Is Your Microchipped Pet Fully Protected?
A chip alone is not enough. Registration, up-to-date details, a collar tag and insurance each play a part in keeping your pet safe, and each is simple to sort.
Getting your pet chipped is the first step. Full protection also takes a registered chip with your current details, a collar tag, and a decision on insurance.
What a registered chip does for your pet
When a found pet is scanned, the chip provides a number that can be matched to your contact details on a database. That chain is what gets a pet home. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home’s 2026 report found that 84% of stray dogs chipped in full compliance were reunited with their owner, against 19% of those with no chip.
Our guide to working out which microchip database your pet is on walks you through checking. If the chip was never registered, or the record isn’t in your name, you can register the microchip yourself.
Collar tags and Smart Pet Tags
A tag can be read by anyone who finds your dog, without a scanner. In England, Scotland and Wales, a dog must wear a collar and tag showing the owner’s name and address in a public place, even if it’s microchipped. In Northern Ireland, a dog needs a licence that depends on an accurate microchip record. Despite the law, only 2.6% of stray dogs in Battersea’s 2026 report were wearing a collar and tag with correct information.
The Smart Pet Tag is a collar tag with a QR code that opens your pet’s Pet Database record when scanned. It costs £14.99 plus postage and packing, and it has no GPS, so it can’t track your pet. When someone scans it, they see the contact information you’ve chosen to show, and you’re notified by text and email each time it’s scanned. That means a finder can reach you straight away.
Where pet insurance fits in
Insurance is a different kind of protection. A microchip helps a lost pet get home; insurance helps with the vet bills when they’re ill or injured, and one doesn’t replace the other.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says a record 4.6 million pet owners took out insurance in 2024, and the average claim that year came to £685. The average premium was £389 a year in 2023.
Keeping your details current
It’s worth updating the record every time you move or change phone number, and checking it once in a while even when nothing has changed. In a 2026 survey, owners said they last checked their pet’s details an average of 15 weeks ago, and almost a third never check them. If you can’t remember the last time, that’s the sign to look.
If you’ve just taken on a pet from a breeder or rescue, don’t assume the record was transferred to you. Our steps for what to do after your pet is chipped cover getting the record into your name.
Pet Database runs a free chip checker. Enter a 15-digit microchip number and it searches the main UK databases together, then tells you whether that chip is registered anywhere and which database holds the record. If yours sits somewhere unexpected, that’s the moment to update it or move it.
Whether you insure or not, get the registered chip and your current details right first, then add your pet to Pet Database and decide what else they need.
