Pet insurance claim calculator

1. Take off the excess. Bill minus excess, never below zero. If the excess is bigger than the bill, there is nothing to claim.
2. Work out the co-payment. The co-payment percentage of what is left after the excess.
3. Find the insurer's share. What is left after the excess, minus the co-payment.
4. Apply the limit. The insurer pays its share or the limit left, whichever is lower.
5. Your share is everything else: the excess, the co-payment and anything over the limit.

This is general arithmetic, not any insurer's terms. Some policies apply the excess per condition, others per claim, and many have sub-limits.

A £1,500 bill with a £99 excess, a 20% co-payment and £4,000 of the limit left: £1,500 minus £99 leaves £1,401. The co-payment is 20% of that, £280.20. The insurer's share is £1,120.80, which is within the limit, so the insurer pays £1,120.80 and you pay £379.20.

The excess is a fixed amount you pay on each claim, usually once per condition per policy year; the co-payment is a percentage of what is left. Defaqto found 74% of dog policies and 72% of cat policies apply a compulsory co-payment from a set age, most charging 20% (Defaqto, June 2024 data). In the current documents of 9 UK insurers we read on 21 October 2026, the published ages for a fixed 20% co-payment ran from 8 to 10 for dogs and 9 to 10 for cats.

The full explainer, with per-condition and per-claim examples, is in pet insurance excess explained. For older pets, see pet insurance for older dogs.

You either pay the vet and claim the money back, or ask whether your vet will claim directly from the insurer. Send the itemised invoice and clinical notes; the insurer checks the claim against the policy, including whether the condition started before cover or in the waiting period (usually the first 14 days for illness). It then takes off the excess and any co-payment and pays up to the limit left. The ABI reported 1.8 million claims and £1.23 billion paid in 2024 (ABI).

If a claim is declined and the insurer's final response does not resolve your complaint, the Financial Ombudsman Service can review it for free. In Q2 2026, 596 pet and livestock insurance complaints were referred to it and 29% upheld (Insurance Times report of Ombudsman data).

It can. The PDSA lists claims history among the things premiums are based on, alongside your pet's age, breed and postcode (PDSA guide to pet insurance). The FCA's ban on charging renewing customers more than new ones applies to home and motor insurance only (FCA Handbook ICOBS 6B.1), so compare the renewal price each year. Small bills close to your excess return little; a £120 bill under a £99 excess returns £21. Whether a policy is worth it overall is covered in is pet insurance worth it.