Southern Cross vs PD Insurance

Southern Cross Pet Insurance and PD Insurance are two of the more recognisable NZ pet insurance brands. They take different approaches: Southern Cross has a tiered range tied into its broader health-insurance member base; PD Insurance is a pet-specialist that prices and structures cover quite differently. The right pick depends on your pet, your risk tolerance, and which structural features matter most to you.

We don't publish a premium table here. Quoted prices come from each insurer's own underwriting at quote time and depend on your pet's age, breed, postcode, and history. Hardcoded tables go stale fast. The comparison below is structural — what each insurer offers, and where the clause-level details live.

How to compare them structurally

The clauses that move the most money over a pet's life:

• Hereditary / congenital handling. Does the policy cover hereditary conditions for the lifetime of the policy, after a waiting period, or exclude them outright? The answer differs by tier within each insurer.
• Bilateral rule. If a claim is made for one side of a bilateral structure (e.g. cruciate ligament on the left knee), is the other side then treated as pre-existing? This can save or cost you thousands.
• Dental cover scope. Illness vs. accident-only vs. preventive — varies sharply. Check the dental sub-limit, not just the annual cap.
• Pre-existing definition + lookback. The window the insurer looks back over before treating a condition as pre-existing.
• Renewal-age cap. The age at which cover stops being renewed for new conditions.
• Excess + co-pay structure. Two separate levers — read both.

/find-my-policy runs each of these as a clause-level query against the indexed wordings and ranks products on aggregate score.