If you've been looking for pet insurance for your cat or dog, you might have come across the term "routine care cover" – but it's not always clear exactly what that means. We break down what routine care cover includes and how it works alongside your normal pet insurance policy.
From puppy training to prescription diets, keeping your pet healthy and happy can be an expensive quest; routine care cover is designed to help with some of those costs.
While your standard pet insurance policy will kick in if your pet suddenly gets sick or injured, routine care cover is designed to help with the things that are more routine when it comes to caring for your pet, such as registering your dog with the council or cleaning your cat's teeth.
Sometimes, routine care cover is already included in your pet insurance policy as standard, but it's more likely that you'll be given the option to add the benefit for a price.
However, there are pretty strict limits to how much you can claim and how often – usually, you'll only be able to claim for routine treatments once or twice a year, depending on how much you've paid for your benefit.
The good news is that this is completely separate to your standard pet insurance policy, so if you reach the maximum amount of claims for routine care cover and then your fur baby swallows a sock and needs emergency surgery, you'll still be able to make a claim.
Heaps of different things! The specifics will vary from insurer to insurer but, generally, you can expect to get between $50 and $120 every year to spend on any of the following treatments:
You'll also get an additional allowance of at least $30 to pay for other specific treatments or procedures, like urinalysis and blood testing.
Lots of regular expenses are covered under routine care cover but, usually, you'll only be able to claim from the benefit once or twice a year.
So if you spend $5 a month adding routine care cover to your pet insurance policy, you'll probably get up to $50 every year to spend – but you can only spend it on one treatment. This means if you spend $35 on a teeth cleaning treatment, you won't be able to use the other $15.
You're also likely to get at least $30 to spend on specific tests, like blood screens and urinalysis. In this case, you're getting a maximum annual value of $80 for a package which cost $60 – great! But be aware: if you don't claim benefits worth at least $60, you'd be out of pocket.
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Unless routine care cover is included as standard, you can expect to pay between $5 and $12 a month, on top of what you're already paying for your insurance policy. It's typically a flat-rate benefit, regardless of age or breed, but the more you pay for routine care cover, the more you'll be able to claim back.
Policies that include routine care cover as standard will likely be more expensive because you don't have to pay an additional fee for the benefit. This is an important point to remember when comparing prices and choosing your provider, as the premium may look pricier, but you'll be getting more bang for your buck.
This is where it gets a little tricky. Depending on your provider and how much you would spend on routine treatments every year, routine care cover could be a guaranteed cost saver or a complete waste of money.
For example, the RSPCA recommends dogs get vaccination boosters annually – which typically cost $90. Routine care cover could contribute towards that expense every year.
However, it's important to know that routine care cover restricts the number of times you can claim. So if you want to use the benefit to pay for an obedience class which costs $40, you might not be able to use the remaining balance to help with anything else.
Some more comprehensive insurance policies will offer routine care cover as standard, but others won't even give you the option to add it.
This might be because their policies already cover much of what is included in routine care, or it might be because they don't think they can provide a policy that's of value to you, for a price that is appealing.
Remember to check if a certain provider has routine care included as standard; it could explain why the monthly premium is slightly higher.
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