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Bivvy
|April 4, 2019
As a dog lover and someone who grew up with a family dog, I found myself feeling lonely as I moved away from home to go to school and no longer had a dog in my life to greet me at the door with a wagging tail or to go on hikes with. It didn’t take long for me to decide that it was time to add four paws to my life; and then another four shortly after. Bring on Nola and Tucker. Our dogs could not have more opposite personalities, but one thing they do have in common is they cost us a lot of money in vet bills. So much, in fact, that we realized we were not going to be able to make ends meet if we didn’t invest in pet insurance, and soon.
Being straight out of college, I knew I needed to research which pet insurance plan would be the right fit for us. I spent days researching different brands and asking friends for their advice. Not knowing where to start, I did a typical Google search of “Best Pet Insurance”. What I came across were all of the common big pet insurance brands and list after list of sponsored posts about the “top” options. After looking into each of these brands I quickly realized that pet insurance was going to be a lot more expensive than I had expected. Furthermore, the plans might not even cover my dogs or the vet I currently take them to. At this point, I was a few clicks away from giving up on this whole pet insurance idea. But then Bivvy popped up in my search and I started to feel like maybe I could make this work. Here’s why Bivvy was right for my fur family.
I’ll admit, I was very skeptical at first when I found Bivvy because I thought the price had to be too good to be true. At $10 a month per pet and no deductibles, Bivvy’s prices were blowing the competition out of the water. What weren’t they doing that other brands were? I checked and double checked to find the answer and realized that the answer was nothing. In fact, Bivvy not only offered the same coverage as most other brands, they also have less restrictions than many of their competitors. Even with two dogs, Bivvy was still much cheaper than all the other options I found.
Through my online search, I discovered that many other pet insurance brands had restrictions based on age, breed or even where you take your pets to the vet. With Bivvy though, none of these restrictions applied. My dog could be any breed or mix of breeds you can think of, even those breeds more prone to health problems. It didn’t matter if my dog was an 8-week-old puppy or a senior dog, Bivvy would cover my pups regardless. I was also happy to see that with Bivvy I wouldn’t have to switch to a new vet. I could keep taking my dogs to their beloved vet who we trust.
One aspect I was worried about when I started looking into pet insurance options was whether insurance companies would accept Nola because of her past health history. Nola has a number of allergies, anxiety issues, and has been to the vet many times for getting into the garbage and other stomach problems. While pre-existing conditions are not covered under Bivvy, pre-existing conditions do not disqualify pets from obtaining Bivvy protection for other conditions. Bivvy does not require a vet check or health history for a pet to qualify. This meant that both Tucker and our problem child Nola would be covered and we wouldn’t have to take an extra trip to the vet to be sure!
With starting a new job in a different city, I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra time filling out forms to sign up my pups for insurance or sitting on the phone with representatives. With Bivvy the process was so easy. I could sign up both of my dogs in less than 5 minutes with Bivvy’s user-friendly website.
I also knew that since I didn’t have a lot of experience with filing insurance claims, I wanted to ensure the process would be as easy as possible in the case of a future accident or illness. To file a claim with Bivvy, all I would need to do is send them the receipt from our visit at the vet! In a few days or less I would know if my claim had been accepted and how much money I would be reimbursed for. The money comes directly back to me instead of my vet, which means I have the freedom to go to any vet, even when I’m away from home.
It wasn’t hard to find out how great Bivvy’s customer service team is. They are incredibly friendly, helpful and easy to get ahold of. I didn’t have to wait on hold all day to get the answers I needed. What really topped it off for me was that the day after I signed up for Bivvy’s insurance plan, I received a call from a Bivvy employee thanking me for enrolling Nola and Tucker. She even asked me if I had any ideas on how they could make Bivvy better. Although I couldn’t think of anything at the time, I was encouraged to contact them again if something came to mind. As pet owners themselves, the Bivvy team wants to do all they can to make their pet insurance the best it can be for their customers.
I hope reading about my journey to find the best insurance plan for my fur family will make your search a little easier. Bivvy has been a blessing to both the health and happiness of our dogs, and to our pocketbooks.
Here's to many more wagging tails and slobbery kisses!
I did receive compensation for this article, but the opinions expressed are my own.