Worldwide Travel Plan online travel insurance system launched
March 2008 sees the launch of the Worldwide Travel Plan online travel insurance secure quotation system. The system allows anyone aged up to 74 years to order their travel insurance policy instantly using a web site based online system, without the need to phone or for postal correspondence, which keeps costs down and helps the environment.
The system is designed to be simple to use, quick, and above all, safe.
All payments made on line utilise 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption or SSL for short. According to leading on line security company Geotrust, "This means you can rest assured that communications between your browser and this site's web servers are private and secure."
SSL is an industry standard used on millions of web pages to protect online transactions. The SSL protocol was developed by Netscape as a means for transmitting private information and documents via the Internet. SSL uses a secure cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data. The fist key is a public key known to everyone and the second, and most important, is a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority such as Geotrust, to identify one or both ends of the transactions.
Whenever the browser connects to an SSL secured site, it retrieves the site's SSL Certificate, checking it has not expired, has been issued by a Certification Authority the browser trusts, and is being used by the website for which it is issued. If any one of these checks fail, the browser will display a warning letting the user know the site is not secure.
When making a web site payment on any site, the user should always check for the small padlock logo on the browser to ensure the site is secure. Without this padlock logo there is no guarantee that SSL will be encrypting their sensitive personal information.
The most popular internet web browsers, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer all support SSL encryption technology, and display the padlock logo whenever they display a secure web page. The Worldwide Travel Plan travel insurance web site uses the protocol when processing online payments, therefore keeping sensitive personal information such as credit card details secure.
Almost as important as the security, is the speed at which a travel insurance quote is obtained. Only the most basic of information is required, the destination, age ranges of travellers and dates of travel, before a quote can be issued on the Worldwide Travel Plan web site. The process takes no more than a few seconds, and the customer can see exactly what the policy will cost.
Cutting out the need for the policy to be reviewed and processed makes the system cheaper for the customer. Traditionally insurance would require the customer to speak to a broker, who in turn would speak to the underwriter, who would issue the policy. The web based nature of the Worldwide Travel Plan scheme removes the administration aspect, making the whole process cheaper to run, resulting in lower costs to the customer.
Once the policy is issued, an email is sent as confirmation, and the policy can be viewed on line. All policies provided by Worldwide Travel Plan have policy wordings which can be downloaded as a PDF document. Cutting out the printing and postage and sending the information electronically has three advantages.
Firstly is the cost benefit. The traditional way of providing the policy document and wording has always been a hidden cost. Whilst this was never listed separately, the cost of the printing and postage has always been passed on to the customer as a higher priced insurance product. Most of this is taken up with the small print which must be provided to the customer, but can just as easily be read on line.
Secondly is the environmental benefit. Printing and posting requires the use of environmental resources. The paper and card must be manufactured and transported to where it will be printed. The printing itself uses more energy and resources. And finally the documents must be posted to the customer directly. All this adds up to an unnecessary carbon footprint for every document, which is all but removed when it is sent electronically.
Thirdly is the speed. No more waiting for the post. This is of particular benefit for people who are travelling the same day. As the policy is issued instantly, the customer can order their travel insurance right up to the point they are ready to leave for their holiday. Policies can be issued even on the day of travel.