Assist Card held an event in Buenos Aires to celebrate its 50th anniversary

Assist Card, a company belonging to the Starr Companies Group, is celebrating 50 years of uninterrupted history. Yesterday the firm celebrated this milestone with an event at the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires where collaborators, global and local authorities, members of the industry, business partners and specialized press were present. CEO Carlos Stefani presented his work agenda for this year with two main focuses: development of new products and investment in technology.

Assist Card is defined as an innovative company in technology and a pioneer in adapting to the constant challenges of the sector, new needs of travelers and travel trends. It was founded in 1972 in Switzerland and today it has 74 offices around the world, guaranteeing availability of uninterrupted service to travelers 24/7, with a direct service in 190 countries in 16 languages.

The company has the largest global network of providers in the world, with the ability to efficiently resolve from the simplest to the most complex problems, through a single contact, either by phone, through the website or from any mobile device through the APP.

“We have been leading the industry for 50 years, thanks to our high quality standards, our problem-solving capacity and the ability to adapt quickly, to offer our clients solutions that adjust to the preferences and needs of each one of them. And as a founding leader, Assist Card has the obligation to set the vision and future of the category, and for this reason we work day by day to continue supporting the reactivation of tourism and continue to position ourselves as the best ally of travelers”, said Carlos Stefani , CEO of AssistCard. 

"Our anniversary comes at a very good time in the industry and ours in particular. In part it was random, because if the 50th anniversary had been fulfilled last year or worse still, in the 20th, it would have been very difficult to celebrate it. Today, since the pandemic, most travelers think about assistance immediately after organizing a trip."

"In these 50 years the company has gone through very hard times like 2001, where between the terrorist attacks in the United States and the economic crisis in Argentina, we had to face a complex challenge. The health crisis that we went through has also put us to the test and I can proud to say that we have come out ahead and we are better than ever".

"Although our company was born in Switzerland, it quickly established itself and operates with great success in Latin America. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are our main markets. These are growing throughout Ibero-America. I must point out that we have physical offices in all the countries of the region, with a few exceptions.

"We are a company that is very focused on the needs of the client and our distributors, a few weeks after the pandemic was declared, we already went out to announce that we offered assistance against Covid-19. It has been a brave decision because it was not yet It's still unclear how contagious the disease was and what the associated costs would be, but somehow we put the customer first.

"Celebrating 50 years, new products are coming, we are promoting a lot the product of 3 million dollars of coverage. It is something that before the pandemic would have been unthinkable because there were not many people who bought something similar. In other times it was complex to sell a product of more than 30,000 dollars. The health crisis has allowed us to make people understand the value of our products, many of our clients choose the option of a million dollars or even more".

"Looking back, it was a very tough job to work each day during the uncertainty of the pandemic. There were several times during the first few months even with negative billing. We had to move 1,300 people to start working remotely from their homes, it was a challenge from every point of view, but we have really been able to overcome it. Sales began to grow as the industry was recovering and today we are very happy with the volumes we are achieving," said the executive.

For these 50 years, the company's main focus is to continue working on two clear objectives: new products and investment in technology.

Regarding the development of new products, the new product is already available in the local market, and in the region, whose global maximum amount of coverage is 3 million dollars, being the highest in the market. On the one hand, it has its "add on COVID EXTRA", which contemplates those non-medical contingencies derived from a positive diagnosis of COVID-19, such as trip cancellation or interruption, or quarantine at destination, and on the other , has coverage for pre-existing illnesses for USD 35,000. In addition, it has health or funeral repatriation up to USD 150,000 and luggage location in less than 24 hours.

It is a competitive product that will surely achieve a good receptivity in the local market, given that the trend shows that local travelers increasingly choose to strengthen the coverage of their travel assistance.

In line with the development of technology, during 2022, the company will continue to focus its efforts on providing the best service with a robust infrastructure and the latest technology that allows it to assist its customers wherever they are. The idea is to bring its services to a self-managed experience where customers can manage their products independently and their link with Assist Card is increasingly personalized and 100% digital.