Budget Direct Comprehensive Car Insurance

Brodo Faggins on 01/05/2022 - 14:13
Last edited 04/05/2022 - 13:27

Hi OzB fam,

It's time for me to renew my comp. car insurance & decided to see what the market is offering after many loyal years with NRMA. Massive premium increase is the main reason I'm open to switching, even at the cost to lose my loyalty discounts.

I am considering Budget Direct since they have lots of awards from Canstar, Choice, Money Mag, and Mozo. I think the Low kms policy might suit me, but if anything I'll go with the next one up.

Reviews on their website is 4.5 from 28k (which I understand can be skewed if they choose to delete some really bad ones).

However reading their 3.9 from 8k reviews on Product Review is not a pleasant sight, especially all the recent reviews are 1 star!! I get that if it's good people won't bother to leave a review, and if it's bad they'll make sure they write everything.

I've also searched OzB forums, and nothing recently about their car insurance policy / claims.

Anyone able to shed light on positive experiences with Budget Direct?

Otherwise my next one to research is Youi. Cheers

(Not looking at no name companies or those that are not actually insurance companies, like Woolies car insurance)

(I've also made a poll if you don't want to comment)

EDIT: In 2-3days, 42% of this poll say just try BD out. I think this is one of those things that you'll just have to pick one and experience it 1st hand and no way of knowing until you need to make a claim.

Poll Options

  • 6
    Stay with NRMA
  • 13
    Try Budget Direct
  • 8
    Stay clear from Budget Direct
  • 1
    Research Youi
Automotive Car Insurance Insurance

Related Stores

Budget Direct
Budget Direct

Comments

  • duk242 on 01/05/2022 - 14:14

    I'm with Budget Direct for my car and house insurance.
    I had my car get a load of hail damage, they were really good.
    Call times were maybe 2-3minutes on hold and I got everything sorted really quick.

    • Brodo Faggins on 01/05/2022 - 14:16

      Thanks for your quick reply! That's good news!
      Have you been with them for a while?
      Should I just disregard all the noise? hahaha

  • Partake0486 on 01/05/2022 - 14:32

    I've read stories of Budget Direct being difficult to deal with when you need to claim and then when you finally get anything out of them, they'll send you a letter saying they won't be renewing your insurance - certainly was the case when my girlfriend's mother's car was stolen.

    I've been with Bingle for several years now - I've never been able to find someone cheaper than them. I pay about $320 a year for comprehensive on a 2015 Corolla. Never had to claim though - but with the price I'm paying I can't imagine it'd be a good experience.

    I saw a story on the news the other day for Koba Insurance - they send you this gimmick that plugs into your ODBII port in your car and connects to an app on your phone to charge you per km travelled. My quote from them is $250 + 2.4c/km. I might consider them come renewal time now that I'm working from home much more.

    • Brodo Faggins on 01/05/2022 - 14:43

      Appreciate your comment!

      Yes I've read 100's of shocker BD reviews in the past couple hours… so it's tainting my decision hence I wanted to post this on forum.

      That's very cheap considering my car is 2016 as well but the online quote I just done is minimum $600 (low kms policy) to about $750, with roughly a system generated excess of $900. Did you put high excess on yours?

      I will look into Bingle thank you, but will pass on any App connected insurance for now. Would prefer something slightly more reputable for peace of mind haha

  • toomuchdogfur on 01/05/2022 - 16:06

    Don't take any "4.5/5 stars" score at their word, especially for insurance products - in my experience, the vast majority of positive reviews say nothing about the claims process, which is the actual bit you care about. Definitely churn through the reviews to find out the actually useful reviews from claimants.

    There are countless five star reviews going "good price" or "so easy to pay online" which, IMO, is utter garbage data. On that logic, we should all be leaving five-star reviews on every store that dishonoured a deal because hey the process of them taking my money was quick and painless!!!

    (FWIW I'm with AAMI and had no issues with a recent claim, aside from a minor delay in getting parts for my somewhat-obscure car)

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:23

      Absolutely agree with your input and the lack of thorough reviews/data on "claims process".
      Definitely been churning reviews and it's pretty tedious.
      Then again, hard to say whether the company itself would be "1 star or 5 star" or just the rep themselves behind the call who's having a bad day or feeling good and wants to look after you lol

  • Ocker on 01/05/2022 - 16:50

    A friends had an accident in his relatively new MG hatch. It took the Bingle assessor 5 weeks to decide on whether they write off the car (which they eventually did), in the meantime he had to resort to Uber/public transport.

    • kerfuffle on 01/05/2022 - 16:55

      Wow. Mine (with NRMA) got officially written off two days of the accident and settlement paid within two weeks (covering the Easter period)

      • Ocker on 01/05/2022 - 17:03
        +1

        As an aside, on one occasion when asking Bingle the reason for the delay, the operator said most likely because they were waiting to determine how long it would take to get the required parts from England.

        • wombatzzz on 01/05/2022 - 19:57

          For a Chinese car??

      • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:25

        I agree I'd say for me, my NRMA claims have been very quick.

        From my experience, they're the type to decide quickly based on evidence and just move on with the solution.

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:19
      -1

      Why they take 1month+ hahaha
      It's a $18k Chinese hatchback - just write it off 🤣

      • Ocker on 04/05/2022 - 18:34

        I don't think the value of the asset should have any bearing on the time to take a decision - it is either a write-off or not and that should be apparent on day one of the assessment.
        From memory, any repair bill in excess of 80% of the MV of the vehicle means it qualifies as a write-off.

        • Brodo Faggins on 05/05/2022 - 11:48

          I agree and they should know from experience what this "80%" looks like at 1st glance (maybe a week or two), instead of taking 5-6 weeks imo.

          Considering the value of the car is so cheap, they should've just written it off lol, and save all that time wasted. If it's an AMG hatchback, then different story, as repairs/replacement could still be cheaper than payout of car's value.

  • Euphemistic on 01/05/2022 - 18:57

    Got it. It was cheaper.

    Watch for the additional clauses they throw in ‘to cut your premium’. Things like having to nominate all drivers, no accessories allowed unless you list them etc. It could cause you to have a claim denied that would normally be paid by one of the more flexible insurers like NRMA.

    Eg i rang then to enquire about a new learner driver. Budget direct added a small amount to the premium. NRMA said learners don’t add anything, but a P plater might due to age.

    No idea about claims process.

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:10

      For my situation this doesn't apply but thanks for sharing.
      Yes important to always read the T&C to see exactly what you are/aren't covered for.

  • bengal tiger on 01/05/2022 - 19:16
    +2

    Budget Direct will offer you a free digital gift card redemption when you purchase a car insurance policy but you don't sign up immediately (doesn't work for home & contents AFAIK).

    Did a quote a year ago and ignored it, after a week they offered a $30 gift card from 3-5 brands (I took the Woolies card, can't remember the other brands on offer). After 2 weeks, they offered a $60 gift card and we jumped on it as it made the annual premium much cheaper than the peer group. Not sure if they'd have increased the offer to $90 after 3 weeks.

    Minor T&Cs on the gift card - you have to hold the policy for (something like) 30 days before they'll send you the gift card redemption email and link.

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:11

      Hmmm I'll try this and come back in a week or so.
      I did the online quote with a dummy email to avoid spam just to see the estimates

  • whatwasherproblem on 01/05/2022 - 20:29
    +1

    All I know about Budget Direct is there was that one French woman in the ads that kept pronouncing it "Boojay" and the dude kept correcting her "Budget love. Budget Direct Car Insurance".

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:12
      +1

      Thanks for your contribution to this post :)

      • whatwasherproblem on 06/05/2022 - 13:43

        You are most welcome, Mr. Faggins.

        • Brodo Faggins on 06/05/2022 - 13:46
          +1

          Use this in Target and say "Tarzhay" 🤣

  • doctordv8 on 02/05/2022 - 10:22

    I have done the look around every year for our home and cars. Mind, I can not fathom the $ numbers they sprout as a saving!

    All the big 'discount' and or so called 'awarded' advertisers saying they are the best or cheapest are full of advertising BS.

    They have never been anywhere near close to my premiums and even when I called in person, they could not compete nor do they try. My options are identical for each search.

    I am with Coles and 1 x No Fault Claim was a breeze, and yearly increases are still below CPI(with 2 years no increase).

    For info…underwritten by IAL, that's Insurance Australia Limited. While IAL itself started in 2015, it is backed by IAG (Insurance Australia Group), which is the biggest general insurance company in Australia and New Zealand.

    • Brodo Faggins on 04/05/2022 - 13:13

      I agree with what you're saying - one of those things that have inflated RRP and they "slash" a discount on it.
      Was referring to say NRMA 10-15% discount for being loyal customer for 5 or 10+ yrs haha

      Thanks for sharing that they are under IAL. Just a bit iffy about a supermarket offering something outside their box… It's like AAMI doing supermarket… what???
      What's next Woolies doing electricity? LOL they should stop and stick to their lane, just imo.

  • capslock janitor on 30/06/2022 - 22:27

    heard this mob might be cheaper than bd https://quote.pd.com.au/Quote/Customer

    • Brodo Faggins on 11/07/2022 - 22:00
      +1

      I switched to BD, thanks for contributing regardless :)

  • FujiFruit on 13/07/2022 - 11:01

    same im with budget for car and home insurance

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