How does PD Pet Insurance's cover actually work?
Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.
PD Insurance sells three NZ pet plans, Accident ($5,000 annual limit), Classic ($10,000) and Deluxe ($20,000), underwritten by Pacific International Insurance Pty Limited, FSP394846, with a selectable $100, $150 or $200 excess taken out of every individual claim rather than a percentage co-payment (PD NZ Pet Insurance Policy Wording, retrieved 17 September 2026; PD Insurance FAQ page, retrieved 17 September 2026). PD is a trading brand of Pacific International Insurance, not a separately licensed entity in its own right.
Plans and annual limits
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| Plan | Cover | Annual limit | Per-claim limit |
|---|---|---|---|
 Accident |
Accidental injury only, plus third-party liability and non-elective euthanasia | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Classic | Accident and illness, including hereditary conditions | $10,000 | $5,000 |
| Deluxe | Accident and illness, including hereditary conditions, plus a bundled Dental Illness benefit | $20,000 | $7,500 |
Figures confirmed identically across PD's Pet Insurance page, Dog Insurance Plans page and Cat Insurance Plans page, all retrieved 17 September 2026. Cruciate ligament rupture, strain and luxating patella are carved out of the Accident Plan's own definition of "accidental injury," so that plan excludes them entirely. See cruciate ligament surgery cost for dogs NZ for what that condition can cost without cover.
Waiting periods
| Condition | Wait |
|---|---|
| Accident | 0 days |
| Illness, poisoning, intervertebral disc disease, foreign object ingestion | 21 days |
| Third-party liability | 180 days |
| Cruciate ligament / patella luxation, hereditary conditions | 180 days |
| Dental illness | 180 days |
A pet moving from another insurer with at least 12 months' continuous prior cover has these waits waived, matched to the old policy's level of cover, but waiting periods restart in full on any plan upgrade (Policy Wording PDF). See pet insurance waiting periods NZ.
Excess and no percentage co-payment
The excess is per claim, not once a year: it is owed "for every event giving rise to a claim," so a pet treated for three unrelated conditions in one year pays it three times (Policy Wording PDF). The Policy Wording does not print the dollar options; the $100, $150 and $200 choices come from PD's live FAQ page. No source checked publishes a percentage co-payment tier for PD; once the excess is met, PD pays the full claim up to the applicable limit. See pet insurance excess explained NZ.
Sub-limits inside each plan
| Sub-limit | Accident | Classic | Deluxe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party liability | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Foreign object ingestion | $2,000 | $2,000 | not separately listed |
| Cruciate ligament / patella luxation | not covered | $2,000 | $7,500 |
| Hereditary conditions | not covered | $2,300 | $3,800 |
| Dental illness | not covered | not covered | $500 |
Two policy-wide caps sit underneath those figures: a consultation fee is itself capped at $80 on a weekday between 9am and 5pm, or $200 outside those hours or for a specialist or house call; an Elizabethan collar is covered up to $25 (Policy Wording PDF). Boarding (including medical boarding), grooming and behavioural or psychological treatment are excluded outright on every plan.
Pre-existing conditions
PD defines a pre-existing condition as "any diagnosis, symptoms, or visible signs of a condition, illness, or injury that your pet suffered or had in any form" before the policy started, before purchase, or before a waiting period ended, and excludes the cost of treating it (Policy Wording PDF). No clause using the words "bilateral," "symmetrical" or "opposite side" appears anywhere in the current document, and PD publishes no specific reconsideration or vet-waiver process for a pre-existing exclusion beyond its general complaints procedure. See pre-existing conditions and pet insurance NZ.
Age limits
The Accident Plan accepts pets from 6 weeks to 12 years old. Classic and Deluxe accept pets from 6 weeks to "8 years and 11 months" per PD's FAQ page, rounded to "9 years" in the Policy Wording itself; select-breed dogs older than 6 years can only take out the Accident Plan (PD Insurance FAQ page; Policy Wording PDF, both retrieved 17 September 2026). No cat-specific age figures are published separately. PD does not state whether cover continues once a pet is already insured past these caps; renewal is "at our sole discretion not more than every 12 months," and a plan upgrade is not allowed past the upper age limit, though a downgrade "may be made for pets of any age."
Dental cover
Dental illness cover is bundled free into the Deluxe Plan only; it cannot be added to Accident or Classic and is not sold as a separate extra. It pays up to $500 for abscesses, gingivitis and medically required tooth removal after a 180-day wait, provided the claim comes with proof of annual dental checks at a vet, and excludes orthodontics, crowns, root canal and elective cleaning (Policy Wording PDF). Accidental dental trauma, a tooth broken in a fall, is still claimable under ordinary accident cover on any of the three plans. See does pet insurance cover dental NZ.
Desexing and vaccination
Neither desexing nor the cost of a vaccination is named as a covered item in PD's Policy Wording or plan pages; both fall under the general exclusion for "elective or preventative treatments." Keeping a pet's vaccinations current is nonetheless a condition attached to other cover: PD excludes treatment for a named list of vaccine-preventable diseases "unless your pet's vaccination was current at the time of the condition as evidenced by a vet" (Policy Wording PDF). No optional add-on covering either cost was found. See does pet insurance cover desexing and vaccinations NZ.
Claims: reimbursement only, no direct-to-vet option
PD settles every accepted claim by paying "directly into a New Zealand bank account in the policy holder name," and states it does "not contract any third-party service providers on your behalf" (Policy Wording PDF). You pay the vet, then claim the reimbursement through PD's Manage Portal or by emailing [email protected], with an itemised invoice and clinical notes, reported within 30 days of the event. PD's FAQ page states a typical decision "within 2 business days," though this figure does not appear in the Policy Wording itself. See pet insurance that pays the vet directly NZ.
Monthly billing on an annual policy
PD markets "no lock-in contracts" and month-to-month payment, but its Policy Wording frames that as a premium-payment frequency choice, monthly instalments or one annual sum, not the underlying cover period: the Period of Insurance is 12 months, renewed "at our sole discretion not more than every 12 months" (Policy Wording PDF). Cancelling refunds any premium beyond the cover already used, with a 14-day cooling-off period. Insuring two or more pets earns a 5% multi-pet discount, per PD's FAQ page (PD Insurance FAQ page, retrieved 17 September 2026).
The clause most worth reading before signing up concerns a chronic "ongoing condition" such as asthma, diabetes or osteoarthritis: once diagnosed, the maximum PD will ever pay for it over the pet's lifetime is capped at whatever benefit limit applied in the year it first appeared, "even if you continue to renew your pet's cover or upgrade your plan" (Policy Wording PDF). See lifetime vs annual pet insurance NZ.
Questions people ask
Does PD Insurance pay the vet directly?
No. PD is reimbursement-only: you pay the vet bill, then claim the amount back into your own NZ bank account, and it states it does not contract any third-party vet-payment providers (Policy Wording PDF).
Is PD's excess per claim or per year?
Per claim. It is deducted "for every event giving rise to a claim," so it is paid again for each new, unrelated condition within a policy year, unlike an insurer whose excess applies once per policy period.
Can I add dental cover to PD's Accident or Classic plan?
No. Dental illness cover is bundled into the Deluxe Plan only; accidental dental trauma is still covered under ordinary accident cover on any plan.
Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.
A licensed NZ adviser can compare the pet insurers on your pet's details. Get pet cover quotes.
Adviser's view
QuoteHub's read is that PD's per-claim excess and its lifetime cap on an already-diagnosed ongoing condition are the two mechanics worth understanding before the plan name.
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Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). PD Pet Insurance NZ: Plans, Limits and Claims. www.quotehub.co.nz/pet-insurance/pd-pet-insurance. Updated 2026-09-17.
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