News Article

The Web has fundamentally changed the way that insurance is purchased. The days of traipsing down to your high street broker to buy your various policies are, for most people, nothing but a fading memory. For quite a few years now, the Web has been the preferred option for people looking for a quick and convenient way to buy their insurance.

However despite almost universal access to the Web not everyone has the luxury of buying their insurance online. Millions of people are currently refused cover online because their circumstances or previous history suggest that they have a greater than average chance of making a claim. Such applicants are known in the insurance industry as "non-standard risks".

For these people, there has been little choice other than to see a broker that specialises in non-standard insurance. But this can be very time consuming and can involve having to complete a lot of paperwork.

UK insurance company webmoney has been successfully trading since 2001. This month sees them launch a new version of their successful home insurance policy, homeprotect. The exciting and unique aspect of this new version of homeprotect is that it aims to be accessible to everyone. Owner and Managing Director, David Walker explains:

"The founding principle behind webmoney was to make insurance affordable and accessible to everyone. For some time now we’ve been providing fully transactional online services for life insurance, income protection and mortgage payment protection; services which have only the most basic eligibility criteria and hence available to the vast majority of people."

Walker elaborated to explain why home insurance was a tougher nut to crack:

"Currently no company in the UK offers an online quote and buy service which is available to everyone, irrespective of their circumstances. To a large extent this is because the online systems required to properly assess unusual or unique circumstances and to create a guaranteed price are just far too complex and to date no company has been prepared to invest in developing them. We decided as a business that we needed to be able to solve this problem if we were to remain true to our founding principles and so we have spent the best part of the last year creating an online quote and buy platform which combines speed, flexibility and ease of use with the ability to provide a guaranteed price and immediate online cover for the vast majority of people."

Asked about whether this new version of homeprotect would cater for so-called "non-standard" people, Walker replied:

"Absolutely. The fundamental principle behind this innovation is that virtually everyone can get a quote online. For us there is no dividing line between ‘standard’ customers and ‘non-standard’ customers. We like to think that what we’re doing is standardising the non-standard. It really is unique and we’re convinced it’s going to make life easier for an awful lot of people, who to date just haven’t been able to sort their home insurance out online."

Challenged to prove just how comprehensive and wide-ranging their acceptance criteria was, Walker reeled off a whole range of circumstances which can now be covered online via webmoney:

"People living in flood zones or in a property which has previously flooded, people working from home, properties which have subsidence or have been previously underpinned, listed buildings, buildings constructed in a non-standard way or properties being renovated, people with unusual occupations or whom are unemployed, people with criminal convictions, students, people with previous financial difficulties, landlords, unoccupied properties, people in shared properties – the list is literally endless."

So the message is clear - if it’s an unusual or unique circumstance you’re in then its likely webmoney will be able to cover you online. Find out for yourself by getting a quote online.