Patent ID: 8090597

Claim:
A method of providing insurance coverage to a customer, the method comprising: (a) during a preliminary period of time: (1) receiving an initial inquiry from the customer; (2) providing an input form including at least one field for an entry of a piece of information concerning at least one of a characteristic of the customer and a characteristic of an item to be insured; (3) receiving the piece of information following its entry into the input form and submission; (4) performing processing in relation to the piece of information; (5) providing a preliminary indication to the customer that the customer will have an ability to order at least one of temporally-limited amounts of insurance and geographically-limited amounts of insurance; and (6) providing an identifier to the customer; and (b) at a subsequent period of time: (1) providing a field for an input of a limitation relating to a desired insurance coverage regarding the item, which is a customer-owned item, the limitation including a time period indication of a time period less than a month; (2) receiving the limitation at a central processor as provided by way of a customer-operated terminal; (3) performing processing in relation to the limitation to determine whether the desired insurance coverage as restricted by the limitation can be provided; (4) sending a confirmation to the customer-operated terminal concerning whether the desired insurance coverage corresponding to the limitation can be provided; (5) receiving a further signal from the customer-operated terminal indicating that the desired insurance coverage is still desired; (6) concluding an arrangement so that the desired insurance coverage concerning the time period is provided to the customer; (7) receiving credit card information from the customer, wherein the central processor does not bill a customer credit card for the desired insurance coverage as restricted by the limitation until the central processor receives a confirmation from the customer-operated terminal via an internet-type connection that a newly-quoted price for the desired insurance coverage is satisfactory; and (8) recording information regarding the desired insurance coverage as restricted by the limitation in an insurance company database.