Findings from a call with ManyPets’ Head of Complaints

After writing about our experience of insuring Hyko with ManyPets, I was invited to speak with ManyPets’ Head of Complaints, Vanessa French, on 25 May 2023.

We had an hour-long call where she answered pretty much all of the questions in my original LinkedIn post. I’ve shared the highlights below.

ManyPets does take past claims into account with policy renewals

This goes back on their original promise to customers: “You won’t be singled out for making a claim.” This ‘pricing strategy’ change happened in July 2020.

ManyPets now looks at individual claims history when it’s time for your policy renewal. So if you’ve claimed more, you’ll pay more for your next policy. Internally, this is called your ‘claims rating’.

ManyPets didn’t communicate this change to customers, nor do they plan to. Customers affected by this are entitled to a £200 rebate — a number agreed with the ombudsman — but must request it from customer services. It’s not given automatically.

I said that this is unacceptable and ManyPets should automatically credit affected customers with this amount. Vanessa said she would raise this with the team.

If you were a ManyPets / Bought By Many customer before July 2020, email support@manypets.com to get your £200 rebate.

If you don’t make claims, your policy could go down

ManyPets started with a “socialist vision” where everyone pays for everyone else’s vet costs. Since then, they’ve found that customers who don’t claim are angry to see their prices increase along with everyone else’s.

I told Vanessa that my understanding of insurance is that everyone pools together to cover everyone’s costs. It’s not our fault when our pets get sick — it’s bad luck, and individuals shouldn’t be penalised for it.

This is likely to be another reason why policy prices have increased for customers who need to make claims for their pet’s treatment.

ManyPets currently pays more in claims than it receives in premiums

I don’t have much to say about this, but it feels like someone’s not doing their job quite right. And given the huge policy price hikes many people are experiencing, I have no idea how this works out.

ManyPets’ claim process takes so long because of Covid

ManyPets won lots more customers during the pandemic and didn’t have the staff to keep up with the rise in claims. They employed a second team to handle the extra claims but it hasn’t worked out and they’re disbanding the team.

ManyPets is working to speed up the claims process and plans to catch up with claims delays within the next six months.

You could get a cheaper policy by keeping your claims costs down

Now that we know ManyPets takes claim history into account with policy renewals, this means customers can potentially reduce their insurance cover by doing things like ordering their pet’s medication online, rather than getting it directly through their vet.

This is something that ManyPets currently encourages, but their messaging is slightly off. They talk about ordering meds online to avoid hitting your cover limit, but don’t point out that claiming less could also help you get a cheaper renewal price.

Vanessa acknowledged that ManyPets hasn’t communicated this to customers and that it would be a good idea. She also said that ManyPets is working to integrate an online prescription service into the platform, which could help to solve this issue.

ManyPets’ claims dashboard is junk

You can’t see details about when you claimed and when the claim was settled, or the documents you uploaded with the claim. And you can’t see a running total of claims made in the year, so you don’t know where you stand in relation to the amount of cover you have.

By making this information visible, ManyPets could encourage customers to keep claims down and reiterate that this could lead to lower premium costs upon renewal.

Apparently, ManyPets is working to improve the claims dashboard. I suggested that they share what they’re working on in the form of a public product roadmap, so customers know what features they can expect in the future.

ManyPets is considering doing more to educate customers about the lifetime cost of owning a pet

While ManyPets has done some education about the cost of pet ownership on its blog, I said that this isn’t enough. This information has to be a core part of the product, highlighted where everyone can see it — not just those who do the research.

ManyPets is thinking about introducing a calculator when you sign up for insurance. This calculator would show you what you could pay in insurance over your pet’s lifetime based on current data and projections.

It’s a complicated thing to implement tech-wise but I think it’s vital, and could help (potential) pet owners make educated decisions about whether to buy or adopt a pet and take out insurance.