Understanding how to change your pet insurance cover

If you make a change to increase your annual benefit limit during your policy renewal period, this change won’t apply to claims that you make for health conditions you’ve previously claimed for, knew about, or should reasonably have known about:

• before the increase
• during your new policy’s stand down period.

In these cases, we’ll limit your cover to the lesser of:

• the annual benefit limit or applicable sub-limit, that applied before the change; or
• the annual benefit limit or applicable sub-limit, that applied when you first knew about the health condition.

If you decrease your co-payment or excess at your next policy renewal (or thereafter), your new co-payment or excess will apply to qualifying treatment for all claims from this date. This includes new claims for health conditions you might have previously claimed for with a different co-payment or excess.

If you reduce your annual benefit limit, we’ll apply this change to all claims from the start of the new policy period.

Claims for qualifying treatment that took place before your policy renewal will be assessed under the annual benefit limit that applied at the time the treatment took place.

If you increase your co-payment or excess at your next policy renewal (or thereafter), your new co-payment or excess will apply to qualifying treatment for all claims from this date. This includes new claims for health conditions you might have previously claimed for with a different co-payment or excess.

• Making this change means you will cancel your current policy and start a new one. This means we won’t cover any health conditions (including signs, symptoms, or events) you first knew about, or should reasonably have known about:
  • before the new policy starts or
  • during your new policy’s stand down period
• If you’re wanting to change to a PetCare policy, you’ll need to do this before your pet is 7 years old.
• Starting a new policy will mean you will have new stand down periods
• PetCare and AcciPet have different terms and conditions, you should read and understand the policy documents before making any changes.

You have four options to increase your cover:

• increase your annual benefit limit (PetCare only)
• reduce your co-payment (if you have a 20% or 30% co-payment)
• reduce your annual excess (if you’re current annual excess is $250 or $500)
• adding extra cover. If you’re on PetCare you can add consult care extra, day-to-day care extra or dental care extra to your policy. If you’re on AcciPet you can add consult care extra. You’ll already have consult care extra if you’re an existing customer as at 1 December 2023.

The options below will help you reduce your cover level:

• reduce your annual benefit limit (PetCare only)
• increase your co-payment (if you’re on a 10% or 20% co-payment, you can increase to a 30% co-payment)
• increase your annual excess if your current annual excess is $100 or $250
• removing extra cover. If you’re on PetCare and have extra cover, you can remove consult care extra, day-to-day care extra or dental care extra to your policy. If you’re on AcciPet you can remove consult care extra. (You’ll automatically have consult care extra if you’re an existing customer as at 1 December 2023).

• your premium will increase or decrease depending on what you are changing
• you can reduce your annual benefit limit or increase your co-payment or excess when your pet is any age
• you can’t increase your annual benefit limit or reduce a co-payment or excess if your pet is 7 years old or older
• you can only add or remove consult care extra, day-to-day care extra or dental care extra during your policy renewal period
• stand down periods apply to any increase in cover at any time.