Here in the Caribbean, paying for insurance works a little differently than in the Netherlands. 'Many people still like to drive to the insurer, pay with cash or pin at the counter and then get a payment confirmation. Then the payments are processed manually,' says Vincent.
The rules are also sometimes slightly different. Vincent: "You are only insured once your payment has been received. And without a valid insurance certificate you can't pay road tax, for example. Sometimes that means a day on the road, literally, visiting several institutions. Not very efficient of course!
Vincent still saw quite a few opportunities. 'When I returned to Curaçao in 2012 after my studies in the Netherlands, iDEAL was already here. It was completely missing here. Moreover, paying online was pricey. He continues: 'Credit and debit cards are the standard, but the costs are sky-high. As a result, you lose a large part of your margin if you offer online payments.'
That's why Sentoo was born in 2016: a payment method that now allows over 90% of people in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten to pay online through their local bank. 'You scan a QR code or click on a payment link, choose your bank and approve the payment in your secure banking app. Then the amount is directly in the recipient's account,' Vincent explains.
By now, Sentoo is impossible to imagine life without. Not for nothing, because every effort is made to make it as easy as possible for customers. 'One of our strategies is to cooperate with platforms that our customers use. We now offer an intermediate solution for our insurers, but of course it would be much nicer if that was just in ANVA itself!" says Vincent.
So he approached ANVA for a partnership. Thus was born the Sentoo add-on from ANVA. Ronald explains, "We had already been tipped off to Sentoo through our local partner ISC. And our customers, insurers and brokers, had also been eager to use it for a while. So when Vincent approached me, the choice was quickly made.
After hands were shaken and all agreements were on paper, ANVA could get to work. 'It is of course the intention that the Sentoo payment link or QR code ends up on the invoices. For that, we made adjustments on our side in ANVA 4/5, which appeared in the release of February this year,' says Ronald.
He continues: "Our partner ISC takes care of the update to the latest release of ANVA plus, the configuration of the Sentoo add-on and ensures that you, as a customer, can be up and running within a month. A real team effort in which we reinforce each other as partners.
Using Sentoo provides insurers and brokers with quite a few benefits. Vincent explains: 'Processing payments used to take a lot of time. Everything was done manually, which was also very error-prone. You just had to trust that the transcribing of information was done correctly.
Now Sentoo payments when bank files are read in, are automatically matched and zeroed in ANVA. Also, files are automatically updated and 100% of the amount is credited. This saves errors, time and costs! "Whereas credit card payments could amount to 75 guilders per transaction, Sentoo only charges 1% with a maximum of $1.50," says Vincent. To use the Sentoo add-on, you simply take out an additional subscription with Sentoo, paying per bundle.
A number of launching customers are already connected and more are expected to follow soon. Sentoo is growing rapidly and has even won an innovation prize! Now that everything is in place, we expect more and more ANVA customers to follow. And of course we will ensure continuity: in the development of our new platform ANVA 6 we will include Sentoo,' says Ronald.
Vincent adds, "By now the major banks are connected and most people can use Sentoo. In the coming years, we will focus on expanding to other islands in the Caribbean. Our goal is to deploy Sentoo wherever it makes sense to do so for greater convenience and efficiency in making online payments.
We have listed all the information for you. Read what the benefits are and watch the demo where we explain how the add-on works.
