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Experienced personal finance writer
Background working with banks and insurance companies
Sarah enjoys helping people find smarter ways to spend their money. She covers auto financing, banking, credit cards, credit health, insurance, and personal loans.
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7+ years in content creation and management
5+ years in insurance and personal finance content
Ashley is a seasoned personal finance editor who’s produced a variety of digital content, including insurance, credit cards, mortgages, and consumer lending products.
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Updated August 13, 2024
At Insurify, our goal is to help customers compare insurance products and find the best policy for them. We strive to provide open, honest, and unbiased information about the insurance products and services we review. Our hard-working team of data analysts, insurance experts, insurance agents, editors and writers, has put in thousands of hours of research to create the content found on our site.
We do receive compensation when a sale or referral occurs from many of the insurance providers and marketing partners on our site. That may impact which products we display and where they appear on our site. But it does not influence our meticulously researched editorial content, what we write about, or any reviews or recommendations we may make. We do not guarantee favorable reviews or any coverage at all in exchange for compensation.
If you’re a pet owner, you know the cost of veterinary care can really add up, especially if you have a high-needs pet or multiple animals at home. The Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan can help you manage those costs by covering routine preventative veterinary care throughout the year.
You can only use Banfield’s wellness plans at Banfield Pet Hospital locations. Additionally, Banfield doesn’t offer accident and illness or accident-only insurance. Before you sign up for a plan, compare rates from pet insurance companies, make sure that you live near a Banfield location, and that the coverage makes sense based on your annual veterinary costs.
Banfield offers wellness plans for dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens.
The pet hospital offers virtual office visits.
Banfield has more than 1,000 locations throughout the country.
A Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan can be a good option for pet owners who get all their pet’s routine veterinary care through Banfield Hospital. Rather than paying one or two large veterinary care bills at once to Banfield, the wellness plan can help evenly spread out the cost of care for a dog, cat, puppy, or kitten over an entire year.
But these wellness plans aren’t right for everyone. Depending on your pet’s needs, the plan’s cost may exceed the cost you’d pay out of pocket for routine preventative care each year. Additionally, Banfield’s plans don’t cover emergency care, accidents, or illnesses, which are the largest surprise veterinary costs that can arise. Most pet insurers offer these coverages.
Comparing takes less than two minutes and could save you up to 57%
Banfield’s Optimum Wellness Plans are a popular option for routine veterinary care and have some key selling points. But it’s important to also consider the downsides.
Covers unlimited office and virtual visits
Designed to cover all routine preventative care for dogs and cats
Multiple plan tiers help you find one that fits your budget
No coverage for accidents or illnesses
Only for dogs and cats
Only covers care at Banfield pet hospitals
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Banfield has four Optimum Wellness Plans (OWPs). The right plan for you depends on the type and age of your pet. Each plan also includes two or three different tiers to choose from depending on your desired covered level.[1]
The Early Care package is for dogs and cats 6 months and younger and covers common preventative care needs of puppies and kittens. It includes two comprehensive physical exams and two virtual visits plus unlimited office visits, wellness coaching sessions, vaccinations, deworming, diagnostic testing, and more.
A 5% discount is available on most other Banfield products and services. And puppy owners can have one DNA test. Pet owners can choose to pay annually or split payments into 12 monthly installments. You can add more options to your monthly payment, like parasite control.
The Early Care Plus package includes everything in the Early Care package, plus spay or neuter surgery. Puppy and kitten owners who want the cost of their new furry friend’s spay or neuter surgery covered may want to consider this package.
This package offers 10% off additional services and products. And, like Early Care, pet parents can choose to pay annually or split payments into 12 monthly installments. You can also add more options to your monthly payment.
The Active Care package is for dogs and cats older than 6 months. Active Care is Banfield’s most basic plan and includes preventive care, including office and virtual visits, wellness coaching sessions, vaccinations, diagnostic testing, deworming, and fecal exams.
You can purchase this yearlong package annually or split it into 12 monthly installments. In addition to preventive care coverage, you’ll also save 10% off other Banfield products and services.
Similar to Active Care, the Active Care Plus package is available to dogs and cats older than 6 months. The package is nearly identical to Active Care but includes some extras, like an annual preventative dental cleaning and urine testing.
Participants save 15% off other Banfield services and products. And you can pay for the package annually or split your payments into 12 monthly installments.
Banfield’s Special Care package includes all the services in the Active Care Plus package, with some additional services for pets that might need more extensive care. Additional Special Care services for dogs include two urine tests, preventive X-rays (three views), two eye pressure tests, and two electrocardiograms.
Additional Special Care services for cats include two urine tests, preventive X-rays (three views), and additional diagnostic testing for heartworm and thyroid disease.
Dog and cat parents can also receive a 20% discount on most other Banfield products and services.
The OWPs from Banfield only cover preventive care at Banfield vet locations. They don’t cover accidents or illnesses.[2] You’ll need to pay out of pocket for those or purchase a separate pet insurance plan through a different pet insurance company.
Wellness coverage from Banfield varies by tier, so you should pay close attention to what each tier covers if you’re considering purchasing a plan for your pet. For example, the lowest tier for puppies and kittens doesn’t include spay or neuter surgery.
The cost of a Banfield plan depends on several factors, including the type of pet you have, the age and breed of your pet, and the package tier you choose.
Plans typically range from $37.95 to $79.95 per month. All plans also require an enrollment fee when you sign up, though Banfield doesn’t advertise the specific fee amount.
The table below shows the average monthly cost of a wellness plan for a dog for each coverage tier. The quotes reflect the cost of coverage for a 2-year-old mixed-breed male dog.
Dogs ▲▼ | Active Care ▲▼ | Active Care Plus ▲▼ | Special Care ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $47.95 | $62.95 | $79.95 |
| Annual cost | $575.40 | $755.40 | $959.40 |
Cats generally cost less to insure, and this is true for Banfield’s Optimum Wellness Plans. The table below shows the monthly cost of a wellness plan for a cat for each coverage tier. The quotes reflect the cost of coverage for a 2-year-old American shorthair female cat.
Cats ▲▼ | Active Care ▲▼ | Active Care Plus ▲▼ | Special Care ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $37.95 | $55.95 | $66.95 |
| Annual cost | $455.40 | $671.40 | $803.40 |
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Choose your own vet and tailor a plan to your furry friend’s needs
Unfortunately, Banfield has received many negative reviews online. It has 499 customer reviews on Trustpilot, with an average rating of 1.2 out of 5 stars. The company received 644 reviews on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) page for its headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, with an average rating of 1.14 out of 5 stars.
It’s important to note that Banfield’s online reviews are for the company collectively, not just its wellness plans. Some of the reviews reference Banfield’s wellness plans specifically, while others refer to the overall care their pet received. Common complaints cite poor customer service, difficulty canceling coverage, and poor communication regarding care expectations.
Here’s a review from someone who had a negative experience with the Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan. At the time of writing, Trustpilot reviews from the last 30 days were all negative.
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Here’s another example of an unsatisfied customer on the BBB’s review site.
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Whether a Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan is worth it for you depends on your annual veterinary costs and the type of coverage you need. Banfield doesn’t provide accident or illness coverage. Wellness plans from Banfield can help you split up the cost of your pet’s annual routine veterinary care at Banfield Pet Hospital locations into monthly payments.
But the cost of an annual plan may exceed the cost of routine veterinary care. Banfield’s wellness plans range from $455.40 to $959.40 annually for pets 6 months or older. The annual cost of routine medical care only amounts to an average of $225 for a dog and $160 for a cat, according to the ASPCA.[3]
You might decide it’s cheaper to pay out of pocket for care from Banfield or another veterinary provider. You can also decide to purchase pet insurance from another company that offers additional coverage options.
Deciding on a pet insurance or veterinary care plan for your pet can feel difficult. The following information should help you decide whether a Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan is right for you and your pet.
Because Banfield designed wellness plans that spread your veterinary costs out over an entire year, you can’t cancel at any time with no additional costs. If you cancel your plan, you must either pay out of pocket for the covered services your pet has received or continue your monthly payments.
Unfortunately, you may also have to continue your payments if your pet dies, which is the source of many of Banfield’s negative online reviews.
If you need help with your Banfield wellness plan, you can contact the company at one of the following phone numbers or email addresses. For enrollment, you can call 1 (866) 277-7387 or email [email protected]. For billing and payment questions, you can call 1 (866) 935-5738 or email [email protected]. You can call 1 (866) 649-2716 or email [email protected] for general questions and information about plan cancellation.
If you have questions about your pet’s veterinary care or need to schedule an appointment to see a veterinarian, you should contact your local Banfield Pet Hospital.
Since your Banfield wellness plan is a package of vet services spread out over a year — whether you pay annually or monthly — you could have an outstanding balance after your pet dies. Banfield recommends calling customer service at 1 (866) 649-2716 with any questions and information about plan cancellation.
Several other companies offer pet wellness plans, including the ASPCA, Pets Best, and Figo. Some companies, like Banfield, offer stand-alone pet wellness care plans, while others offer preventative care as an optional add-on to pet insurance policies.
Traditional pet insurance plans typically provide accident and illness coverage but don’t cover preventative care. You should make sure you find an insurer that offers coverage for preventative care as well.
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Sarah Archambault enjoys helping people figure out how to manage their finances and credit. She covers auto financing, banking, credit cards, credit health, insurance, and personal loans. Her work has been featured on Credit Karma, Experian, LendingClub, Sound Dollar and USA Today Blueprint. She also writes for national insurers, banks and financial institutions like Aetna, MassMutual, Stripe, and UnitedHealthcare.
7+ years in content creation and management
5+ years in insurance and personal finance content
Ashley is a seasoned personal finance editor who’s produced a variety of digital content, including insurance, credit cards, mortgages, and consumer lending products.
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