PayMyPremiums by AFCO Direct

Summary

Collecting premium is necessary work, but it isn't where most agencies want their employees spending time. Following up on receivables, determining how an insured wants to pay, collecting down payments, arranging premium financing, and tracking funds can create a surprising amount of administrative work. 

PayMyPremiums brings those activities into a single digital workflow. Eligible insureds can be presented with the choice to pay the premium in full or finance it, with payment available by ACH, credit card, or debit card. If financing is selected, the premium finance process is incorporated into the experience. 

Why should agencies care? The real opportunity is reducing the agency's involvement in moving money. AFCO Direct handles billing and collection, and the agency receives the gross premium whether the insured pays in full or finances. 

What stood out during our review is the simplicity of the model. PayMyPremiums isn't trying to give the agency another payment tool to manage. It is designed to remove pieces of the billing, collection, and premium finance process from the agency's workload. 

Key Features:

• Digital premium billing and collection 
• Pay-in-full and premium finance options 
• ACH, credit card, and debit card payments 
• Digital premium finance workflow 
• Recurring ACH installments for financed premiums 
• Agency-branded payment pages 
• AMS and client-portal integrations 
• API integration options 

Best fit for:

• Agencies with meaningful agency-bill premium volume 
• Commercial agencies that regularly offer premium financing 
• Agencies spending significant employee time billing and following up on receivables 
• Agencies using AMS360, Sagitta, InsurLink, QIV, or another environment where PayMyPremiums can be effectively integrated 
• Agencies looking to give insureds digital payment and financing choices without building separate internal workflows 

May not be ideal for:

• Agencies with very little agency-bill business 
• Agencies whose clients rarely need premium financing 
• Agencies satisfied with an existing payment and financing workflow that requires little employee involvement 
• Agencies whose technology environment cannot provide the desired level of workflow integration 

Deeper Dive

The Problem Being Solved: Agency-bill business creates work that doesn't end when coverage is bound. The agency still has to invoice the client, collect the premium, follow up when payment doesn't arrive, handle the down payment when financing is needed, arrange financing, and ultimately make sure funds get where they need to go. 

PayMyPremiums is designed to move much of that activity into one digital process. 

Instead of asking an insured how they intend to pay and then initiating the appropriate workflow, eligible invoices can present both pay-in-full and financing choices. The insured selects the option that works for them and continues through the corresponding digital process. 

For agencies with meaningful agency-bill volume, that distinction matters. 

Why It Matters to Agencies: Receivables consume employee time and tie up agency cash. PayMyPremiums reports that its customers can reduce average days' receivables by as much as 80%, and that 60% of invoices are paid within 24 hours. Those are vendor-reported results rather than outcomes every agency should assume, but they illustrate the operational problem the platform is designed to address. 

There can also be a revenue consideration. Automatically presenting premium financing means eligible clients are consistently given that option rather than financing being offered only when an employee remembers to discuss it. Where permitted and applicable, that can create additional premium finance revenue for the agency. 

We think the larger benefit, however, is employee capacity. The less time an agency spends billing, collecting, following up, and manually arranging financing, the more time employees have for insurance work that requires their expertise. 

What Stood Out to Us: What stood out during our review is that PayMyPremiums connects the payment decision with the premium finance decision. 

Many payment solutions make it easier for an insured to send money. PayMyPremiums goes further by presenting eligible insureds with both pay-in-full and financing options and then supporting the selected path. 

We also like that AFCO Direct receives the insured's payment and provides the agency with the gross premium whether the client pays in full or finances. That directly addresses the agency's receivable problem rather than simply digitizing the front end of the transaction. 

The integrations are another practical strength. Connections with AMS360, Sagitta, InsurLink, QIV, and Prevail Network create opportunities to put the payment and financing process closer to workflows agencies and insureds are already using. 

Final Thoughts

We came away impressed by how specifically PayMyPremiums addresses an unglamorous but expensive agency problem: getting premium collected. The combination of digital payments and premium financing is important because it reduces the number of decisions and manual steps agency employees have to manage. 

The fact that the service is free to agencies also changes the evaluation. Rather than starting with software cost, agency leaders can compare their current process against PayMyPremiums based primarily on workflow, integration, client experience, and the amount of employee time currently devoted to receivables and premium financing. 

For an agency principal, PayMyPremiums is worth further evaluation if agency-bill collections and premium finance are creating meaningful administrative work. We would look closely at how much time your team currently spends invoicing, collecting, following up, and arranging financing. If that number is significant, moving more of that responsibility into a single digital workflow could have a meaningful operational impact. 

* Unbiased review based upon information and insights available at the time of publication.