5 Costly Mistakes People Make When Buying Pet Insurance
Mike
AAI, PRC, SBCS, CCIC
After reviewing thousands of policies across my insurance career, these are the errors I see most often — and they can cost you thousands when you need coverage most.
Mistake #1: Waiting Too Long to Enroll
This is the single most expensive mistake in pet insurance. Every condition your pet develops before enrollment becomes a pre-existing condition — permanently excluded from coverage, regardless of which carrier you choose.
The math is simple: If you enroll a healthy 8-week-old puppy at $35/month, you’ll pay about $420/year. One covered ACL surgery ($5,000) pays for 12 years of premiums.
Mistake #2: Choosing the Lowest Premium Without Understanding Why It’s Low
A $15/month pet insurance policy exists for a reason — and that reason is usually some combination of: low annual coverage limits ($5,000–$10,000), per-incident caps, high deductibles, and exclusions for common conditions.
Compare this to Healthy Paws at $35–$45/month with truly unlimited coverage. The premium difference over a year is about $240–$360, but the coverage difference in a catastrophic scenario is potentially $50,000+.
Mistake #3: Not Understanding Waiting Periods
Every pet insurance policy has waiting periods — typically 14–15 days for accidents and 14–30 days for illnesses. The mistake isn’t the waiting period itself — it’s not planning for it.
Pro tip: Healthy Paws has a 15-day waiting period for both accidents and illnesses, with no extended orthopedic waiting period. Trupanion has a 5-day accident waiting period — the shortest in the industry.
Mistake #4: Ignoring the Underwriter
Your pet insurance company is only as strong as the insurance company backing it. When you file a $15,000 cancer claim, you want to know that the entity paying it has the financial resources to do so.
Healthy Paws is underwritten by Chubb (ACE American Insurance Company) — rated A+ by AM Best with over $200 billion in assets. Trupanion is its own publicly traded insurance company (NASDAQ: TRUP).
Mistake #5: Switching Carriers to Save Money
Switching carriers means all existing conditions become pre-existing at the new carrier, waiting periods restart from zero, and you lose claims history that may have been building toward your deductible.
Instead of switching: Adjust your deductible or reimbursement percentage to lower premiums while keeping the same carrier and coverage continuity.