What does a pet insurance quote actually ask for?
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 pet insurance quote in New Zealand is built from the same handful of details wherever you get one: your pet's species, breed, date of birth, your postcode, and whether the pet is desexed, gathered before any insurer will show you a price. That order, species, breed, age, location and desexed status, then the cover level you want and a pre-existing-conditions declaration, with your own contact details asked for last, holds across the NZ and Australian quote tools checked for this page, including Southern Cross Pet's own quote form and the NZ calculate.co.nz pet insurance rate calculator, retrieved 17 September 2026. What differs is what each insurer does with those same details once you submit them, which is why running one pet's details past more than one insurer at a time, rather than trusting a single number, is the only way to actually compare.
What a pet insurance quote form asks for, insurer by insurer
Fields as they appear on each insurer's own quote tool, in the order the tool presents them, checked 17 September 2026. Two insurers' quote tools could not be accessed directly for this check; where that happened, it says so rather than guessing at the fields. Disclosure: QuoteHub does not sell these policies on this page. Its licensed advisers may receive commission from an insurer if you take out cover through them.
| Insurer | What the quote form asks | Phone required? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
 AA Pet Insurance |
First and last name, email, mobile number, address and postcode, then the pet's date of birth, breed, species, desexed status and a pre-existing-conditions question | Yes, mobile is a required field | AA Pet Insurance quote tool, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 Cove |
Owner's first and last name, date of birth, gender, email, address and postcode, then the pet's species, breed, date of birth and desexed status, then cover options, a pre-existing-conditions declaration and claims history | No phone field anywhere in the form | Cove pet insurance quote, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 PD Insurance |
Not confirmed for this page; PD's public quote tool returned an access block (HTTP 403) on the day this page was checked | Not confirmed | PD Insurance, quote tool at quote.pet.pdinsurance.co.nz blocked, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 Petcover |
Pet's name, breed, gender, date of birth and weight, then a purchase price, before owner contact details | Not on the first screen | Petcover NZ quote form, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 SPCA Pet Insurance |
Not confirmed for this page; SPCA's own quote tool was not checked directly | Not confirmed | SPCA Pet Insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 Southern Cross Pet Insurance |
First and last name, email, phone, postcode, address, then the pet's species, breed, date of birth and desexed status | Yes, phone is a required field | Southern Cross Pet quote form, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
 Tower |
Not a self-serve online quote; Tower runs a "Request a Quote Callback" page that collects your contact details for a follow-up call instead of showing a form-driven price online | Yes, by design, it is a callback flow | Tower pet insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026 |
Every insurer above asks for the pet's date of birth, even Petcover, the only one that also asks for a purchase price up front. Where they diverge is contact details: AA Pet, Southern Cross and Tower all collect a phone number before or as part of getting a price, while Cove's own marketing describes its quote as doable "without picking up the phone" and its form has no phone field at all (Cove pet insurance, retrieved 17 September 2026).
What actually changes the number
None of the seven insurers publishes the formula it applies to the details above, but the same inputs recur across every quote tool checked:
- Species and breed. The NZ calculate.co.nz rate calculator builds its own indicative pricing from pet type and a named "breed-risk category," alongside cover level, co-payment percentage and annual limit.
- Age. Entry-age windows decide whether a quote is even available before anything is priced: AA Pet accepts new policies from 8 weeks to 9 years old, and PD Insurance from 6 weeks to 12 years on its Accident plan but only to 8 years 11 months on Classic or Deluxe (AA Pet Insurance Policy Document; PD Insurance FAQ, retrieved 17 September 2026).
- Postcode. Part of the same calculate.co.nz factor set above, and asked for on every NZ quote tool checked, though no insurer states how much weight it carries.
- Desexed status. Every insurer asks it, and several also exclude desexing itself as a routine procedure rather than an insured event: AA Pet's core cover excludes "chemical castration, suprelorin implants or other desexing procedures," and Southern Cross's PetCare excludes "de-sexing" as everyday care (AA Pet Insurance Policy Document, p.19; PetCare Policy Document, p.20, retrieved 17 September 2026).
- Cover level, excess and co-payment. The plan tier and the excess or co-payment you pick change the premium directly wherever you can select them; see pet insurance excess explained NZ and pet insurance cost NZ for the example premiums insurers do publish.
Why comparing three quotes at once matters
The same species, breed, age, postcode and desexed status, run through different insurers, do not just produce different numbers, they produce different structures for paying a claim. Tower charges a flat 20% co-payment on every claim with no dollar excess at all; PD Insurance charges a flat dollar excess with no percentage on top; Southern Cross, AA Pet, Petcover and SPCA Pet all combine a dollar excess with a percentage co-payment (Comprehensive & Essentials Policy Wording; PD NZ Pet Insurance Policy Wording, retrieved 17 September 2026). A single quote shows you a monthly figure; it does not show what you'd still owe the vet on the day you claim, which is where these structures diverge most, and the amounts involved are real: Southern Cross Pet's own 2025 claims data shows an average paid claim of $404 for dogs and $310 for cats across more than 65,000 insured pets (1News, 26 July 2026). Direct-to-vet payment is another split a single quote won't reveal: it's confirmed for only three of the seven insurers, and even then only at participating vets or with the insurer's sign-off, not automatically (compare pet insurance NZ sets out which three). Getting the same pet's details in front of more than one insurer, rather than accepting the first number back, is the only way to see the excess, co-payment and direct-to-vet rule side by side, not just the premium.
Questions people ask
What details do I need before I get a pet insurance quote?
Your pet's species, breed, date of birth, whether it's desexed, and your postcode, plus your own contact details. Petcover also asks for the pet's weight and purchase price, and Cove asks for a pre-existing-conditions declaration and claims history before showing a price (Cove pet insurance quote; Petcover NZ quote form, retrieved 17 September 2026).
Does my pet's breed change the quote?
Breed is one of the factors every quote tool checked for this page asks for, and the NZ calculate.co.nz rate calculator names a "breed-risk category" as one of its own pricing inputs. No NZ insurer publishes the actual weighting it gives breed.
Do I have to give a phone number to get a pet insurance quote?
Not always. Cove's quote form has no phone field, while AA Pet and Southern Cross Pet both require one, and Tower's process is a callback rather than an online quote in the first place (see the table above).
Will a quote automatically account for my pet's pre-existing conditions?
Only if you disclose them. Cove and AA Pet both ask a pre-existing-conditions question directly on the quote form; other insurers' policy wording still excludes pre-existing conditions regardless of whether the form itself asks upfront. See pre-existing conditions and pet insurance NZ for how each insurer defines and reviews one.
Why would three insurers give different numbers for the same pet?
Because they turn the same species, breed, age, postcode and desexed status into different plan tiers, excess levels and co-payment percentages, not just different prices for an identical product. Compare pet insurance NZ sets the structural differences out insurer by insurer, and pet insurance cost NZ shows the example premiums the insurers that publish one.
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 every NZ pet insurer builds a quote from the same handful of facts about your pet, but turns those facts into very different excess, co-payment and cover structures, so the number on its own tells you less than the structure behind it.
Get pet cover quotes from a licensed NZ adviser · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Pet Insurance Quotes NZ: What You Need and How It Works. www.quotehub.co.nz/pet-insurance/pet-insurance-quotes-nz. Updated 2026-09-17.
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