Sure and Checkout.com partner to improve payments for digital insurance

Unnerved by sudden intense turbulence during a flight to Las Vegas, Sure CEO Wayne Slavin had an idea: What if he and his fellow passengers had the option to buy life insurance on the spot? But more than that: What if it was possible to make digital insurance available to every consumer the moment they needed it most?

This concept soon blossomed into Sure, a rapidly growing insurtech that unlocks the potential of digital insurance. Sure partners with brands and carriers to cut the cost and complexity of launching digital insurance programs. Sure’s approach has already streamlined and transformed the way insurance is purchased and managed digitally, and is strengthening the bond between disruptive providers and savvy consumers.

In practice, Sure’s technology rails provide the backend network that connects two sides of the market (carriers and brands) to enable digital insurance experiences into websites, mobile interfaces, points-of-sale, and more. The company’s insurance technology rails can do everything from producing quotes for complex insurance products like auto and homeowners insurance to facilitating premium payments.

But, as you can imagine, delivering this kind of revolutionary digital insurance experience requires a very capable backend technology layer on top. Sure needed a payments provider with a hands-on approach to problem-solving that was as innovative as its own, and that’s what it found in Checkout.com.

Challenge:

The problem Sure faced was that it was relying on a single payment services provider for its complex operational needs when it needed to be multi-pronged. Sure sought to diversify its existing payment ecosystem with new players that could help it achieve its vision for a better digital insurance experience. 

In addition, Sure wanted to introduce leading embedded payments best practices to optimize its payments strategy and improve performance. 

Sure wanted to find a solution for two key business goals:

• It needed a gateway-integrated partnership for the complex insurance programs transacting on Sure’s technology network.
• A partner that would be hands on and performance-driven to help optimize digital payments for insurance in a way that other payment providers could not.

Solution:

Sure opted for a direct integration with Checkout.com to solve both. In Checkout.com it also found the kind of practical and hands-on relationship that it was looking for. 

Sure and Checkout.com have forged a strong partnership that prioritizes collaboration, innovation, and, ultimately, results. To facilitate this, Checkout.com and Sure established a dedicated Slack channel, creating a direct line of communication between their respective teams. This channel connected Checkout.com’s solutions engineers with Sure’s developers, enabling a seamless collaboration.

This allowed key stakeholders to rapidly build, test, launch and scale digital payments solutions that Sure could then deliver to its clients. 

Products and solutions that Checkout.com has implemented for Sure include:

• Payment processing for cards - Checkout.com’s payment processing solution allows Sure to accept payments from credit and debit cards from anywhere in the world with a high acceptance rate.
• Fraud Detection Pro - Checkout.com’s most advanced fraud-fighting solution. It allows Sure to create custom rules for each of its consumer profiles, and to customize its screening strategy to align with its business goals. This enables the fraud fighting solution to operate precisely in accordance with real-time data, ensuring more legitimate transactions are accepted, and more suspicious ones are blocked.
• Real-Time Account Updater - Sure has also been able to utilize Checkout.com’s Account Updater product to recover lost transactions from inactive card details and to improve customer experience. Rather than the customer having to remember to update their card details when theirs is lost, stolen, or expired, Checkout.com’s Account Updater automatically retrieves the latest details to ensure a successful payment every time.

“When Sure faced a challenge with rising card declination rates, Checkout's support team quickly stepped in. Their fast response and expertise proved valuable,” says Yarden Sachs, Chief Technology Officer. “By implementing Checkout's solutions - Real-Time Account Updater (RTAU) and optimized scheme transaction IDs - we not only solved the problem but improved our performance. Our card acceptance rates surpassed previous levels. Checkout went beyond solving our immediate issue. They shared tips for future optimization, demonstrating their commitment to our long-term success.”

Results:

As a result of implementing these measures, Checkout.com was able to deliver significant improvements to Sure’s operational efficiency and revenue, optimize its payments strategy, and limit costs. 

Between November 2023 and August 2024, Sure saw a 27% percentage improvement in authorization rates. How? Checkout.com’s experts helped Sure to identify best practices for approvals, and advised how to ensure more successful transactions in the future. 

Checkout.com’s Real-Time Account Updater also proved to be extremely impactful for Sure. It saved countless transactions each month that, before its use, would certainly have failed due to expired or lost cards. This led directly to more retained customers and an enhanced payments experience. 

Finally, Checkout.com enabled Sure to reduce costs that can add up to significant savings over the long term.

These improvements are just the beginning of what could be possible as a result of this successful relationship between Checkout.com and Sure. 

Soon, thanks to Checkout.com, even more brands and carriers will be using Sure to deliver brilliant digital insurance experiences to consumers.