Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

The content primarily discusses Alpha Direct Agency's effective implementation of digital payment processing while also detailing the website's use of various cookies—categorized as necessary for essential site functions and user experience optimization—along with options for users to customize their cookie consent preferences.

We Value Your Privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.

CustomizeReject AllAccept All

Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorised as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.... Show more

For more information on how Google's third-party cookies operate and handle your data, see: Google Privacy Policy

NecessaryAlways Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

__cf_bm

Duration

1 hour

Description

This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.

_cfuvid

Duration

session

Description

Cloudflare sets this cookie to track users across sessions to optimize user experience by maintaining session consistency and providing personalized services

li_gc

Duration

6 months

Description

Linkedin set this cookie for storing visitor's consent regarding using cookies for non-essential purposes.

elementor

Duration

Never Expires

Description

The website's WordPress theme uses this cookie. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time.

wpEmojiSettingsSupports

Duration

session

Description

WordPress sets this cookie when a user interacts with emojis on a WordPress site. It helps determine if the user's browser can display emojis properly.

Duration

1 year 1 month 4 days 1 minute

Description

Stripe sets this cookie for fraud prevention purposes. It identifies the device used to access the website, allowing the website to be formatted accordingly.

VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA

Duration

6 months

Description

YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.

_calendly_session

Duration

21 days 1 minute

Description

Calendly, a Meeting Schedulers, sets this cookie to allow the meeting scheduler to function within the website and to add events into the visitor’s calendar.

_zm_mtk_guid

Duration

session

Description

Zoom sets this cookie for the Zoom support team.

_zm_ctaid

Duration

2 hours 1 minute

Description

Zoom sets this cookie for the Zoom support team.

cookieyes-*

Duration

1 year

Description

CookieYes sets this cookie for consent solution management.

cookietest

Duration

session

Description

The cookietest cookie is typically used to determine whether the user's browser accepts cookies, essential for website functionality and user experience.

wordpress_test_cookie

Duration

session

Description

WordPress sets this cookie to determine whether cookies are enabled on the users' browsers.

CP5XKN6QLDFWUC

Duration

session

Description

This cookie is provided by the Calculated Fields form. This cookie is used by the online calculators on the website. Without the Calculated Fields cookie the instant quotation may not work.

__RequestVerificationToken

Duration

session

Description

This cookie is set by web application built in ASP.NET MVC Technologies. This is an anti-forgery cookie used for preventing cross site request forgery attacks.

ARRAffinity

Duration

session

Description

ARRAffinity cookie is set by Azure app service, and allows the service to choose the right instance established by a user to deliver subsequent requests made by that user.

ARRAffinitySameSite

Duration

session

Description

This cookie is set by Windows Azure cloud, and is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session.

Functional

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

lidc

Duration

1 day 1 minute

Description

LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.

_dc_gtm_UA-*

Duration

1 minute

Description

Google Analytics sets this cookie to load the Google Analytics script tag.

ea11y-global-state

Duration

Never Expires

Description

Elementor sets this cookie to store the persistent accessibility preferences selected by the user, such as panel visibility or interface adjustments, so these settings remain the same when the user revisits the sit

ea11y-session-state

Duration

session

Description

Elementor sets this cookie to temporarily store accessibility preferences for the duration of the current browsing session, ensuring the selected settings remain consistent while the user navigates the site.

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Duration

6 months

Description

A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.

ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY

Duration

Never Expires

Description

The cookie ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY is used by YouTube to store the last search result entry that was clicked by the user. This information is used to improve the user experience by providing more relevant search results in the future.

_zm_chtaid

Duration

2 hours 1 minute

Description

Zoom sets this cookie to facilitate video conferences via zoom from the website.

Analytics

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

__Secure-YNID

Duration

6 months

Description

YouTube cookie used to protect user security and prevent fraud, especially during the login process.

_ga

Duration

1 year 1 month 4 days 1 minute

Description

Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.

_gid

Duration

1 day 1 minute

Description

Google Analytics sets this cookie to store information on how visitors use a website while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the collected data includes the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

_ga_*

Duration

1 year 1 month 4 days 1 minute

Description

Google Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.

__rafm

Duration

session

Description

Ruler analytics sets this cookie to monitor and analyse the effectiveness of our online marketing spend.

pardot

Duration

past

Description

The pardot cookie is set while the visitor is logged in as a Pardot user. The cookie indicates an active session and is not used for tracking.

ajs_anonymous_id

Duration

Never Expires

Description

This cookie is set by Segment to count the number of people who visit a certain site by tracking if they have visited before.

ajs_user_id

Duration

Never Expires

Description

This cookie is set by Segment to help track visitor usage, events, target marketing, and also measure application performance and stability.

YSC

Duration

session

Description

YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.

vuid

Duration

1 year 1 month 4 days 1 minute

Description

Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos on the website.

navless-live-visitor

Duration

1 year 1 month 4 days

Description

Description is currently not available.

__hstc

Duration

6 months

Description

Hubspot set this main cookie for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).

hubspotutk

Duration

6 months

Description

HubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.

__hssrc

Duration

session

Description

HubSpot cookie sets this cookie to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. If this cookie does not exist when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session.

__hssc

Duration

1 hour

Description

HubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of sessions. This is used to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, viewCount (which increments with each pageview in a session), and session start timestamp.

Performance

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

_uetsid

Duration

1 day

Description

Bing Ads sets this cookie to engage with a user that has previously visited the website.

_uetvid

Duration

1 year 24 days

Description

Bing Ads sets this cookie to engage with a user that has previously visited the website.

nitroCachedPage

Duration

session

Description

Description is currently not available.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

__Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN

Duration

6 months

Description

Description is currently not available.

__Secure-YEC

Duration

past

Description

Description is currently not available.

_rdt_uuid

Duration

3 months

Description

Reddit sets this cookie to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads.

bcookie

Duration

1 year

Description

LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser IDs.

_gcl_au

Duration

3 months

Description

Google Tag Manager sets this cookie to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.

_fbp

Duration

3 months

Description

Facebook sets this cookie to store and track interactions.

MUID

Duration

1 year 24 days

Description

Bing sets this cookie to recognise unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. This cookie is used for advertising, site analytics, and other operations.

test_cookie

Duration

16 minutes

Description

doubleclick.net sets this cookie to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.

IDE

Duration

1 year 24 days

Description

Google DoubleClick IDE cookies store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads according to the user profile.

Uncategorised

Other uncategorised cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

_zitok

Duration

1 year

Description

Description is currently not available.

_helpjuice_session_v4

Duration

1 month

Description

Description is currently not available.

__Secure-BUCKET

Duration

6 months

Description

Description is currently not available.

Reject AllSave My PreferencesAccept All

Tech-savvy Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

Alpha Direct Goes Digital

Alpha Direct Agency doesn’t just embrace InsurTech. Technology is one of their core values: “ Driven to Win with Technology”.

The 17-year-old agency even offers (among other specialty lines) technology services insurance and drone liability. Licensed in 17 states, Alpha Direct Agency has offices in N ew York City, Raleigh and Miami, plus international presence in the Dominican Republic and soon in Ecuador. Clearly, technology is critical to the agency’s revenue, as well as connecting its producers to each other and to the flagship office in upper Manhattan.

Asked about his agency’s use of InsurTech solutions, Principal Emmanuel Osuyah chuckles. “We are the earliest of adopters! People look to me before they buy new software. They know if I’ve used it and recommend it, it’s going to work.”

It’s not surprising, then, that Alpha Direct Agency started offering digital payment processing way back in 2006. Notwithstanding his agency’s international footprint, Emmanuel describes his agency as locally focused. “Customers would literally take the elevator up with baby carriage in tow to find our suite.” Most paid in cash or by money order. But carrying large amounts of cash around is a hassle. And, says Emmanuel, “the cashless world has forced change on all of us.” About the decision to offer online payment, he notes: “There was a time when if you could process ACH (check) payments, you were king. We had to go there.” As for credit cards, Alpha Direct Agency is “all plastic all day long.”

He tried out a series of payment processors over the years before becoming an early adopter of ePayPolicy (which he fondly refers to as “ePay3”). As one of ePayPolicy’s first clients, Emmanuel is clear about why he made the move: batching and fees.

None of his previous vendors had the capability to separate transaction fees as ePayPolicy does. He had to reconcile their fees monthly, decidedly “batch unfriendly.”

Prior to Insurance, Emmanuel worked as a banker, where he had to triple count cash for verification (those were the days before the desktop teller machines). When he founded his agency, he was no stranger to triple counting cash late into the night; and that’s when he knew there had to be a better way. With other merchant services vendors, he would take a month-and-a-half to reconcile credit card payments. Some vendors have two separate portals for credit cards and ACH transactions; which necessitates two different logins. In contrast, with ePayPolicy, mid-month and at the end of the month, his bookkeeper would run the reports, and “the transactions are right there. Both credit cards and ACH in the same transaction summary. With another click you hop into the batches. It’s so smooth, with easily searchable fields, which gives us more time in the month to focus on other things.”

Agent Reaction to ePayPolicy

His agents like the payment portal also. He says, “I lean on my 15 employees for feedback. My people were complaining about the old platform.” The Agents particularly like that refunds to customers are easy with ePayPolicy. Confirmation of the refund can be sent to the customer from the platform within minutes of processing, saving them from having to take follow-up calls about the refund’s status.

The ePayPolicy Experience

The transition from the previous payment processor vendor was smooth. ePayPolicy integrated easily with Alpha Direct Agency’s website. Emmanuel shares that, “right off the bat, I was impressed with the seamlessness of it all. My logo was in the portal, access to reports was painless and payments were hitting my bank account in the expected time frames.”

Emmanuel also gives thumbs up for:

Ease of payment (a big plus in redirecting customers away from cash payments)
Speed of payment (frees up agents to spend more time on sales)
Web 2.0 friendly (it offers a clean look without a lot of “gibberish” on the screen)

Alpha Direct Agency hasn’t had to lean on ePayPolicy’s Customer Service often, but they’ve been very responsive when called or emailed. He cites this example: “Our customers know immediately when a transaction fee shows up in their account. Disputes are rare. But one customer contested a fee, even though he knew he was in the wrong. ePayPolicy shut it right down once we provided supporting documents.”

The “fees” theme continued throughout the interview. Emmanuel finds ePayPolicy’s flat fees for ACH transactions ($3 per) a major benefit. He recently had another vendor pitch him, but they charge a percentage of the ACH transaction. Needless to say, that company will not be getting the Emmanuel Osuyah stamp of approval.

Next Steps for Alpha Direct

Alpha Direct does not currently use the invoicing function, but Emmanuel looks forward to implementing it. In addition, he’s excited to know that ePayPolicy’s platform has plans to integrate with his agency management system (Hawksoft).

Advice to Other Insurance Agencies

To any agencies out there researching digital payment processors or dissatisfied with their current vendor, Emmanuel Osuyah does not mince words:

“Sign up with ePayPolicy. Go straight to where the future’s at.”

Share this Post

Picture of Steve Miller

Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

Tech-savvy Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

Agent Reaction to ePayPolicy

The ePayPolicy Experience

Next Steps for Alpha Direct

Advice to Other Insurance Agencies

Share this Post

Steve Miller

More from Post: Tech-savvy Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

AI Transformation Roadmap for Legal and Title Firms 2026

101 Insurance Automation Tools to Use in 2026

Insurance Workflow Automation Platform That Cuts Manual Work

Insurance Premium Payment Automation Software & Solutions

Insurance Premium Collection Process Explained Step by Step

Insurance Payment Processing Companies: A Complete 2026 Guide

WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES EPAYPOLICY DIFFERENT?