Does Your Pet Insurance Follow Your Dog Abroad?

The FAQ on Everypaw's website says its policies pay for accidental injury treatment in the EU for 90 days a year. Its policy document, the contract a claim is actually judged against, says something wider: the cost of any treatment in any country of the Pet Travel Scheme, for up to 90 days in a policy year. A sales page and a policy document do not always say the same thing, which is the reason to read the wording before you book the crossing. Three UK insurers' own documents answer the question: the Everypaw policy document, the ManyPets Travel Cover summary and the Kennel Club Lifetime Lite summary.

Is Europe Included, or an Extra?

The first question is whether your policy goes abroad at all, and the three answer it three ways. Everypaw's cover page describes vet fees in the EU as included at no additional cost, at every level of cover, with the overseas amount coming out of the annual vet fee limit you chose, from £1,000 up to £10,000. At ManyPets, travel is an optional extra: the summary describes it as helping with emergency vet costs when travelling with your pet to the EU, available only on its Regular or Pre-existing plans, and it can only be added or removed when you buy or renew. A policy without it cannot be stretched mid-year for a summer trip.

The Kennel Club policy, underwritten by Agria, lists Overseas Travel among the optional sections that are only covered if you choose them. Chosen, it extends veterinary fees to any country or territory in the Pet Travel Scheme and adds its own amounts: quarantine costs up to £2,000, repeat worming treatment up to £250, a replacement animal travel certificate or pet passport up to £250, and emergency expenses up to £500.

The place is named differently in each one. ManyPets says the EU; Everypaw's policy document and the Kennel Club say the countries of the Pet Travel Scheme. They are not the same phrase, so if the trip goes beyond the EU, ask the insurer to confirm the country in writing before you travel.

How Many Days a Year

Every policy counts the days. ManyPets allows up to 90 days abroad each calendar year, continuous or not, and its cover stops from the 91st day. Everypaw's limit is 90 days in any policy year, and its cover page adds that claims are refused once a pet has spent longer than 90 days abroad within 12 months. The Kennel Club policy is the most generous of the three on this point, at up to 120 days in each period of insurance. For a fortnight away none of this matters; for an owner who winters abroad it decides whether the last weeks are covered, so keep a note of the days.

The Clause Nobody Leads With

A vet's bill is not the only cost a dog can run up abroad. If your dog knocks someone over or damages property, the claim is against you, and none of the three says it will pay for that abroad. The ManyPets summary says it in a single line: "We do not cover any claim made by a third party if your pet causes injury or damage to property while outside the UK."

Everypaw's cover page advertises £2,000,000 of third party liability for dogs, and its policy document, in the liability section, will not pay "for any claim if the incident happened outside the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man". The Kennel Club Lite summary lists no third party liability section at all, so there is nothing in it to take abroad.

So the vet fees travel and the liability stays at home. If your dog is lively around cyclists, livestock or other dogs, ask your insurer, and the insurer of your home or travel policy, whether anything covers you for a claim made abroad, and get the answer in writing.

Follow the Rules or Lose the Cover

Two of the three say outright that they will not pay if the travel rules were not followed. ManyPets excludes any costs if you have not followed local rules on taking your pet abroad, and points to the government's own page, gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad, as the place to read them. It also excludes any trip to a destination the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against. Everypaw refuses quarantine costs and claims on pets that have not followed UK, local government or FCDO guidelines.

The rules themselves are short. Your dog must be microchipped before, or at the same time as, its rabies vaccination, and must wait at least 21 full days after the first vaccination before it travels. For each trip to the EU it needs a new animal health certificate from your vet, valid for 10 days for entry. Coming home, the government's tapeworm rule applies: a vet must treat your dog for tapeworm no less than 24 hours and no more than 5 days before you arrive back in Great Britain, and record it, unless you are coming directly from Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta or Norway.

Get the timing wrong and the government's guidance warns that your dog may be put into quarantine for up to four months, and that you are responsible for the fees. Everypaw will not pay those quarantine costs, and ManyPets' quarantine cover is for delays, not for a rule you did not follow. Our guide to taking your dog abroad puts every step in order, and our UK to France guide covers the commonest crossing.

Old Problems Stay at Home

Pre-existing conditions are excluded abroad exactly as they are at home. ManyPets defines one as anything treated, medicated or advised on in the last 24 months, and its travel option will not pay for treatment abroad of an illness you knew about, or should have known of, before you set off, or for travelling to get treatment.

New policies have waiting periods too: ManyPets will not pay for illness in the first 14 days or accidents in the first 48 hours, Everypaw for accidental injury in the first 3 days and illness in the first 14. Buy the policy weeks before the trip, not the night before. Our vet visit guide covers what to ask before you go, and our guide to the illnesses dogs catch abroad covers prevention.

What to Carry and Keep

A claim from abroad is only as good as its paperwork. Everypaw will not pay for treatment without a receipt and the address and contact details of the vet used, and its policy document defines a vet abroad as one registered and working in a Pet Travel Scheme country. ManyPets wants a claim within six months of each treatment, and the Kennel Club by the end of the policy year or six months after the first treatment, whichever is later.

Before you leave, put your policy number, the insurer's claims line and a copy of the policy wording on your phone, and keep the animal health certificate and tapeworm record with your passport. If your dog needs a vet, ask for an itemised invoice with the practice's full address, and photograph it before you leave the building.

If you are insured outside the UK, none of this carries over, and the only answer that counts is the territorial clause in your own policy. Wherever you are insured, ten minutes with the wording tells you where you are covered and for how many days, and whether the liability follows the dog. In these three, it does not.