Key takeaways
- Pets Best consistently delivers some of the lowest pet insurance rates on the market, making it a standout option for budget-conscious pet owners.
- Customers can benefit from excellent premium stability over time.
- Pets Best has less extensive coverage than top competitors and requires add-ons for services like exam fees and physical therapy.
Our expert take on Pets Best pet insurance
Base-plan generosity
Pets Best pet insurance provides less extensive coverage than top competitors, but there are still some nice coverage features, especially considering the low cost. Pets Best covers some behavioral therapy (consultations and prescription medications only) and dental illnesses like periodontal disease.
Unlike top competitors, Pets Best has no coverage for curable pre-existing conditions even after a certain period has passed. There’s also no coverage beyond euthanasia for end-of-life expenses, and there’s a six-month waiting period for cruciate-ligament conditions coverage.
You’ll have to buy add-ons if you want coverage for vet-exam fees or for rehabilitation, acupuncture and chiropractic care (except in the Elite plan—they are included).
Despite these coverage gaps, Pets Best is worth a look due its low cost and other upsides, making it one of the best pet insurance companies in our evaluation.
Customization power
If you want more control over monthly premiums, you’ll find high customization power with Pets Best. There’s a superior range of annual coverage—from $5,000 to unlimited—and six deductible choices.
Price-shock protection for claims
You will find some price-shock protection after claims with Pets Best: There’s a $50-deductible option, which can keep your out-of-pocket costs low after claims. And Pets Best does not have condition-specific coverage caps.
Unfortunately, Pets Best calculates claim payouts by first applying the reimbursement percentage (co-insurance) and then subtracting the deductible. This results in lower claim payments than the “deductible-first” calculation that we prefer. Pets Best also lacks a diminishing-deductible feature that could reduce your deductible over time if you don’t make claims.
Premium stability
Pets Best has very good premium stability, shielding you from some forms of future rate increases:
- It won’t raise your rates at renewal time because you make claims, unlike some other pet insurers.
- While rates increase as your pet ages, the difference between Pets Best’s premiums for puppies and senior dogs is only $36 a month for unlimited coverage, lower than the $69 average among the pet insurers we analyzed.
Cost
Pets Best is notable in our analysis for its very low rates across all pet ages we reviewed:
- It has the lowest average rates for dogs and was among the lowest for cats for $5,000 in annual coverage.
- Pets Best has the lowest rates for both dogs and cats for unlimited annual coverage.
Other notable features
- Pets Best can send reimbursement directly to a CareCredit card.
- There’s a long 180-day window for submitting claims.
What does Pets Best pet insurance cover?
Pets Best covers medically necessary expenses for a pet’s illnesses and accidents, including:
- Dental coverage for both accidents and illnesses, provided you meet certain preventive-care requirements: Pets age 3 and older must have had their teeth cleaned and examined under general anesthesia within the 13 months prior to a periodontal claim
- Diagnostic tests, surgeries and hospitalization
- Drugs, medications and treatments that are administered by the veterinarian
- Medical devices such as orthotic devices and prosthetics
Add-ons
You’ll have to pay extra if you want coverage for:
- Office visits and exam fees, including the examination fee, check-ups, consultations, after-hours fees or referral fees charged by a veterinarian when treating a condition covered by the policy.
- Rehabilitation, acupuncture and chiropractic care, which encompasses coverage for physical therapy and rehabilitative services, such as electro-acupuncture, treadmill therapy, laser therapy, therapeutic exercises, joint mobilization, heat therapy and cryotherapy.
- Pet-wellness plans for routine care such as wellness exams, teeth cleaning, vaccinations and microchipping, with annual benefit caps of $305 (EssentialWellness plan) or $535 (BestWellness plan).
Accident-only policy
Pets Best’s accident-only plan covers only accidental injuries such as broken bones and lacerations. All the basics, such as X-rays, treatment and medication, are covered.
What isn’t covered by Pets Best pet insurance?
Like all pet insurance companies, Pets Best’s policies have a list of exclusions. Pets Best won’t cover:
- Administrative charges for processing claims or sending medical records or biohazardous waste fees
- Alternative and holistic treatments
- Boarding and transport expenses, including ambulance transportation
- Breeding and conditions related to pregnancy
- Claims for healthy pets that had no clinical symptoms
- Conditions in which you didn’t take preventive measures despite being advised to do so by a veterinarian
- Cremation and burial
- Elective and cosmetic procedures, such as tail docking, ear cropping and declawing
- Experimental therapies and medications
- Grooming and grooming supplies
- Office visits and examination fees unless you purchase the special add-on for them
- Pet foods, supplements and treats
- Pre-existing conditions that were present during the 18 months preceding the policy effective date or during a waiting period, including chronic conditions, bilateral conditions (if your pet had pre-existing signs on either side of the body) and intervertebral disc conditions
- Preventive care such as wellness exams, vaccinations and parasite control (flea, tick, heartworm and deworming medications) unless you purchase the wellness plan
- Preventive dental care, including routine scaling, cleaning, polishing and chews
- Rehabilitation, acupuncture and chiropractic care unless you purchase the special add-on
- Repetitive activities, such as problems arising from a specific repetitive activity (like eating foreign objects) if the same or similar activity occurred twice within the 18 months prior to the treatment date
- Training
How much does pet insurance from Pets Best cost?
Pets Best has the cheapest pet insurance in our analysis for dogs for $5,000 and unlimited annual coverage policies. It also has the cheapest cat insurance for unlimited coverage and very low rates for cats with $5,000 in annual coverage.
Dog insurance rates for $5,000 in annual coverage
Cat insurance rates for $5,000 in annual coverage
Dog insurance rates for unlimited annual coverage
Cat insurance rates for unlimited annual coverage
What discounts are available?
Pets Best has a 5% multipet discount and 5% military discount.
Methodology
We evaluated 16 pet insurance policies based on:
- Base-plan generosity (50%). The most important factor in a pet insurance policy is how much coverage you’re getting for your money. For this category, we looked at coverage included without add-ons, such as alternative therapies, vet-exam fees, dental illness, burial and cremation, and more. We also factored in whether curable pre-existing conditions will be covered after a certain time.
- Cost (20%). We factored in average costs for plans with $5,000 and unlimited annual coverage for cats and dogs ages 4 months, 2 years and 8 years.
- Price-shock protection for claims (15%). No one wants an unpleasant surprise with a claim. For this category, we analyzed how claims payments are calculated, low-deductible options, condition-specific payment caps and direct-vet-payment systems.
- Premium stability (10%). When you find good pet insurance, you want to avoid being priced out of it in the future. We looked at the current cost spread between puppies and older dogs and whether making a claim can lead to a rate increase.
- Customization power (5%). It’s beneficial to have some control over your monthly premium. We looked at the range of annual coverage, reimbursement and deductible options available from each pet insurance company.
We use a curved-rating system: Scores are assigned relative to the top-performing product or company; providers that score the most points are assigned 5 stars and other star ratings are assigned based on performance relative to the top performer. The lowest-scoring companies received 1 star.
