Animal Friends Reviews

More about Animal Friends pet insurance

Founded in 1998, Animal Friends main aim is to provide cat, dog and horse insurance with a quality of service that will be recommended and remembered by customers. They also have a focus on helping raise awareness of charities’ work worldwide. As their name suggests, Animal Friends really care about the welfare of animals. By working alongside charities, they help improve the lives of animals, combat animal abuse and cruelty, assist in protecting endangered species, help conserve vital habitats and assist local communities in protecting their heritage.

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Compare Animal Friends pet insurance policies

Animal Friends offers four different types of pet insurance policies, each with varying levels of cover to suit both your budget and your pet’s needs.

• Accident Only – covers vet fees for accidents. Illnesses and diseases aren’t covered and you don’t get any other benefits.
• Time Limited – provides cover for illnesses, accidents and conditions for 365 days or until the condition limit is reached.
• Max Benefit – covers illnesses, accidents and conditions up to the specified cover limit. When you’ve reached the limit for a particular condition, you won’t be able to claim for that condition again.
• Lifetime – offers continuous cover against illnesses and accidents for as long as the policy is active. Each condition has an annual limit which is refreshed each time you renew the policy. Any conditions that develop while you’re with Animal Friends may not be covered if you switch providers.

There is only one level of cover for Accident Only policies. With Time Limited policies, you can choose between Basic Plus, Prime or Prime Plus levels of cover. If you opt for a Max Benefit policy, you can choose between Max Value, Max Plus or Max Extra levels of cover. With Lifetime policies, you have a choice of either Lifetime Assure or Lifetime Assure Plus levels of cover. All of the cover levels are detailed in the table below.

Making a claim

Animal Friends understand that it can be confusing when customers need to make a claim. That’s why all claims can be made by the vet on the customer’s behalf. Vets have access to Pawtal, an online claim system where they can submit a pre-authorisation or make a claim for dogs and cats. Benefits of Pawtal include:

• Online chat – Pawtal specialists are on hand to answer claim queries via direct messenger.
• They keep customers informed – Animal Friends will text and email customers to let them know that you’ve submitted the claim so you don’t have to.
• Pre-authorisation within an hour – if Animal Friends are able to cover the claim and you’ve submitted the form before 5pm, they aim to confirm it within one hour.
• Register and claim within the same day – if registration is accepted and you signed up before 4pm, you can submit claims through Pawtal on the same day.
• Pay the vet practice or the policyholder – you have a choice of whether the claim is paid directly to your veterinary practice or policyholder, so if it’s paid to the customer there’s no need to complete a new or continuation claims form.

Animal Friends aim to review all claims submitted through Pawtal within 24 hours. But this timeframe is subject to them receiving all of the required information including full vet history and invoices.

Contact Animal Friends

Animal Friends is there to support you and your pets. You can contact them on 0344 557 0300 to discuss claims, cancel your policy, make changes to your policy and to discuss payments and renewals. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8:30am – 6pm and Saturday 9am – 4pm. They’re closed on Sundays.

To give customers further support, Animal Friends pet insurance is partnered with the mobile app Joii. Anyone with an Animal Friends insurance policy has free access to Joii which provides users with unlimited video calls with a qualified vet. To save pets a stressful trip to the vets, policyholders can have a face to face call with a vet on Joii to ask questions, share concerns and hopefully get answers. Online nurse clinics like Joii are available to help pet owners recognise the signs and symptoms of an illness, understand how to prevent certain diseases and save money in the long run, all while keeping your pet happy and healthy. Joii vets can offer advice on:

• Weight and diet
• Dental checks
• Flea, worms and ticks
• Puppy and kitten advice
• Grooming
• Older pet care

Access to this service is available 7 days a week, 365 days a year.