Pet Insurance

Pet insurance is a subject most South Africans are not too clear on.
Do I need pet insurance?
What does pet insurance cost generally?
What is covered under my pet insurance plan and is it worth having at all?

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Pet Insurance in South Africa is coming of age

Background on Pet Insurance

This particular niche of the insurance industry has grown massively over the past few months. There is a very good reason for this growth. Traditionally pet insurance has been an afterthought. Sometimes added to other forms of insurance (households are generally covered for most other items in SA.) But pet health insurance has changed.

We have been at the forefront of providing specialist pet insurance in South Africa from the start. As a result, we’d like to give you a few facts to consider here in this article.
The industry has started to respond to pet owners’ need for real, valuable cover that gives actual value. Meaning that people with pets have shaped the way this industry is moving. We have driven the changes, and they are good. Really good.

Every company in SA offering pet insurance has a different take, or a different way of selling their particular product. In addition, every product has its unique angles or benefits. The core of the matter remains: the value for us as responsible pet owners has increased massively. Just taking a quick right now on social media channels (Facebook, Instagram etc) shows us one thing. Customers (as pet owners) are driving the developments in this field. Customers are shaping the product offering themselves.
Our own Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pawpawpethealthinsurance/ will attest to the fact. We regularly look, listen and respond to our own clients’ feedback.

We want pet insurance to be easy and affordable

The less paperwork, and the less ‘hoops’ our customers need to jump through, the better. This has been our guiding philosophy and basic principle since day one. We have stuck to it and we’ve refined that to mean we pride ourselves on an ‘open-cards’ approach. Our customers are nearly always 100% satisfied once they’ve signed up with PawPaw pet health insurance. When they are not, or we encounter any issues, we resolve them. We have a proven track record of doing exactly that and we turn frowns upside down. 😉

We are pet owners too. So, the manner in which we deal with our clients is simple. We deal with you the way we would want to be dealt with ourselves. From front office staff, to our medical specialists, to our call centre and claims handlers. Everyone here is properly trained to understand the number one priority in this market is our extended family, our pets.
Testimonials (sent in to us spontaneously thanking our staff) to reviews online, to simple telephone calls and emails just to let us know how much they’ve enjoyed our process and our service. These are the benchmarks by which we measure our success.

Spoiled for choice, but they’re all different

Granted that we have seen a big increase in the number of companies offering pet health cover and ‘pet medical aid’ in South Africa. That naturally leads to a bigger selection of choice for the pet owner. When it comes to choosing how and with whom to insure their beloved pets there can be confusion. As a result, the thing is this: every company’s offering is very different. Sometimes even within the same company, the structure and real world benefits of each of their products is very different.

In this article we cannot mention each company’s offering and their many variations.  However, we can talk about our particular approach and try to make it clear that we believe in keeping pet health cover simple. (We know you’ve heard that before, but this is an actual guiding principle and something we are not going to compromise on. Not now, not ever. We are pet owners too, and we know that we want insurance for our pets that works the way we expect it to. To be there for us in a time when we don’t need red tape and admin and to jump through hoops. Let’s face it, at the time of a medical emergency, you don’t need unsympathetic treatment from a faceless corporation.

What makes PawPaw Pet Health Insurance a bit different?

Firstly, we’re real people. People who own pets. We WANT to help you. At PawPaw we evaluate very carefully and very quickly whenever there is an emergency or a need for our clients to claim.

We have years of expertise in this field as we have been here since the early days, and we ourselves (as a company) have grown our offering to embrace that principle: pets first.

Our products are simple and very easy to understand, there is cover for cats at a set price, there is cover for dogs at a set price, and there is accident-only cover at a set price. After a few basic questions and based on your answers, we decide whether we CAN cover your pet, if we do cover your pet, that’s it.

We deal with this online quickly and very simply – our process in that regard super-easy to use and straight forward too.
If you’d like to speak to someone and get your questions answered personally, hit the button and we’ll call or email you back.