible is paid) you select.
To see all of Fetch’s plan options, click here to compare pet insurance plans, but here are a couple of examples:
| Breed: Golden Retriever |
| Age: 6 months |
| Zip code: 46825 |
| $10,000 Policy Limits |
| $250 Deductible |
| 80% Reimbursement |
| Plan Cost $27.63 Per Month |
| Breed: Poodle |
| Age: 3 years |
| Zip code: 72508 |
| Unlimited coverage |
| $300 Deductible |
| 90% Reimbursement |
| Plan Cost $41.02 per month |
Fetch definitely has the history and years of experience to help them be a high-quality company, but one thing we love about Fetch is how they help pet owners look ahead and consider policy points that might not be something you would have ever considered. One such point that we love is they offer coverage for if your pet goes missing or was stolen and you need additional monetary resources to deal with it. We know that would be any pet owner’s worst nightmare come to life, so any extra peace-of-mind that you can get in a situation like that is phenomenal. In such instances, it is easy to see how much Fetch really cares about the animals they cover and the owners who would do anything to keep their pets healthy and safe. What more could you want from a pet insurance company?
