Car Insurance Articles

Green Auto Insurance Policies: Paperless Handling from National Providers

2008-06-02

More and more national auto insurance providers are turning to new and improved billing methods to save environmental resources, and some say it’s about time.

As environmental and financial costs of direct mail and paper products continue to rise, large auto insurance providers are giving drivers the option to go paperless, showing that somebody somewhere is looking at the bottom line for global ecology along with the quarterly numbers.

Progressive has implemented their paperless program, and policy holders can take advantage of it easily, with just a couple of quick steps.

Drivers sign up on the web site, acquiring a user name and password.

Then, they inform the company of their desire for paperless policy handling, and everything goes the way of the web; from policy changes or amendments to bill status, Progressive emits detailed emails to customers without the help of the U.S. Postal Service.

Not to be outdone in playing to a consumer audience motivated by an ever increasing variety of factors, other big auto insurance providers have joined the fray.

Geico drivers can use the company’s web site to sign up for paperless service, where the Gecko will preside over the transfer from his online perch.

Auto insurance companies try to keep track of a few details about the auto insurance policies of drivers opting into the paperless network.

Email verification is important, as is having another contact (such as a phone number) for driver who may not be ever-present online to pay for their policies.

Since lots of drivers only buy liability auto insurance, and many purchase their policies by the year or half-year, for many drivers, it’s an out of sight/out of mind scenario.

Even for those drivers who pay the higher monthly premiums, the administration of their auto insurance policies might not rank high on their daily list of desired activities, or even show up on a list of top 10 debts for payment.

So companies still have to go the extra mile in contacting delinquent auto insurance policy holders to make sure paperless service isn’t just a highway to mass default of accounts to credit collection agencies.

The problems associated with paperless communications can seem formidable: with literally millions of clients, a national auto insurance company can’t go knock on a customer’s door, and without the previous system of direct mail notices, you’ll only have one tiny email subject line to keep bill payment on your mental horizon.

But still, paperless options represent a new face of the auto insurance market, a turning point for companies that always relied on paper products to sell their services, and a new dedication to dealing with a serious global problem.