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Effective Insurance Payment Solutions

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedFeb 20232 min read

Insurance businesses juggle a variety of tasks, from managing risk to processing premiums. Insurance payment solutions can help with the latter by ensuring secure, convenient payment processing for customers. In this guide, we’ll discuss why this is so important for the insurance industry, as well as how to find the best insurance broker payment solution.

Why do you need insurance payment solutions?

The nature of the insurance industry means that brokers must take recurring payments for premiums and policies. You’ll work with a variety of different customers in your line of work, whether you’re focusing on selling auto, life, or medical insurance. All these customers come with their own set of expectations. Some might prefer to make large one-time payments, while others will want to spread the cost of a policy out over time.

With insurance payment solutions, you’ll be able to cater to these various customer preferences and offer a wide range of payment methods. Automating the process with billing software is also helpful because it cuts down on the hassle of late payments and all their associated fees. With the best software and accompanying integrations, you can deliver a seamless multichannel payment experience both to in-person clients as well as online customers.

What challenges does the insurance industry face?

Perhaps the biggest payment challenge that insurance brokers face today is the shift to digital formats. You might serve long-term customers without ever meeting them face to face, but they’ll still require a high level of communication. To recommend the best products and ensure smoother customer service, this calls for connection between your digital touchpoints.

Whether your customers make payments through a portal on your website or via an app, they want to know their payments are accurate and secure. Another challenge to be aware of is the rise of usage-based insurance policies. For example, it’s now common to offer auto insurance based on mileage. A good insurance payment solution needs to account for this variation in usage with flexibility.

Features to look for in insurance payment solutions

Keeping the challenges mentioned above in mind, here are some top features to look for as you compare your options.

Variety of payment methods: Does your payment solution process credit cards as well as bank transfers and digital wallets?
Chatbots: If your customer needs to speak to a customer representative, can they turn to online chatbots first rather than waiting on hold? An automated service helps support your payment solution with an easy way to access accounting details and lodge claims as needed.
Online security: A good insurance broker payment solution features all the latest security tools like tokenization. This lets customers save their payment details as encrypted tokens.
Batch payment processing: To cut down on per-transaction fees, many payment solutions process the day’s authorised transactions in bulk rather than in real time.

How to choose an insurance broker payment solution

Once you’re ready to transform your payment experience, it’s time to start comparing options. You can look for a generic payment gateway like PayPal, but it’s often better to combine this with software designed specifically for the insurance industry. No matter the platform, be sure that it accepts multiple payment methods. Keep your customer demographics and preferences in mind to deliver the best omnichannel experience. For example, if you cater to millennial customers purchasing travel policies, an app is a must for making on-the-go payments.

Recurring billing and invoicing features are also vital for insurance customers who pay monthly for their policies. With autopay, you don’t need to worry about chasing up on late payments. GoCardless is perfect for collecting insurance industry payments. You’ll be able to set up direct debit payments for automatic, recurring billing. We will also offer instant payments using the new PayTo solution as it’s rolled out in Australia. GoCardless makes payment collection easier and more cost effective for you and your customers.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.