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.

After the happenings of the past week, first with Aloha Airlines declaring bankruptcy, now today, ATA Airlines declaring bankruptcy, thousands of people have found themselves with a plane ticket, but with no plane to fly on.

In both of these cases, it is very unlikely that travelers will see any sort of refund from either of these companies, but the few travelers who had purchased travel insurance are the happy ones right now. Travel insurance, which is a fairly uncommon purchase by my standards, except when traveling internationally, can cover a wide array of things that can happen during your trip, from loss of transportation to injury. Here’s a brief list of what travelers insurance covers:

• Medical expenses
• Emergency evacuation/repatriation
• Overseas funeral expenses
• Accidental death, injury or disablement benefit
• Cancellation
• Curtailment
• Delayed departure
• Loss, theft or damage to personal possessions and money (including travel documents)
• Delayed baggage (and emergency replacement of essential items)
• Legal assistance
• Personal liability and rental car damage excess

In the future, consider purchasing travel insurance when booking large scale vacations to help protect yourself against large travel companies declaring bankruptcy or encountering other unforeseen problems.