Bought By Many uses people power to level the insurance playing field

~ New social insurance website helps people group together to reduce costs ~

17 December 2012 – Bought By Many, a new company aiming to bring people power to insurance, has launched today. Working with consumers and insurers, Bought By Many will use group buying power to help people with similar interests and needs to join together to drive premiums down - the more people who sign up, the cheaper it becomes. Launching with a range of policies including rugby insurance for children and home insurance for Yeovil, Bought By Many will help level the insurance playing field by giving consumers access to discounts only previously available to businesses who could buy in bulk.

Bought By Many are looking for consumers to get involved by asking them to follow three steps:

1)   Let them know about the things they want to insure at http://boughtbymany.com/

2)   Join buying groups of people with similar interests and needs

3)   Share  with friends and like-minded people

Once enough people register interest in insuring a specific need, Bought By Many will do the rest and negotiate a deal with insurers.

“Although standard insurance and aggregator sites cover most customers, we’ve realised that where consumers have specific needs, they end up paying more,” said Steven Mendel, CEO and co-founder of Bought By Many. “For example, if you want to insure your child against serious injury in a higher-risk sport like rugby, or if you’re a diabetic looking to travel abroad, you’re likely to pay more because you don’t have the buying power to get a good deal. Using people power and social networking, we’ll be able to connect consumers and insurers, delivering better policies and lower prices.”

Group buying speaks volumes

Bought By Many has negotiated £1m of personal accident insurance cover for children playing contact rugby, to help parents in the event of life-changing accidents on the rugby pitch. The company has also rolled out its people power model for home insurance in Yeovil, negotiating with insurers to get the most cost-effective deal for specific postcodes, securing a discount of 12.5% with a leading insurer. In order to get the discount, just 100 households need to sign up. Bought By Many plans to extend this model to other communities over the coming months.

Customer connections

There were several factors that drove Bought By Many to create a group purchasing model for the insurance market. Firstly, Solvency ll, a new EU regulation, means insurers need ways to diversify their risk portfolio, which Bought By Many believes will increase their demand for customers in specific risk segments. Secondly, there has been significant growth in consumers’ use of price-comparison websites to buy insurance. While these sites are great at driving prices down for mainstream policies, they aren’t always geared up to deliver benefits for more specific requirements. And finally, consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of collaborative buying due to its growing popularity as a way of cutting energy bills.

Insurance goes social

By making it easy for customers to invite friends and contacts from their social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, Bought By Many will build communities for groups with the same interests and insurance needs.

Other buying groups which people can register for at the Bought By Many website include: Pug insurance, French Bulldog insurance, Cat insurance for pure breed cat breeds, insurance for rugby clubs, horse riding insurance for children, and travel insurance for people with diabetes. 

e: sarahk@rlyl.com

t: +44 (0) 207 403 8878

About Bought By Many

Bought By Many uses social media to level the insurance playing field for consumers. It connects people with similar insurance needs in social buying groups. These groups can consist of people who share a postcode, a profession, a passion – or anything else. It then creates the opportunity to buy insurance on more favourable terms than would be available to them as individuals. And for insurers, it creates the opportunity to reach the risk segments they most value, profitably, and at meaningful scale. For more information visit boughtbymany.com.