Car Insurance - Direct

The direct car insurance directory aims to highlight companies who offer policy cover direct to the public. Included within each listing are details of product features and benefits currently being offered.

Alternatively, read our information guide below, or UK car insurance guide pages and find out all you need to know before getting a competitive quote online.

Direct Car Insurance Guide

There are now a group of companies that have the processes in place to deal directly with the public. This may sound odd, but it was as recent as the mid 1980's that car insurance companies realised that they had an opportunity to reduce premium costs to the customer by cutting the amount paid out in commission to brokers and intermediaries. This has meant putting in place marketing, sales and customer servicing channels, and changing their relationship with you, the customer, in ways that had been previously unheard of.

By selling car insurance direct to you and administering your policy without middlemen, the direct car insurance companies are able to respond directly to your needs and to deal with your comments or complaints as quickly and appropriately as possible.

Direct Line began the revolution on the back of a massive advertising campaign which introduced the ‘big red phone on wheels’ in 1985. They made their first car insurance sale in April of that year, when they introduced a telephone based sales and servicing system that very quickly gained market share in the then predominantly broker serviced car insurance sector.

Having realised that the success of Direct Line was neither a gimmick nor a short lived phenomenon, many other companies swiftly moved in to provide car insurance directly to the public.

Direct insurers use all effective marketing methods to reach their customers including television, radio, publications, tele-sales and, of course, the internet. The internet is now a trusted and effective way of buying car insurance because the marketing costs to the company are very low in relation to other sales methods, and these savings are regularly passed on to customers by way of premium discounts as an incentive to complete their car insurance purchase online.

There are companies that only sell on the internet, Esure for example.
Several strong direct car insurers have elected to develop, or buy, a separate brand as the public face of their direct marketing divisions. Direct Line is now a direct-to-customer offering from the Royal Bank of Scotland through its subsidiary UK Insurance. The More Than brand was created by Royal and SunAlliance, whilst Esure is owned by Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). Other examples of separate direct marketing brands are Eagle Star and Tesco.

Some have chosen to use the strength of their company names to trade under, such as Axa and Zurich, whilst others still use historic, trusted brand names even though their ownership has moved on, such as Norwich Union Direct, which is part of the Aviva group, and Cornhill, the British marketing brand of the Allianz worldwide insurance group.

Within the direct insurer directory you can find companies that choose to offer their car insurance policies straight to the customer together with details of their products key features.

Click on the link at the top of the page to a list of car insurance companies in alphabetical order. There you will find a brief summary of each with a further link to find more information on the company's direct car insurance product.