As a veterinarian who worked for Banfield for 2.5 years.... STAY AWAY!!!
Their wellness plans are a rip-off. Seriously.
I'm assuming based on your description and pricing that you're looking at their mid-level plan (no idea what they currently call it, used to be Basic Plus). Basically what you're getting is their annual preventive care and a dental cleaning on a yearly basis. I can say that at the clinic in which I currently work (non-corporate high-quality clinic in a high-COL area), annual exam/vaccines and a yearly dental cleaning would probably cost around $400/yr, depending on which vaccines your dog needed in a given year. Okay, so you're even there. But here are some things to consider...
- Banfield's prices on everything else (especially surgeries) are INCREDIBLY high. When I worked for Banfield, most surgical procedures could be done by the board-certified surgeons at the specialty hospital for much less than the Banfield price. I frequently referred clients to the specialist or too other local clinics because our prices were just way too high for me to be comfortable with charging. Our hospitalization fees were higher than I have ever seen elsewhere. IV catheter charge higher than elsewhere Etc, etc. So if your dog ever has a serious illness, your prices at Banfield (even with your wellness plan discount) will likely be higher than what you would have paid at an independent veterinarian.
- The office visits are free, but no diagnostics are included. Say your dog goes in for an ear infection... your exam is free, but there may be an extra fee added on for an otoscopic exam. (This is part of a standard physical exam and is included at no charge by most vet clinics, but Banfield demands that their doctors charge separately for that. Many doctors try to avoid it, but their ability to get away with that is determined by local field leadership and their practice manager.) Your dog is limping? Be prepared for a 'lameness exam' add-on fee. The exam is free, but the still expect the doctors to generate >$100/visit, so expect a lot of expensive add-ons. The doctors aren't trying to rip you off, but they're stuck trying to keep their jobs.
- Their pricing looks attractive because they include the prices for a lot of vaccines in showing you the savings of the wellness plan. A 10 year old dog should only be receiving a rabies vaccine every 3 years, a distemper/parvo vaccine every 3 years, and a bordetella vaccine yearly (IF they board or go to a groomer). Maybe a Lyme vaccine if you're in a Lyme-endemic area, but there's even some controversy on that. Banfield's price comparison chart will show you the prices for getting yearly rabies/distemper/parvo/bordetella/lepto/lyme, but that's not realistic because no dog needs all that.
- The dental is supposedly "Free," but expect a lot of add-on charges. Extra charges for extractions are reasonable (every vet will charge extra if there are surgical extractions), but Banfield's 'free' anesthesia is kind of a joke. Your dog needs a pain injection? You'll pay extra. A nerve block for an extraction? You'll pay extra. Your dog's heart rate drops below a certain point under anesthesia? You'll pay extra for the injection to help raise it. Your dog has a heart murmur, a single elevated liver value, or any other factor that requires a deviation from their standard cookie-cutter drug protocol? You'll pay extra for each drug. I almost never had a client with a $0 bill on their free dental. (Contrast this to where I currently work. Anesthesia is somewhere right around $80. Period. We use whatever drugs we feel are safest for your individual pet, we give pain meds if a procedure is expected to be be painful, we do nerve blocks if needed, we give emergency drugs if needed.... and it's all $80. Anesthesia is $80, period. That's how it should be.)
Hope that helps. I'd avoid it. There are some great doctors who work for Banfield, but they don't typically last due to the fact that the company focuses on profits over medicine... and clients have a very high dissatisfaction rate with the wellness plans (we were constantly pushed to try to keep our renewal rates up and that seemed to be a universal problem). It's kind of like those buy-here-pay-here places. Some broke clients found the monthly payments helpful, but in the long run they probably paid more than if they had gone to a noncorporate veterinarian.
Some of the hospitals are charter hospitals (franchises instead of corporate-owned) and those can sometimes be a bit better because they're run by a veterinarian instead of by the corporation. Charter hospitals are relatively rare, though.