A trip to your local Vet is going to cost you at least R1,000, once they have run a couple of blood tests and prescribed a few pooch pills. If you have the money available in your cheque account to swipe at the pay point on your way out, that’s cool, but what if things are a little tight? Maybe it’s been a rough month and you literally have “more month than money” left. In that case what do you do? You could drop the charge on your credit card or if you have a pet insurance policy with OnePlan they could have fronted you the cash for the Vet visit. That might be handy, right?

OnePlan has a unique value proposition that is centred around some smart card technology and the consumer’s real needs. The Onecard Transactional Card allows you to pre-load funds for Vet visits via their App or by making a call to their call centre. That means you have the money to swipe at the Vet’s pay point without having to pay and then claim back.

That’s a neat service.

This is how to works.

Let’s assume for a second your dog is looking a little tired and hasn’t been eating much for the last two days. You’ve been down this road before and it’s obvious that when you shoot down to the Vet tomorrow morning they will probably run a few blood tests and prescribe some medication (at the very least). Factor in the Vet consultation fee of R500 and you aren’t going to get away with paying less than R1,000.

Depending which OnePlan pet option you are on, you can access some of the health cover on offer and pre-load your card (which is issued when you become a policy holder).

• The Pet Classic plan offers up to R1050 per Vet visit (4 visits per annum)
• The Super Pet plan offers up to R1350 per Vet visit (4 visits per annum)

Oneplan might require you to submit the invoice as proof that you didn’t use the money for a boy’s boozy lunch, but that seems more than reasonable considering they’ve acted in good faith and fronted you the Vet consultation cash.

Pre-loading a transactional card you can use to swipe at your Vet is a smart idea.

Think about the normal claims process. You would need to fork out the cash yourself, then scan in the invoice and email it off to your pet insurer. If you are lucky they are on the ball and your claim gets settled (talking about money in the bank) a week later.

This is all avoidable when you have a OnePlan pet policy.

Click here for more information about their plan choices.

Until next time