Direct Deposit Service Takes The Hassle Out Of Payment Processing
A Northeastern-based insurance underwriter is working with its independent agent base to make payments hassle-free, and at the same time, cut down on the complications resulting from late payments or bad checks.
Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation has adopted Web Pay, a direct deposit service that allows an agency to immediately post client payments to the company from the policyholders bank account to avoid late payments and cancellation notices.
The Boston-based auto insurance underwriters Massachusetts independent agent force now takes advantage of the service, provided by Portsmouth, N.H.-based Bottom Line Technology, said Mark Sweeney, vice president, marketing, at Plymouth Rock.
Under the system, a customer gives the agency his or her bank account number, bank routing number, and amount of payment. A customer service representative can then do the rest by logging into Web Pays secure Internet site and completing the information for the transaction.
For cash transactions, the agency can use its own bank account, the company said. Customers can also call the information in to the service to save a trip to the agency.
All of the transactional information is kept by the agency, Mr. Sweeney said.
Ray Harris, underwriting operations manager for Plymouth Rock, said one of the advantages to using Web Pay is that it requires little training to use.
Plymouth Rock began a pilot program of Web Pay in March and expanded it in April, Mr. Sweeney noted.
Today, more than 175 agents have signed on to the program, transacting more than 700 payments a day, and the number continues to grow, said Sue ORourke, underwriting operations manager for Plymouth Rock.
"The feedback has been a very, very positive reaction," Mr. Sweeney remarked.
Another advantage to using Web Pay, pointed out Ms. ORourke, is that the agency does not have to wait and see if there are insufficient funds in the customers account. The transaction is completed the next day.
"It cuts down on the game playing," Ms. ORourke observed.
And the convenience of the service appears to be most popular with new accounts, she added.
According to Mr. Sweeney, Web Pay allows the agency to get a report of all payments applied to client accounts on any given day. The report can be received on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. In the future, if a mistake is made, instead of cutting a check to the client, a credit would be applied directly to the customers bank account.
As the service becomes more popular, other possible uses envisioned include making claim payments and deposits directly to a clients account, the company said. In addition, agents would not have to wait for their commission checks to arrive in the mail; instead, that too could be deposited directly to their accounts.
"It can not only speed up the process of getting money into the company, but also to outside parties," Mr. Sweeney remarked.
Plymouth Rocks sister company, Bunker Hill, also based in Boston, which writes homeowners policies, is adopting Web Pay for its customers, said Mr. Sweeney. Palisades Safety and Insurance Association, of Summit, N.J., a Plymouth Rock company, is also looking into the program, he noted.
The program also recently moved out to the Connecticut market, the company said.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, October 21, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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