Insurance is available for almost everything these days and the world wide web has helped fashion a highly transparent and competitive market place for insurer services. Some insurance is required by law such as car insurance or medical insurance in some countries. Other insurance although not legally required is seen by most as a ‘must have’ such as travel insurance or insurance for a person’s business interests or property belonging to their business. There is then another type of product aimed with the needs of consumers in mind which is more specialised such as pet policies, wedding insurance or certain types of extreme sports insurance. Either in the high street or on the internet, companies offer varying rates and excesses dependent on many different things. A secondary market also exists for customers to buy the services of insurance brokers who shop around for products at the behest of their consumer or corporate clients. Underwriters are another group of agents operating in the insurance industry.

This is where the risks of any given insurance venture are calculated and the underwriter determines the premium and cost of the insurance or whether to insure at all. To take the example of car insurance, the underwriter would take a detailed look at a drivers accident record. In medical insurance, another example might be where the patient’s health is taken into account. The mass take-up of the internet definitely helps the insurance sector maintain its competitiveness and transparency but many customers are even now finding themselves uninsured in times of emergency. A good example of this is winter sports insurance. The industry believes that over 50% of travelers to ski resorts are uninsured and although the other half do, less than a quarter of them are actually covered for skiing and snowboarding which are classified by most insurers as ‘extreme sports’ and not included in their basic cover. Many European travelers also think that their E111 is adequate to get them treatment but this is simply not the case at most resorts. A very recent example of how the market is changing is the hot pricing competition between opposing auto insurance brokers that has been mainly facilitated by the mass uptake and use of price comparison sites. We have to buy car insurance as a matter of law so It simply must be bought by every individual with a car. This causes pricing to be the primary competitive factor.

A recent negative example in the sector was when payment protection insurance policies (PPI’s) were uncovered by the FSA to be negligent drafted or having been missold to many customers. This has generated a storm of legal claims against insurers or certain banks and firms actually being set up for the single purpose of acting as legal assistants so that customers can claim back any PPI that might have been missold to them. Compare insurance on the web to give the greatest bargain. Another questionable product is internet security insurance that claims to refund the subject for losses on account of cyber fraud or identity theft. However many people are unaware that the bank is in almost all instances liable for such acts.