How Do You Collect Your Agency Fees?

[NCAgent]

Hey guys,

So I'm thinking about charging fees for certain carriers or "clientele" such as the dealership auto insurance lapse-o-matics and things like that. Obviously this is while being compliant with state laws.

Here is my question:

When you are charging a fee and the people agree to it, how do you collect your fee? Do you have them write the check directly to you and then you do an agency sweep? What if they use a debit card? I can't imagine saying the client has to pay it in cash or give a check when they probably just have a debit card.

What do you do if you sell the insurance over the phone? How do you charge your fees then?

I looked at some merchant accounts but they are making it cost-prohibitive to take a debit card or check over the phone.

I'm thinking of doing this a little bit and see how it works. This is mainly for some people where I think chargebacks might be an issue but it allows the agency to make a little bit of money.

 

[CLee]

We use a web based credit card vendor called Simply Easier Payments, they're based here in NC and it doesn't cost the agency anything to use. They charge the client a "convenience fee" directly to their card. You can use it for debit/credit cards or check by phone pmts. You have to tell the client about both the policy fee and the credit card convenience fee, but honestly for the non-standard auto business it has never been an issue for us.

 

[CaptiveGuy]

Use a service like Intuit GoPayment my limit is $5000 in charges a month but I only use it 2-3 times taking direct bill policies. Most of the dealership clientale will have money orders most likely but you can take their prepaid credit card too...

 

[NCAgent]

We use a web based credit card vendor called Simply Easier Payments, they're based here in NC and it doesn't cost the agency anything to use. They charge the client a "convenience fee" directly to their card. You can use it for debit/credit cards or check by phone pmts. You have to tell the client about both the policy fee and the credit card convenience fee, but honestly for the non-standard auto business it has never been an issue for us.

This sounds interesting to me. What is the fee? How is the customer service?

 

[djs]

Be careful about charging for credit card usage, unless you are the government. There are a lot of rules about this, though I think they changed recently.

You can charge a convenience fee, if its not a credit card fee, which is probably how they word it to get around it, basically, its an online payment fee.

Clients should hate these fees.

Dan

 

[CaptiveGuy]

This sounds interesting to me. What is the fee? How is the customer service?

I think it was 2.7% per transaction may have gone up. It's higher than if you did high volume like a convenient store but no monthly fees. I don't add the credit card fee to the agency fee etc. If it's $100 I'll get $97 sent to my account the next day and don't have to worry about a client check clearing.

 

[CLee]

Be careful about charging for credit card usage, unless you are the government. There are a lot of rules about this, though I think they changed recently.

You can charge a convenience fee, if its not a credit card fee, which is probably how they word it to get around it, basically, its an online payment fee.

Clients should hate these fees.

Dan

We don't charge the fees, the credit card company does, and yes they label it "convenience fees". It is charged directly to the client's card when the payment is processed. If they do a check by phone the fees are a lot less. We always tell the client about the fee up front and if they don't want to pay the fee, they often come in to the office and use cash/money order.
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This sounds interesting to me. What is the fee? How is the customer service?

We have been using them now for almost 2 years and have had excellent customer service and very few issues. The fees vary depending on the amount of the payment. Their phone number is 1-800-768-0907, they are based out of Durham. I had not heard of them until one day a rep from their company came into the office and showed me the system, they specialize in insurance agency payments so they understand our business.

This was the best solution we could come up with to be able to collect the policy fees over the phone.

 

[JeremyTX]

We collect cash and check, but have just signed up for a PayPal account. May look into Simply Easier Payments, that sounds like it may work much easier.