Which Is the Cheapest Pet Microchipping Database Company?
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Owning a pet can be one of the most rewarding experiences for a family. The problem is that it can also be one of the most expensive.
Not only do you have to buy the animal itself, but you also need to think about toys, beds, pet insurance, vaccinations and the list goes on.
Another cost is that of microchipping your pet. But is there a way to save money when registering your dog, cat or other pet’s microchip?
Cost of Registering a Pet Microchip
We recently bought a new dog and she came with a microchip already implanted. (She’s a lovely dog, by the way) The puppy pack included a little card with the microchip number and a link to the site where you can register your pet’s details. In our case the card was from a company called SmartTrace.
Anyway, my wife started going through the process of registering our new pet dog. At the end of the process, we realised that SmartTrace wanted to charge us a fee of £19.99 to complete the process. Apparently, this one-off fee would also cover any future updates to the details of our new dog. This could be a change of address and the like.
While £19.99 isn’t a huge amount, it did still sound a little steep. To be honest, I was expecting the registration to be free. I thought that you only had to pay to have a microchip implanted.
So being the bargain hunter I am, I decided to check if there was a cheaper option available.
Is There a Cheaper Microchipping Company?
The first thing I wanted to know is whether I was obliged to use SmartTrace to register my dog’s microchip? Or, could I pick another – cheaper – company? Were there any alternatives to SmartTrace?
My search led me to this page on the gov.uk website. This page outlined the legal requirement to microchip a dog and keep your details updated via a government (DEFRA) compliant pet database. This page listed quite a few different companies you could use to fulfill this requirement. Here’s the list of databases that meet the government requirements at the time of writing:
- Animal Microchips
- Animal Tracker
- Chipworks
- Identibase
- MicroChip Central
- MicroDogID
- MyPet
- National Veterinary Data Service
- Pet Identity UK
- Petlog
- PetScanner
- ProtectedPet
- SmartTrace
- UK PETtrac
I spent a little time working through this list of companies to try and find the cheapest one. It wasn’t all about the money, though, as you also want to know that the company is going to be around in the years to come.
One thing I did notice while looking through each of the websites on the list is that most seemed to make it quite difficult to find out how much they charge. I don’t want to go as far as to say that this is deliberate, but it certainly wasn’t helpful.
So, which of these microchipping database companies is going to offer you the best deal?
PetScanner
After looking through the list and checking out their websites I came across PetScanner.
PetScanner actually make and sell pet microchip scanners* but as a part of their service you can also register your pet with them on the DEFRA database. To do this there is a one-off fee of £2.99. They also don’t charge any extra fees in the future, should you need to update your address or other details.
It was also pretty easy to find the price of this service on the PetScanner website, which was encouraging. They state that they are the lowest cost DEFRA compliant pet database in the UK.
The only thing you need to know is that – unless you cancel it – the £2.99 fee will recur every 3 months. Don’t worry, though. If you cancel this via your PayPal account then your pet’s details will still remain on the database and you can still update your pet’s microchip details for free at a later date.
Why Pay More?
So, although £19.99 isn’t a huge amount to pay to register your dog or cat on a government approved microchipping database, it’s still more than you really need to pay. We hope that this post will help to save you a few pounds that you can spend on treats for you beloved pet instead.
Thank you so much for this! For a number of reasons I recently realised SmartTrace (and SmartBreeder) are a really shoddy company with no morals (they try to get people to leave 5 star reviews by making only 5 stars an option on trustpilot and offering 10% off the £19.99 fee – but then they don’t give you the discount. So I’m actively making sure they never have a penny of my money… and I didn’t realise I could choose a different company! You have made my day 🙂 Thanks
THANKS VERY MUCH FOR THE RESEARCH!
This is ridiculous to be so stingy.
Price gouging costs consumers billions every year. It’s people like you that make it possible.
Many thanks for this. Smarttrace are a bunch of useless so & so’s. Rubbish website, rubbish customer service, rubbish payment web portal. Thanks again for doing this.
Kind regards,
Andy
No problem, glad it helped! Not keen on paying more than I have to for things.
well done and thank you saved me gaving to go through each website.
Your breeder should have registered the microchip in your name then it would have cost you nothing
Interesting to know, thanks!
Thanks for this. AnimalMicrochips wanted £15 to register and the breeder had already paid. Used Petscanner Ltd for £2.99 which included Petscanner Pet Protection free for the first three months free. Thanks again.
Glad it helped Dave. £12 better in your pocket isn’t it.
It certainly is Adam! Thanks again
Thanks so much for this. The petscanner website seems a much better service than Microchip Central which I registered my other cat with and that was £17.99
No problem, glad it helped 👍🏼 I found the website easy to use too.
thank you adam, I had been trolling through when found your post. So much help.
Thanks Annie, glad it was useful.
not sure abiut the recurrent fee u taked about. what if i pay through bqnk account? doni need to.cancel again? is it somethi like a direct debit?? thanks!
Amazing – thanks! You’ve made a job that looked like hard work a lot easier
Thanks for this, I was nearly caught by the same (in my opinion) SmartTrace scam. mypethq.io you can register a chip for £1.99, is also goverment approved and you don’t have to cancel a subscription. But PetScanner is also a good price for £2.99.
Yeah we added them to the list in the post recently. I think they only recently got government approval, so weren’t an option at the time of writing. Cheers for sharing 👍🏼
Many thanks Adam and Ben – just used mypethq.io and very happy.
My new puppy’s breeder gave me a leaflet for Animal Microchips, but I was unimpressed with the website failing to load, and then with the unprofessional guy I spoke to on the phone. They’re currently charging a one-off £18 fee, which the guy claimed is “the cheapest of the 7 or so available”. Tripe. I’m glad I said I’d do my research and call him back if he was indeed the best option.
Many thanks again for sharing and for your work in researching the options 🙂
Wow thanks Ben, just saved me quite a few pounds registering a rescue cat.
Much appreciated!
Great to hear Ben!
Thank you. I used this service
We buy our microchips from idlogic and register them on Animal Tracker, it’s free to register, or you can pay a one off fee of £7.95 for a premium account which lets you register 5 pets, works out at £1.60 per pet, much cheaper.
Animal Tracker is no longer free.
They don’t show pricing until the last step of registration. I’ve checked through their entire website.
Thanks for sharing 👍🏼
Thank you for posting this. Saved us a bit of money 🙂
No problem David, glad it helped 👍🏼
Thank you so much for this post. It has saved me a lot of money. As a first time dog owner, I was about to pay £30 a year with Identibase as I didn’t understand the system.
Hi thanks for this its really helpful. We have just taken ownership of a puppy and the chip info said it was with Identibase. I couldn’t find it on their website though. I looked into updating to my details it did say it’s,£30 per year which us disgusting! Their Trust pilot reviews are terrible as well. I’ve messaged them to let me know if the microchip really is registered with them and in the meantime I had a go at registering the chip with Petscan and it let me do it so I’m assuming it hadn’t already been registered with Identibase. Will be interested to hear from Identibase at all as the poor trust pilot reviews say they are really hard to reach.
If you are looking for a company to last then don’t look for the cheapest. There is a cost to holding the data and suppling it to the correct authority when the Pet is lost. Also consider the cost of changing you details if you move and is the charge per animal or per customer. Really it sounds a helpful article but it is missing so much
Fantastic write up Ben, so helpful. Just signed up with MyPet for £1.99, instead of £19.95 with SmartTrace! Like many, I didn’t realise you were free to register your pet with any Defra registered company & not tied to the one who supplied the microchip.
Hang on – Smarttrace – £19.99
Petscanner – your dog lives for 12 years @ £2.99 every three months.
THat is 144 months / 3 = 48 payments of £2.99 = £143.52 (Less the first free 3 months) = £140.53
What am I missing?
HomeAgain seems to be a free option these days, if anyone comes across this blog post these days.