We asked customers of some of the UK’s biggest pet insurance companies about their experience and whether they would recommend their insurer to a friend or family member.
You can see our winners below, plus a full table of the results and an explanation on how we came up with them.
The winners are based on both overall satisfaction scores (that is, star ratings) and recommendation scores (the percentage of customers who said they’d recommend the brand to a friend). More on this below.
While the M&S brand is best known for its British high-street staple department stores, M&S Bank (the financial arm of the brand) is now a part of HSBC. There are three levels of cover to choose from (for cats and dogs only), plus access to a 24/7 medical advice helpline. Customers surveyed praised the easy, quick service on offer.
Read our review of M&S Bank pet insurance
Better known for its car insurance, Direct Line offers a range of financial products, including two levels of pet insurance for cats and dogs – Essential and Advanced. You can get a 12.5% discount when you insure more than one pet, and the company’s claims process was said to be easy and fast by customers in our survey.
Read our review of Direct Line pet insurance
We asked policyholders to rate their satisfaction with their pet insurance company, and whether they’d recommend it to a friend. We’ve shown both for each brand in the table below. Our independent survey of 750 insurance customers was carried out in December 2019.
| Overall satisfaction | Customers who’d recommend | Issuer | Review | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
★★★★★ | 89% |  | M&S Bank is the financial arm of the high-street staple. Its pet insurance has three levels of cover for cats and dogs, and the service was said to be quick and easy by customers in our survey, nabbing M&S the top spot for pet insurance. | |
★★★★★ | 89% |  | Direct Line is mostly known for its car insurance, but the company’s pet insurance offering is just as solid. Direct Line has two levels of cover and a claims process praised by customers for being easy and fast. | |
★★★★★ | 84% |  | As well as pet insurance for cats, dogs and rabbits, Petplan also covers horses and exotic pets. The focus is solely on pets here and customers were full of praise for the company’s service. | |
★★★★★ | 70% |  | Animal Friends offers four different types of pet insurance policies for a variety of furry and feathered members of the household. Customers praised the good value of the cover and the simple claims process. | |
★★★★★ | 81% |  | While more of Sainsbury’s customers said they would recommend the service, its overall score pushed it down a bit in our ranking. That said, customers said the rates are good and they love earning Nectar points through their premiums. | |
★★★★★ | 75% |  | Not everyone realises that Argos offers financial products along its huge catalogue, but there are three levels of cover here for cats and dogs. Customers said the cover was easy to set up, which is no surprise really, considering the provider. | |
★★★★★ | 71% |  | There are four levels of cover available from More Than, with the top option providing lifetime cover for your cat or dog. Customers told us they were happy with the service provided. Online and multi-pet discounts are available. | |
★★★★★ | 71% |  | LV= features an impressive five levels of cover – two time-limited and three lifetime policies, all with different vet fee caps. Customers surveyed praised the good service and affordable premiums offered by the company. | |
★★★★★ | 70% |  | The largest supermarket chain in the UK, Tesco has four levels of cover for cats and dogs, including a very basic accident and injury policy. Customers in our survey reported good value premiums (after all, every little helps!). | |
★★★★★ | 64% |  | Legal & General offers six levels of cover, ranging from a basic accident only policy to a lifetime policy with £10,000 for vet fees per year. Customers praised the no fuss service, complete with low prices. | |
★★★★★ | 67% |  | Another high-street supermarket that’s branched out to financial services, Asda stocks six diverse pet insurance policies for cats and dogs. The brand’s customers told us they were happy with both the service and prices on offer. | |
★★★★★ | 63% |  | Better known for the posh department stores, John Lewis Finance offers three levels of pet insurance policies for cats and dogs. Unsurprisingly, customers called the cover on offer from John Lewis “high quality”. |
In December 2019, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on insurance providers. 750 people replied and told us their thoughts on their insurance provider in each of five categories (car, travel, pet, home and life).
The survey asked respondents how satisfied they were with their current insurance company (on a scale from one to five, and also whether they would recommend the brand to a friend or not). We turned the results into star ratings and shortlisted the top-performing brands for our awards. When there was a draw, we used the recommendation score (that is, the percentage of customers who said they would recommend the brand to a friend) as a tie-breaker.
Full details of our star ratings for this sector are on the insurance ratings methodology page.
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
The customer satisfaction score is based on a survey of 750 customers carried out in December 2019.