Veterinary Pet Insurance (or VPI) has a storied history in the pet insurance world. According to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, VPI Pet Insurance was the first company in the United States to offer pet insurance. The honors of the first pet insurance policy went to the famous TV dog, Lassie.
Today, VPI Pet Insurance operates under Nationwide Pet Insurance, so getting a plan from VPI can seem a little confusing. Below we’ll cover background information on VPI and if there is a benefit to VPI Pet Insurance.
About VPI Pet Insurance:
VPI is a little bit of a strange entity in the pet insurance world. In 2014, Veterinary News reported that Nationwide was pulling VPI under its official Nationwide branding. Now when you go to VPI’s website, you get a page that just reads “loading,” which you can see below:
If you select “retrieve a quote,” you get routed to Nationwide’s pet insurance page. For all intents and purposes, VPI Pet Insurance and Nationwide Pet Insurance are the same. Yet when you search for major pet insurance brands in the United States, VPI still comes up at a major player, even though it has been re-branded to Nationwide Pet Insurance.
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Is There a Benefit to Getting VPI Pet Insurance Over Nationwide?
Here’s where the situation can get a little confusing. In the pet insurance world, many insurance companies act as agents, offering other pet insurance plans. Then, the main benefit is that you can bundle that pet insurance plan with other insurance plans for multi-policy discounts. For an example of such a situation, see our Geico Pet Insurance review here.
While that may look like the case here, since VPI still has its own website, it’s not actually the same situation. To be absolutely clear, VPI is no longer an independent entity. It was fully rolled under the Nationwide brand umbrella, so there is no benefit or discount when getting VPI Pet Insurance over Nationwide Pet Insurance. They’re now effectively one and the same. If you’d like to know more about getting a plan through Nationwide, you can see Nationwide Pet Insurance Review.
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Final Thoughts:
- VPI has a long history in the world of pet insurance. It was the first company to offer a pet insurance policy in the United States, to Lassie no less.
- In 2014, the VPI brand was rolled under the Nationwide umbrella. VPI Pet Insurance and Nationwide Pet Insurance are now the same, offering the same policies and pricing.
- As such, there is no added benefit to getting VPI Pet Insurance, since it’s the same as Nationwide Pet Insurance.