You can find care coverage through Banfield Pet Hospitals. However, calling it Banfield pet insurance is a bit of a misnomer. What Banfield offers is technically a pet wellness plan. While most pet insurance plans cover serious injury or illness, the Banfield optimum wellness plans are geared specifically towards preventative and wellness care. Below we’ll look at how the plans work in-depth, what it is like to get a quote, what is all covered and the background on Banfield itself.
About Banfield Pet Insurance:
To reiterate, Benfield does not offer traditional pet insurance. Rather, it offers wellness plans for dogs and cats, sometimes called preventative care. The site specifically states the difference. With a Benfield wellness plan, you pay a monthly premium and then your wellness care like routine exams and vaccinations are covered. As the site puts it, basically you are spreading out the cost of routine care for your pet over the year in monthly payments, rather than having that larger painful bill hit at the annual vet appointment.
The wellness plans themselves are offered through Banfield Pet Hospital. According to the company, this is a chain of pet hospitals that started in 1955. Today, there are over 975 locations throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
As such, the Banfield wellness plans are geared towards people who take their pets to Banfield pet hospitals. On the main page for the wellness plans, it outlines the process of what it is like to set up a wellness plan. The final step after reviewing the plan online is to work with a Banfield veterinarian to customize the plan.
Further, unlike more traditional pet insurance policies, you cannot simply get a quote and sign up all online. Banfield wants you to complete the process by calling an 800 number or filling out a detailed contact form so that Banfield can contact you back about the services.
Pros:
- The wellness coverage is very comprehensive, covering procedures like two physical exams per year, vaccination, deworming and a variety of tests.
- The three tiers of plans allow you to add on additional benefits, like preventative x-rays and electrocardiograms.
- You can also get discounts on other Banfield products and services, with a higher discount as you go up the plan tiers.
Cons:
- Only available if you get your vet work done through Banfield pet hospitals.
- Does not cover illness and injury, purely preventative.
- Monthly rates are on the higher side for only wellness care.
Banfield Pet Insurance Ratings:
Finding ratings for Banfield is a little tricky. If you look up Banfield, you get ratings for the hospital with passing comments about the wellness plans. For instance, on Yelp, Banfield Pet Hospital has a 3-star review, with someone stating that they like the wellness plan, which saved them an estimated $400 between that and coupons. Other people don’t like how aggressive the hospitals are in getting people to sign up for these wellness plans.
Banfield Pet Hospital has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), though only a little over one star in customer reviews. Banfield has been accredited with the agency since 2014.
Consumers Advocate rates Banfield pet insurance with a 2.3/5 (average) rating due to the plan only covering preventative measures.
Banfield Pet Insurance Quote Process:
Banfield’s quote process is a little more barebones than traditional pet insurance quote systems. That makes sense, seeing as the company wants you to set up the plan with a vet in one of the hospitals. However, if you want to get an idea of what the plan pricing is for your area, at the side of the main wellness plan page is this little widget:
Once you hit “calculate cost,” a menu shows that allows you to specify details about your pet:
However, this too is barebones. You can’t specify the breed of your animal, instead selecting only cat or dog. For the age, you can only select “under 6 months” or “over 6 months.” We put in an over six months not neutered dog in Texas and came up with this price:
As you can see, it’s nearly $30 per month for a single wellness plan. And this is the first-tier active care price. Active care plus goes up to $39.95 and special care goes up to $52.95.
As a comparison point, many traditional pet insurance companies have wellness care add-ons to other pet insurance plans. For instance, Embrace’s wellness rewards reimbursement program is $18.75 per month for $250 in rewards amounts, $35.42 for $450 and $52.09 for $650. It’s worth pointing out that these are reimbursement amounts, not fully covered services like Banfield. There are also full coverage options, like Pets Best’s BestWellness plan for $26 per month or EssentialWellness for $16 per month. So Banfield is a bit on the pricey side.
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Banfield Pet Insurance Coverage Assessment:
That being said, Banfield does offer complete coverage as far as just wellness services go. The site does a good job of outlining what is covered between the three plan tiers:
While Banfield is on the more pricey side, it does offer wellness care that other wellness care plans tend not to, like unlimited office visits and even an eye pressure test.
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Final Thoughts:
- Banfield pet insurance is actually a wellness program. It is meant to cover preventative care, not injury or illness.
- These wellness plans are specifically for use at Banfield pet hospitals, which are located all over the country in around 1,000 locations.
- Customer and agency ratings for these plans are hard to find, as agencies rate the hospital itself. Some people like the wellness care plans, others think Banfield is too pushy in getting people to sign up for them.
- Getting a quote from Banfield is very barebones online. There’s a little widget that gives you a price estimate based on pet type (cat or dog), location and age (over or under six months). You have to complete the process by talking to a Banfield vet, who will recommend the care level they think your pet needs.
- Banfield is fairly pricey, but it does cover wellness care other wellness add-on plans may not, like unlimited office visits. If you go to a Banfield hospital and only want wellness care covered, this might be your plan.