How SnapRefund Is Transforming Insurance Payments

Published Date: 04/23/2024

For decades, the insurance industry has been defined by caution, paperwork, and delay. From claim checks that take weeks to arrive to billing systems that make agents pull their hair out, one of America’s most essential industries has also been one of its slowest to innovate.

But that’s beginning to change.



Enter Cody Eddings, co-founder and CEO of SnapRefund, a Philadelphia-based FinTech–InsurTech hybrid tackling one of the least glamorous—but most critical—challenges in the insurance world: payments.

From simplifying agency billing to helping insurers pay claims in minutes instead of weeks, SnapRefund is quietly reshaping how money moves through the entire insurance ecosystem. And in doing so, it’s helping rebuild trust between carriers, brokers, and consumers.

Origins: From Financial Literacy Mission to InsurTech Innovation

The idea for SnapRefund didn’t start in insurance at all. In 2019, Eddings and co-founder Anis Taylor set out to build a peer-to-peer payment app focused on improving financial literacy in underserved communities.

They envisioned an app that rewarded users for learning about personal finance — earning tokens that could be redeemed for high-value resale items like PlayStations, sneakers, or tech gadgets. The goal was social impact: empowering people to make smarter financial choices through interactive learning.

But the reality of building a payments app from scratch soon hit hard. Competing with giants like Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle proved nearly impossible without massive banking access and scale.

“We realized quickly that while the mission was great, the business model wasn’t sustainable,” Eddings told The Insurance Hour host Karl Susman.

“We were paying dozens of cents per transaction while the big players were paying fractions of a cent.”

That realization forced a pivot — a hallmark of every resilient startup story.

The Pivot: Discovering a Broken Insurance Payments System

While exploring other use cases for their instant payment technology, Eddings and Taylor noticed something startling: despite advances in digital finance, nearly 70% of all insurance claims in the U.S. were still paid by paper check.

In a world where consumers can send money instantly between smartphones, insurance companies — handling some of life’s most urgent financial events — were still printing and mailing checks, then waiting for them to clear.

“When someone needs money for a claim payment,” Eddings said, “that’s a really sensitive time. They might be displaced from their home. They might not have a hotel room yet. Waiting for a check just adds to the hardship.”

That insight became the foundation of SnapRefund’s mission: to make insurance payments fast, transparent, and human-centered.

ClaimSnap: Digitizing the Claims Payout Experience

The first major product born from this mission was ClaimSnap, designed to help insurance carriers, MGAs, and third-party administrators (TPAs) disburse claim payments and refunds seamlessly.

ClaimSnap integrates directly into an insurer’s system, giving claimants multiple digital options for receiving funds — bank transfer, instant payment rails, or digital debit — while still supporting paper checks when required for compliance.

The platform’s strength lies in its simplicity and transparency. Policyholders receive a secure email link that allows them to choose how they want to be paid. The process gives them control and visibility — two things long missing from the traditional claims experience.

“People often assume insurers are intentionally withholding their money,” Eddings explained. “In reality, the process is just slow and complex. ClaimSnap makes it simple, fast, and transparent.”

Speed isn’t just about convenience; it’s also about cost. The longer a claim stays open, the more it costs insurers. By accelerating payouts, companies reduce administrative drag, lower overall claim costs, and improve customer satisfaction.

As Susman put it, “Faster payouts aren’t just good for the claimant — they’re good for the insurer’s bottom line and, ultimately, for every policyholder.”

AgentSnap: Automating Agency Billing and Commission Flows

After ClaimSnap, Eddings and his team turned to another persistent pain point: agency billing.

Agents repeatedly told them that selling policies was the easy part. The real headache was managing the complex cash flow between clients, brokers, general agents, and carriers. Payments were often manual, fragmented, and prone to errors.

SnapRefund responded with AgentSnap, a digital platform that automates agency billing from end to end.

Here’s how AgentSnap works:

• The agent sends a single secure payment link to the customer.
• The customer signs and pays directly through that link.
• AgentSnap automatically splits and distributes funds — depositing commissions into the agent’s account and remitting net premiums and taxes to the appropriate carriers.

“Once the agent sends the link, they can sit back and relax — or go sell their next policy,” Eddings said. “We want to give them time back to focus on what they do best — building relationships and helping clients.”

AgentSnap simplifies payment flows, strengthens compliance, reduces processing errors, and creates a smoother client experience. What once required multiple steps, signatures, and phone calls is now a single, streamlined transaction.

Rebuilding Trust Through Faster, Transparent Payments

At its core, SnapRefund’s innovation isn’t just about speed — it’s about trust.

Insurance companies are often perceived as slow, opaque, or even reluctant to pay. Eddings argues that perception is outdated and often unfair. Carriers want claims closed quickly; delays frequently stem from antiquated systems, not bad intent.

By enabling instant, trackable, and transparent payments, platforms like ClaimSnap and AgentSnap help reset that narrative.

“When insurers use tools that make the process faster and clearer, it changes the entire dynamic,” said Eddings. “It shows policyholders that the company is trying to help, not hinder them.”

Strategic Partnerships: Plugging Into the Insurance Ecosystem

SnapRefund’s technology has already attracted major industry partners.

The company joined Guidewire’s InsurTech Vanguard program, aligning its products with one of the world’s most widely used claims management platforms. It also partnered with Benekiva, a leading claims automation system serving life insurance carriers.

“Benekiva’s system takes you right up to the claim approval,” Eddings explained. “Our system takes over from there — getting the payment out instantly. It’s a natural fit that creates an end-to-end solution for insurers.”

These partnerships reflect a growing trend in InsurTech: open ecosystems where specialized platforms integrate seamlessly rather than trying to replace one another.

The strategy is paying off. SnapRefund won the State Farm Pitch Competition at the 2023 InsurTech Connect Conference — one of the industry’s most prestigious startup stages.

Looking Ahead: Premium Finance and Payment Flexibility

Eddings and Taylor are now focused on expanding payment flexibility within AgentSnap, including integrated premium finance options.

For many commercial clients, insurance premiums can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. Premium financing allows policyholders to spread payments over time without disrupting coverage.

SnapRefund’s vision is to embed that financing into the same payment workflow, so customers can choose to pay by card, ACH, Cash App, or financing — all from a single interface.

“It’s about options,” Eddings said. “We want to remove every barrier between an agent and a sale — and between a customer and the coverage they need.”

As inflation and rising rates strain both insurers and consumers, this kind of cash-flow flexibility has become a crucial lifeline. “Insurance premiums are higher than ever,” noted Susman, “and anything that makes it easier for people to pay is a win.”

A Modern, Remote-First InsurTech Team

Despite its growing profile, SnapRefund remains lean and agile. The company operates remotely, with Eddings based in Philadelphia and Taylor running operations from Southern California. Their distributed team includes six engineers and several interns.

It’s a quintessential post-pandemic startup model — fully digital, highly collaborative, and built on modern infrastructure.

“My home office is also my living room and my Netflix spot,” Eddings joked. “It’s all-in-one — very 2024.”

Balancing Growth, Compliance, and Security

Handling money in insurance is serious work. With payments flowing between policyholders, agents, and carriers, disputes are inevitable.

Eddings is candid about this reality and emphasizes SnapRefund’s commitment to compliance and fairness. Disputes are handled transparently through established banking networks and protocols such as ACH return codes and credit card dispute mechanisms, with clear accountability for both agents and clients.

“We’ve learned the hard way that you have to protect both sides,” Eddings said. “Our job is to make the system fair and efficient, not to take sides.”

That focus on security and neutrality is critical in an industry built on trust — and it’s a big part of why SnapRefund is earning credibility in both the FinTech and InsurTech worlds.

The Bottom Line: Modernizing How Insurance Moves Money

At its core, SnapRefund isn’t just building software — it’s redefining how insurance operates at the speed of modern life.

By stripping friction out of payments — whether for claims, refunds, or commissions — the company is tackling one of the industry’s most overlooked but transformative frontiers.

Eddings sums it up simply:

“When you make payments faster, you make insurance better — for everyone.”