Direct Line

Direct Line offers great insurance and finance products and services, competitive pricing, outstanding customer service. Direct Line are one of the only insurance companies not to be included on any comparison site - meaning any time you want to deal with Direct Line, you have to go direct.

The company was launched in 1985 in Croydon with an office of only 63 employees, now they have over 10,000 in the UK. They had only one product, car insurance, and customers could only contact them by telephone. Now they have over 5 million customers in the UK and a vast range of products and services. They have an online presence and also corresponding companies in Germany, Italy and Spain.

Their hook was that they were the first insurance company which used the telephone as their main method of communication. This was so they could cut out so called “middlemen, the fat commissions and the forms and the jargon”. The prided themselves on speedy and personal customer service.

There was obviously a gap in the market for this type of service as in their first three months the company gave out 9,000 car insurance quotes over the phone.

The enduring symbol of the company is the little red telephone on wheels. This was launched in 1990 and became a core feature of their marketing strategy. With the launch of their website in 1999 a new symbol joined the company; a little red mouse.

Direct Line is about innovation as well as customer service and has introduced many services which were industry firsts. They were the first to cut out the middleman and dealt directly with their customers (hence the name). They were the first to offer an uninsured drivers promise that covers your excess and your No Claims Discount as long as you have comprehensive cover. They were the first to offer life insurance online. They were one of the first companies to offer £1 million blanket cover on buildings insurance and also to offer medical screening to travel insurance customers, this meant that instead of being automatically rejected customers with pre-existing conditions were dealt with individually.

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