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Waiting periods vary depending on the ailment and the provider offering pet insurance. Below is an outline of how long you will likely have to wait for specific conditions and illnesses.
Use the Compare checkbox in the table to compare provider waiting periods side-by-side.
Accidents generally have no waiting period so you should be covered immediately. Accidents you can claim for usually include:
Routine treatments and most illnesses usually come with a 30-day waiting period. These might include:
Most pet insurance policies have a 6 month waiting period for certain serious conditions. These can include:
The waiting period is the time between when you take out your insurance policy and when it comes into effect. If you take out pet insurance the day before a vet visit to investigate an illness, you won't be able to claim a benefit for that visit.
There are two main reasons why waiting periods exist:
Yes, you can get pet insurance no waiting period policies, but just for accident-only insurance. For all other policies, you'll have to wait between 14 to 30 days for illnesses and 6 months for cruciate ligament problems.
As you can see from the table above, the length of time you'll need to wait varies between insurers. Most have 6 month waiting periods for serious conditions like cruciate ligament problems and 30 days for other illnesses, though a handful come with slightly shorter waiting periods.
Conditions covered under illness and tick paralysis and routine treatments usually come with a 30-day waiting period. For cruciate ligament conditions, you usually have to wait 6 months, although some providers will offer a form for waiving or shortening this.
Many policies have a 21-day "cooling-off period", which allows you to cancel your policy at no extra charge if you've made no claims during that time. You can still cancel your policy whenever you want to after this period, but you may have to pay additional charges.
You can seek treatment for any illness outlined in your insurance policy, but it won’t be covered until after the waiting period has been served.
Remember: If your pet is showing symptoms of a condition determined to be pre-existing during the waiting period, you won’t be covered.
It's common to take out one pet insurance policy when your dog or cat is young and switch to a different policy when your pet gets older. While this may seem like a cost-effective strategy, it could result in you having to re-serve waiting periods. There are some providers that won't reset the waiting periods if you switch to a new policy with the same level of cover as your previous one.
If you upgrade your policy with the same company, for example, from accident and illness cover to comprehensive, you may still have to re-serve the waiting periods, depending on your provider and what you're being covered for.
If a service has a longer waiting period, like a cruciate ligament condition, for example, it's usually because the insurer wants to ensure your pet had no existing cruciate ligament conditions when signing up. In other words, waiting periods prevent you from receiving treatment for pre-existing conditions that you know your pet will need treatment for and therefore costs your insurer in rebates.
In fact, accidents generally have no waiting periods because it's something that can only occur unexpectedly.
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