A warranty transaction system (30) includes a user interface (32)
that receives a warranty request from a customer computer (20) using a communications
network (12). The warranty request indicates an item a customer desires
to cover under a warranty. The warranty transaction system (30) also includes
a warranty generation engine (34) that generates one or more warranty packages
that are consistent with the warranty request. The warranty packages are created
according to one or more rules. The user interface (32) communicates the
warranty packages to the customer computer (20), receives a selection of
at least one warranty package from the customer computer (20), and communicates
the selected warranty package to one or more warranty provider computers (40)
using the communications network (12). In a more particular embodiment,
the user interface (32) receives bids on the selected warranty package from
one or more warranty provider computers (40) and communicates the bids to
the customer computer (20). The user interface (32) receives an acceptance
of a bid from the customer computer (20) and communicates the acceptance
to the warranty provider computer (40) that communicated the accepted bid.