Plastic Piles Up Profits for Agents, Ease for Clients
by Art Shea
It’s Sunday evening. You just got the call that your nineteen year old son was involved in a five car accident. Your new car is totaled. You meet your son at the hospital and find out everyone is going to be OK; just some minor bumps and bruises. You finally get the chance to sit down and relax after a stressful Sunday and stare at the TV not even realizing that it’s the fourth quarter of the game on Sunday Night Football. You’re thinking about the week ahead and all the things that have to be taken care of as a result of the accident. It then hits you! Did I ever send in the payment to my insurance agent for my son’s automobile policy? You immediately jump up out of the recliner and grab the stack of bills you were going to pay before this all happened. You come upon your auto insurance bill and realize that your policy is ending as of midnight tonight! You call your insurance agent’s office and get the recording that ends with “and remember, no coverage can be issued or bound without speaking to a representative.” What do you do? You cannot be without auto insurance right now or ever. The damages to your car are at the very least going to be around $7,000. You still don’t know what the damages were to the other cars and the accident was your sons fault. You ask yourself, Why doesn’t my insurance broker take online payments? I pay ALL my other bills that way.
Providing your customers with an option to pay their bills electronically has gone from being a convenience to a necessity for many merchants. Did you know that since 2004, the number of electronic transactions has exceeded those made by written check? Offering your insureds an online payment option to pay their premiums has become one of those features that can help assist you in keeping current customers, as well as bring in new business. Making it easier for your clients to do business with your company or agency is what can differentiate you from your competition.
Offering an online payment solution serves as a great tool for reducing reinstatements and policy cancellations. Your office is now able to accept payments twenty-four hours daily, all year long. One of the most popular online credit/debit card payment systems is Xpress-pay.com from Systems East, Inc. Through the combined efforts of Systems East and EVO MerchantServices, Xpress- Pay.com has become the preferred online payment collections system in the Insurance Industry. In fact, the unique flexibility of Xpress-Pay.com makes it the ideal eCommerce solution for any industry that wants to extend the convenience of electronic payments to its customers.
James Buttino, President of Systems East, notes “In addition to being the most comprehensive solution for today, businesses must select a solution that will provide a path to the future, specifically the mobile platforms. Our offering will combine technologies to encourage prompt, even immediate payment, elevate customer security, and leverage our investments to reduce office expense.”
In 2009, Systems East partnered with another New York based company, EVO Merchant Services. EVO is the largest privately held credit card processor and among the top ten largest non-banking credit card processors in the U.S. and Canada. By the end of 2010, EVO will actively service 285,000 merchants processing 380 million transactions annually, with a total value of over $26 billion.
Among the many features offered by Xpress-Pay.com is the ability to accommodate the smallest agency to the largest carrier. Xpress-Pay.com offers a standalone interface where firms can post bills or accept ad hoc payments for any purpose. Larger entities can still respond to visitors with their own, more sophisticated web sites, but refer to the branded secure shopping cart component for the payment. Numerous other features are included, such as email billing notification, payment by card or eCheck, payment reports and files, constant enhancements, and more. Xpress- Pay.com even offers a bilingual telephone payment solution through its PCI/DSS compliant website.
How does the Xpress-Pay.comsoftware work on your website? Xpress-Pay.comcan provide a simple payment link on your web site, or your site can determine the payment amount and a “Make payment” button that will call the branded shoppingcart, complete with your graphics. Either way, your customer will then be navigated thru a step by step process to provide their payment information in a PCI/DSS compliant website. Since Xpress-pay.com software does not store any cardholder information, the risk of data compromise is vastly reduced. Xpress-pay.comprovides an additional layer of protection for you and your customers by processing the complete transaction away from your website.
Xpress-pay.comcan accommodate electronic payments at no additional charge to the insurance company, agency or broker. The visitor knows at the time of the transaction whether the payment was accepted or declined. Once the transaction is accepted, all funds are guaranteed to be deposited into your designated bank accounts within two business days. How do you know that a payment has been made? One of the key features of the EVO/Xpress- Pay.com software is its reporting system. As Primary Administrator on the account, you can run reports at any time of the day. All transactions are in real time and are time stamped so you can check to see if a payment was made prior to its policy expiration. Technically, coverage can be bound at the time of the transaction once the approval has been given. Xpress-Pay.com also offers an option where an email alert is sent to your insured’s email address each time they make a payment. Only those payments that were accepted will show up on the reports. The other great thing about an online payment system is that there is no risk of error or misappropriation of funds. Plus there is no staff intervention since the proceeds are deposited into your Premium account. An insurance company, Agency or Broker can choose from the following options with regards to the handling of the processing fees associated with online payments: Split Charge: This is a very popular option for Insurance Agencies who are primarily dealing with Direct Bills from the Carrier. All processing fees are paid by the insured. This is a great option for accepting a deposit on a policy or facilitating a payment over the phone to prevent policy cancellation or reinstatement. Minimal cost to the Insurance Agency and all processing fees are disclosed to the insured on the website. No more incorporating a “fee” for credit card payment in your broker fees. All processing fees are listed as a separate line item on the insured’s credit card statement. Split Fee: This is also a popular option for Insurance Companies. The Direct Bill Insurance Company absorbs the majority of the processing fees but offsets some of the costs by charging a small nominal “flat rate” to the insured. The Insurance Company will benefit from getting their money faster than conventional checks and participation by the insured’s will be very significant. The lower cost to the visitor increases participation.
Conventional: The processing fees are split between the Insured and the Insurance Company. The insured pays a flat percentage regardless of card type and the difference in processing fees are borne by the Insurance Company. This scenario reduces the amount the insured pays but it still represents a percentage rather than a flat fee. Absorbed by Merchant: All processing fees are paid by the Insurance Company or Agent. This is a popular option for Direct Carriers who benefit from receiving their funds faster and providing an added convenience to their insured’s. There is $0 cost to the insured and participation is optimal. It should be noted that the other payment option, electronic checks, can be incorporated into any of the above options as well as IVR (integrated voice recognition) for a nominal fee.
National Director of Online Payment Solutions, Pat Hayes, and partner and managing director, Mary Hayes, are an Independent Sales Organization for EVO Merchant Services. They have been spearheading the sales of the Xpress-Pay.com product for EVO within the insurance industry with a tremendous amount of success. Pat and Mary are members of PIA, CIB and YIP in the New York area and actively exhibit at all the PIA sponsored RAP conferences. EVO/Xpress-pay.com will also be a Gold Sponsor for the CIB in 2011. Service has always been the primary focus of all successful insurance professionals. Pat and Mary, with over sixty years of combined sales experience, also recognize the importance of servicing their clients, not just at the time of sale, but as an ongoing relationship. As online payment systems are relatively new to the insurance industry, they spend time to educate the staffs at all levels of their insurance company clients. Once the Xpress-Pay.com system is integrated with your company website, Pat and Mary will help you publicize to your customers that this online payment system is now available. Inclusion of a notice on all your bills, newsletters, press releases, and email blasts informing your customers that this service is available is imperative to public awareness and the overall success of your eCommerce program.
eCommerce has become a necessary tool for any business expecting to compete in today’s marketplace. In the future, eCommerce in all forms will be even more important to your ability not only to thrive, but to survive. The EVO/Xpress-Pay.com solution is ready now, and your customers are patiently waiting. As this convenience evolves into an expectation, be sure your firm is optimally positioned to accommodate the demands of the marketplace.
For more information about Xpress- Pay.com, please contact Pat or Mary Hayes at 516-962-7714, or via email phayes@goe vo.comor mhayes@goevo.com.
