Thousands of travel insurance customers are now using Barclays Pingit to receive instant claims payments via their mobile phone numbers, according to CEGA, the global emergency assistance, risk and claims management provider.

CEGA, which partnered with Barclays to become the first corporation to offer Pingit payments for claims last year, reports that the service has now been rolled out to multiple travel insurance clients and that customer uptake nearly doubled in the three months to August.

Once they have downloaded the free Pingit app and registered, customers need only to disclose their mobile phone number to receive immediate claims payments into any bank account.

"The Pingit 'send a payment' service widens settlement options for our customers," says CEGA's operations director, Neil Heasman. " It offers a faster and more convenient alternative to BACS and allows customers who have signed up to the service to receive claims payments securely - within as little as an hour of their claim being approved."

"Mobile payments are just one of the ways Barclays is helping clients deliver better experiences for their customers," adds Jason Manning, Vice President, Global Cash Management, at Barclays. "We are very excited to be working with CEGA to provide quick and easy settlement of claims through Pingit. Nobody wants to have to make a travel insurance claim, so we are pleased we can help make the reimbursement process as simple as possible.

"Feedback from customers who have had their claims settled by CEGA directly to their mobile phone has been really positive and it is great to see more and more people choosing to receive payments in this way," concludes Mr Manning.

"Pingit is among several of CEGA's recent innovative claims initiatives to fast track travel insurance claims," concludes Mr Heasman. "Together, these initiatives have seen customer compliments increase by nearly 100% in the last year."