U K Insurance car insurance

In addition to Direct Line, U K Insurance also owns the Churchill and Privilege brands, selling products covering cars, breakdown, life, home and contents and other types of insurance policy.

The company also underwrites car insurance policies for many other established names, including high street banks, insurance brokers and the financial services units of several car manufacturers.

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U K Insurance was established in 1974 as Ultra Keen Recovery – a broker of insurance services and agent to the car recovery business and distributers and wholesalers of motor vehicles. In 1987 the company changed its name to Ultra Keen Insurance.

In November 1999, U K Insurance was acquired by the Direct Line Group, which was then a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Following the financial crisis, in 2009 RBS – directed by the European Commission as a condition of the company’s receipt of state aid – sold its insurance business.

By 2012, Direct Line Group was a standalone entity and began trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange, having separated its operations from RBS Insurance. While the trading face of the group remains Direct Line Group, based in Bromley in Kent, U K Insurance – based in Leeds – provides all underwriting for the group.

U K Insurance owns the following brands:

UK Insurance’s three best known brands all offer highly-rated car insurance policies, with many benefits that come as standard. In summary, U K Insurance is best for:

In October 2020, the Direct Line Group Community Fund distributed the final £1m tranche of a £3.5m support package to over 200 charities helping distribute emergency essentials, food, shelter, mental health services and online educational access.

In July 2020, the company announced the acquisition of Brolly, a London-based digital insurance innovator.

U K Insurance also underwrites insurance for the following well-known companies:

The Financial Ombudsman Service received 471 car insurance complaints about UK Insurance in the first half of 2020. This was the second highest number of complaints but that would be expected of the second biggest car insurer in the UK. Crucially UK insurance had just over 9% of complaints but nearly 14% of the market, so had far fewer complaints than might be expected given its size. To put that in context, 67 firms had 10 or more complaints each and those totalled 4,550 complaints. Nearly 200 firms had fewer than 10 each, sharing just 479 complaints between them.