Everyone has them, but nobody wants to use them: insurance policies. It’s precisely when a claim arises, when emotions are running high, that you need to keep a cool head. But where is the card with your insurance details? And how exactly do I fill in a claim form correctly? With the ‘Wallet-Claim’ solution, it’s really simple.
A brief moment of inattention, a jolt, a bang. The shock hits hard, the adrenaline surges. And whilst you’re still trying to make sense of the situation, the next question already pops into your head: how do I report this to my insurance company now?
Until now, it’s often been a case of rummaging through the glove compartment or your wallet for the insurance card. More often than not, it’s left at home and isn’t much help at that moment. Some insurers offer an app for reporting claims. But when have you ever used it? Often, you don’t even have the login details to hand. Not an ideal solution in stressful situations. This is precisely where a new service comes in, developed by the IT service provider Materna in collaboration with insurers.
Instead of an app or a plastic insurance card, customers receive a virtual insurance card by email when they take out a policy. This can be stored directly in their smartphone wallet, just like a boarding pass or other loyalty cards. In the event of a claim, all it takes is a single tap on this card to immediately start the claims process. Alternatively, simply tapping the insurer’s contact in the address book – which provides a direct link to the claims form – is sufficient.
“Customers have no emotional connection to an insurance company,” says Bernd Lohmeyer, an insurance expert at Materna. “After all, you never really want to have to make a claim. We therefore looked for a way that didn’t even require customers to install an app,” he explains.
But it’s not just the card that’s been digitised. The entire claims process can be completed quickly and easily. Policyholders can take and send photos of the accident scene. The sequence of events leading up to the accident can be dictated as easily as a voice message. The system even understands emotional descriptions.
“You can even rant about the other party involved in the accident – the system converts your comments into a proper claim report. In an emotional situation, which an insurance claim often is, this is a great help,” says Lohmeyer.
The other party’s details can also be recorded easily – via a photo. The system automatically extracts them and transfers them into the claim form.
For policyholders, this means one thing above all: fewer hurdles, no installation, no change of medium, and no complicated forms. The entire process is mobile, intuitive and takes just a few minutes.
But it is not just customers who benefit from Wallet-Claim. Insurers are under increasing pressure: claims ratios are rising, and fraud schemes are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also being used in this context, for example to generate photorealistic images of bodywork damage and submit them to the insurer.
Wallet-Claim, however, intervenes at an earlier stage: rather than checking uploaded images retrospectively, the solution prevents the submission of fake photos from the outset. The photos are taken exclusively in a secure environment. The system embeds invisible security metadata directly into the images: GPS location, data from the accelerometer, and device orientation. This means that an AI-generated image cannot be submitted in the first place.
“In this way, we take the pressure off insurers,” explains Lohmeyer. For channels such as email or the claims form on the website, fraud detection remains indispensable – as customers can upload any images they like there. “Wallet-Claim, on the other hand, renders fraud detection unnecessary for its channel, because fraud cannot take place in the first place,” says Lohmeyer.
Wallet-Claim therefore benefits both sides. Policyholders can report claims in a matter of minutes. Insurers receive structured and verified data in real time.
