Southern Cross Pet Insurance Avis 

I wish I had listened to our friends before signing up with SCPI!
$1117 premium, covering day-to-day expenses, a $500 excess and 30% co-payment. Submitted a $1000 claim for de-sexing and a grape ingestion emergency.
Their calculation for the $157 payout was incomprehensible.
We would have been better off without their insurance.
Goodbye Southern Cross.

It was an easy overall process and response to a query about my claim was rapid.

Southern Cross Pet insurance has been awesome to deal with really easy to transition from the free puppy cover onto the full time cover I opted for.
The Easy Claim system is great as my vet clinic can submit claims on my behalf.
The co-payment options enable me to balance cost of cover with potential out of pocket costs.

I have been a client for two years, and my accidental claim was declined. It appears they believe I am being dishonest, which would allow them to avoid paying out my claim. Even their complaints department was unable to provide assistance. It seems they do not prioritize their clients' well-being; rather, they appear to be solely interested in financial gain. I have requested further reviews, but they have shown no interest. Despite providing a letter from a veterinarian, my claim was still declined. It seems they prioritize assumptions over witness statements and professional letters. They seem to be looking for any reason to avoid payment. I absolutely cannot recommend their services.

I have paid for 5 years the only thing that happens consistently is the annual premium increase. Now $100 a month! I have made a couple of small claims nothing for the last couple of years and now one claim for eye surgery and it is declined. NOTHING. Save your money pop it into an interest bearing account every month you will be better off!

SCAM ALERT!!

SCPI will trick you, lie to you and take your money 100% guaranteed. Their prices and policies are not transparent at all, they are known for massively increasing policy costs while reducing cover and support. Even their customer service is atrocious and the staff are either not trained or simply do not care about their loyal customers. I wish I did my research befofe joining them but a few months after another dissappointing claim resolution and terrible customer service once again, I am extremely happy and fortunate to have now cancelled my policy with SCPI!! PLEASE do not sign your beloved pets up for this ABSOLUTE SCAM, they deserve better. They don't care enough to listen to customers, they don't check reviews or try to resolve issues when you are cancelling your policy due to their horrific service, they are an insensitive, greedy and all-round horrendous company and their staff reflect those values really well!!!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY TO ENDAGER YOUR PET WITH SCPI

If I could give 0 stars I would. Absolutely horrible service, please do yourself a favour and go literally ANYWHERE ELSE. I sent in a claim for my dog which included two treatments, I was advised I would be getting $0 refund because my plan doesn't cover one of those treatments. I then asked for a review because I know my policy covers the other and I received a timely response apologising for the error and stating they will indeed cover those costs, only to get my next refund email not even covering HALF of it! Emailed them again asking what is going on and I was asked to confirm my name before they respond.. The same name they addressed the email to & the same name that is literally on my policy and account where I sent the letter from. They are the worst, they do not care about your claims or pets, they will not cover what is clearly state in your policy. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME & MONEY WITH SOUTHERN CROSS PET INSURANCE!!!!!

They’ve just emailed me to let me know that my recently deceased beloved pet’s insurance is up for renewal in December, despite me having notified them that he passed away and them confirming that the account was closed. Very upsetting.

No account to log into to access real time info, make claims etc. Claim process is long, and they had tried to say when my cat was hit by a car (while insured by them) was a pre existing condition. Had to appeal, which took ages, no apologies from them. Now they've upped the excess to 250/ claims year and added copayment to policy. If I'd known this is how they treat their customers I would have chosen another insurer. They lure customers in with prezzie cards, free insurance at first, then pull the rug out from under their feet after a couple of years.

My dog has had pet insurance with Southern Cross Pet Insurance (SCPI) since 10 weeks old. In the beginning, it was a paper based system which was great for making several claims in one go as you could see what you were claiming for but attaching the vet files and invoices was clunky. They brought their system into the 21st century when they went electronic and for the most part this was an improvement, except you could not see to check what you had claimed for and when you called the clarification, the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

This was also the case when I called to clarify a section of cover in their policy wording. The only reason I can conclude that staff had differing advice on the same wording was that it was badly written, ambiguous and certainly not transparent. Had it been written clearly, I would never have called for an explanation and never known that their staff had no idea what they were covering. It was rather disconcerting.

My dog was 5 or 6 years by this point and I didn't think it worth changing insurers. Oh how I wish I had!

At 8 years, the annual premium increased by 45%. Of course now, there was absolutely no chance of being insured by anyone else and on the 9th anniversary, SCPI increased the premium by a further 22%. To add insult to injury, in 2024, they changed their policy to exclude consultation costs, holistic therapies and added in an excess as well as paying a co-payment. To try and make it sound like the consumer was getting a deal, they marketed it by saying that it would reduce premiums.

Let's put this cost saving into context. My premiums have gone up by 67% in just 2 years and my cover has reduced significantly. On top of the 20% co-payment I was already paying, I now have to pay an excess per annum which I believe is either $100, $250 or $500 and I cannot tell from the online documentation whether this is per claim per year or a cummulative excess. In addition, I now need to pay an extra premium to cover any consult costs as this has now been excluded from the original cover. Plus, cover for holistic therapies e.g. physiotherapy, massage, hydrotherapy, accupuncture is no longer covered unless an extra premium is paid.

Day to day care e.g. vaccinations etc is also an added extra, although I found it was not worth the paper it was written on as the premium always exceeded the maximum annual payout.

Dental care was never included without paying an additional premium. I never bought into this but it can be an expensive outlay if your pet has bad teeth. Rather than lining the insurance companies pockets further, it might be prudent putting money aside into a high interest savings account for such an event.

My monthly premiums have increased to close to $200. That is less all the above mentioned covers they have now excluded. If I were to add these to my insurance, I can guarantee I would be paying in excess of $200 a month and I will still need to pay an excess and my co-payment.

Based on the above, my advice to anybody considering buying pet insurance and taking out a policy with SCPI is this. Please do your homework! Check out, compare and take your time to consider the pros and cons in order to get the right insurance policy for you and your pet and please do not fall into the same trap as I did. Loyalty does not pay and certainly not with insurance companies who would take all you earn given half a chance. There are other more ethical insurance companies who offer great pet cover and are more streamlined and transparent than SCPI have ever been. I wanted to buy local, e.g. New Zealand owned but my experience has proven, it is not cost effective and I cannot afford it which is ironic given most people who buy insurance do so because they don't have the extra cash to splash on unexpected vet bills. I will now boycott Southern Cross completely.

I am sharing my experience to ensure that people make informed decisions before buying into a pet insurance policy. As mentioned previously, please do your homework first and don't feel pressured into buying the first policy you see or is recommended to you, as I did. There are temporary policies when you first get your pet that gives you a few weeks grace to make the right decision.

Quadrupled my costs over 4 years, have barely ever claimed anything. Recently I had over $1,000 of expenses and did they cover anything, nope. We don't cover skin conditions (an infection), we don't cover teeth, we don't cover this, we don't cover that. It is so not worth it. I have been so loyal to Southern Cross but they don't reward that loyalty and I am not sure exactly what the policy does cover because any time I have ever tried I have been declined. The first and only time I ever claimed I had to fight them for it. Save your money or review the best plans. This company definitely isn't it.

Like many other pet owners we were loyal to Southern Cross for many many years and today, upon receipt of the policy renewal documents, we were slammed with hundreds of dollars added to our elderly pet's policy, where as before we have always had 100% cover. Now co-payments, excesses, consults now viewed as an add-on, and increased premiums, etc etc have been added to our policy. Needless to say we are beyond disappointed and we are sorry to come to the conclusion that because Southern Cross are aware that our elderly pet will not be able to get cover with any other insurer, because of his age, they have decided to make a buck, as the saying goes, by adding all of these "extras" to the new policy. We now face some heartbreaking decisions that will need to be made.

This is a scam. Don't get Southern Cross Pet Insurance for you pets. They dont cover anything not even consultation fees to the vet yet they charge me money regularly over the course of the past 4 years. They only cover "accidents" but not all. Don't waste your money on it

Customer service is absolutely atrocious. You don't even get acknowledgement for lodging a claim until you contact them asking if they have received your claim. I only received the acknowledgement of my claim a week after lodgement when I followed up. No updates are provided and you're just sitting in the dark. They requested the medical history of my pet from the Vet and it was sent to me but there was no way of sending the history to them because the only way I could contact them was through the form on their website since the only email response I got from them was from a noreply email address. The staff are quite rude too and unhelpful. There's no support. It was a shocking experience considering how much premium they charge us. Would not recommend Southern Cross Pet Insurance.

They have the habit of denying claims on false pretexts. The most horrible company I have had to deal with

Total disappointment! I had premium insurance since the beginning, and when my dog had an allergy, they declined my claim as according to the vet notes he had some itchy feet. Come on! Pre-existing condition? Are you serious? In addition, I’d like to change the pet owner to myself instead of my partner, so they switched me to another policy with co-payments and full package pre-existing conditions. And at the end, I couldn’t return my existing policy. Unprofessional way to deal with clients… never-ever will recommend it.

We have had southern cross pet insurance since 2018 for our cats and then our dog. We had the better cover that gave no excess and no copay. In the last 12 months they have jacked up their prices and included excesses and co pays on plans that are now almost double the price.

Feel pretty disappointed being with them for 6 years and having the policy’s become more expensive to claim on and more expensive to pay for at the same time. To almost match our old plans the price went from $65 up to $125.

After 5 years with Southern Cross pet coverage and no payouts for our dog, we let the policy momentarily lapse in August- renewed in October.

The new policy had multiple NEW surprise pre-existing conditions added.
Needless to say SC have been dropped like a rock!