Direct Line is an insurance company based in Bromley, England. Founded in 1985, as the country’s first direct car insurance company, it has since expanded to offer a range of general insurance products. Its policies are underwritten by the regulated subsidiary UK Insurance Limited, and it is owned by the Direct Line Group.

The company was also the first insurer in the United Kingdom to open its office in the evenings and weekends and the first to offer a twenty-four-hour helpline. In 1988, it started to sell home insurance. Direct Line is renowned for having transformed financial services in the United Kingdom.

The company grew by advertising in the national press, television and marketing to RBS customers. It launched a long-standing mascot of a red telephone on wheels in 1989, which rapidly established high levels of recall among consumers.

The mascot had altered slightly over the years; being accompanied by a red mouse on wheels to represent the company’s website in 2005, which was dropped in 2020, with another rebrand leaving the phone on its own once more. In September 2014, the brand worked with Saatchi and Saatchi to relaunch its advertising, using Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a Mafia-style ‘fixer’. The company had one million customers after eight years by June 2003.