Esure Insurance is an insurance company based out of the United Kingdom that launched strictly online in order to save its customers money by harnessing the power and efficiency of the internet. Esure Insurance was founded by Peter Wood in 2000 using the internet as the primary sales channel. Mr. Peter Wood had previously founded an insurance company called Direct Line back in 1985 which sold insurance over the telephone.

Esure Insurance company had a great boom in its first five years, gaining over one million customers in that time. Esure definitely had the right idea, and still looks like it is doing great. The Esure website is easy to navigate and has a great clean design and layout. From the homepage, you can select one of the 6 types of insurance that you want (or that you already have with Esure):

• Car Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Travel Insurance
• Motorbike Insurance
• Van Insurance

It’s funny that they have a category specifically for “Vans”, but I guess things are different across the pond.  Anyhow, after selecting the type of insurance that you want/have, you are presented with a simple list of options:

• Get a quote
• Retrieve a quote
• Renew or view my policy
• Plus plenty of links for navigating ad learning more about the type of insurance that you’re viewing, such as: Making a claim, Claim FAQ’s, Policy Information, Will you insure me, etc.

All in all, Esure sounds like a great idea and the website seems like it is built for simplicity and growth – it does what it’s supposed to do.

I’ve often considered purchasing pet insurance for my 2 dogs. It seems that whenever we have a large dog-related expense come up, I contemplate signing up for a pet insurance plan, but in the end, I always decide that pet insurance will end up costing more in the long run.

There are many pet insurance programs out there, and most of them range from $19/month to $50+/month. If you’re looking for a decent plan that covers just about everything (with the exception of pre-existing conditions) you’ll be looking at about $40/month, or $480/year. Now figure that your dog (or cat) has a life of 10 years, that’s $4,800 over the course of your dog’s life. The other thing that you need to consider is that when you have pet insurance, you’ll also have office visit copay and drug & medicine copay, which both will add to the total cost of pet insurance.

Let’s just put together some rough number of someone who goes without pet insurance. Let’s say about $100/year on veterinary visits, for a total of $1,200 over the life of the dog. And just to be fair, let’s just throw in $3,000 worth of emergency/surgical expenses. With these numbers, were only at $4,200, about $600 less than the pet insurance cost alone – not including the copay amounts that will be added in for pet insurance.

So after considering pet insurance multiple times, I’ve always decided against it. If you’re on the fence about pet insurance, take a look at this site, as they have a nice list of pros and cons of pet insurance. You can also read this pet insurance ebook if you’re seriously considering buying pet insurance; some of the stories in the book will make you a true believer in pet insurance.