Milestones

May 2006

Direct Line celebrates 10 years selling travel insurance

April 2005

Direct Line celebrates its 20th birthday

November 2004

Direct Line reaches one Million breakdown customers

October 2003

RBS Group purchases Churchill Insurance and forms RBS Insurance, which includes Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege, Green Flag, UKI Partnerships and NIG

September 2002

Direct Line launches home response 24

September 2002

Direct Line reaches one million home insurance customers

February 2002

Direct Line Car Insurance launches in Germany

January 2002

Direct Line Car Insurance launches in Italy

May 2001

Direct Line Breakdown offers European cover

March 2001

Directline.com corners a 30% share of the online insurance market and sells a policy online once every two minutes

October 1999

Direct Line purchases Green Flag, the UK's third largest roadside recovery service

September 1999

Directline.com launches

July 1999

Linea Directa becomes Spain’s leading direct car insurer

April 1999

Direct Line MasterCard, the first ever credit card to be applied for and granted over the telephone, goes live

May 1998

Direct Line Breakdown launches

April 1997

Direct Line launches pet insurance for cats and dogs

June 1995

Línea Directa, Spain's first phone-based insurance company, goes live

December 1993

Direct Line becomes Britain's largest insurer of privately owned motor vehicles (that's from zero to number one in under nine years)

January 1990

The ‘little red telephone’ launches

July 1988

Direct Line offers the UK's first ever ‘forms free’ telephone claims service

April 1985

Direct Line commences operations with just 63 employees