NSW - Seeking The Least Troublesome Comprehensive Car Insurance. BudgetDirect?

ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 19:52
Last edited 25/01/2025 - 20:34 by 1 other user

Hi all, I am looking for the least troublesome car insurance, I mean, let's be honest, all of them will have problems but some are just worse than others.

According to Canstar, Budget Direct Insurance Car Comprehensive is the best option. I did an online quote and it is alright, the price with road assistance, right to pick the repair shop and specific value instead of market value agreed approved.

The only other experiences I have is AMMI but I cannot tell. I was hit while waiting at the traffic light on my motorcycle by a mf SUV drunk driver on 24th Dec on that year, believe it or not. I didn't have comprehensive, third party only and the guy left before the cops arrived 1h later, the dude lied as expected so 50-50 blame :) I did call AAMI but "there is nothing we can do" and my camera had no battery. The perfect storm.

I have NRMA on the same motorcycle now, I cannot even get my online account to be created one year later lmao. I tried to call them once but a door would have been more helpful. They aren't mentioned by Canstar either.

I am not after the cheapest, but the least troublesome one. NRMA and BD for instance have similar price. NRMA is $1.5k per year but they didn't agree with the value and no right to pick the repair shop.
BD is $1.7k per year with agreed value, road assistance and right to pick the repair shop so hell yeah.
This is for a $40k 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL and I only pick agreed value, NRMA wants to agree with $1k less. Go figure.

What is your experience?? Trust Canstar? I crossed a Reddit post (preview) from somebody in ACT commented 3 months ago who had the car stolen and Budget Direct appeared to have given a hell on Earth experience to the owner.

Thank you very much.

Financial Car Car Insurance Insurance Suzuki

Comments

  • JenPat on 25/01/2025 - 20:05
    +14

    I had a terrible experience with Budget Direct after an accident that was not my fault. All good until you have a claim!

    • ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 20:08
      +1

      Sorry to hear that. I read some reviews that they are "cheap", but when you need them you get screwed over.
      You know how product reviews go, some people gives 1 start because they bought the wrong product haha so it is hard to believe some reviews.

      The other option is Allianz which I read a post here some time ago where the owner got screwed over by them at not fault.
      It is hard man.

    • donga100 on 25/01/2025 - 21:48
      +4

      Same for me, they make everything a hassle even for not at fault claims. I have found Suncorp to be the best/easiest to deal with and now gladly pay the slight premium over Budget Direct or any of their Auto General group of companies.

    • pegaxs on 26/01/2025 - 10:36
      +6

      Im in this boat as well… In the process of moving ALL my insurance out of BD.

      A guy ran into the arse of my EV and there was literally no one closer than 200km that BD would let me take it to. They finally found a place near me I could go and I got there and the owner/manager stormed out of their workshop as soon as I pulled in and told me to "Get your woke shitbox off my property"… I complained to BD, but they didn't give a shit.

      I ended up having to get my own quote done for the work and it was only $1,400~ (remove, repair, repaint, reassemble rear bumper) and it took 6 months for them to finally agree to just pay me out for the damages so I could get the work done at a panel beater close to home (almost no panel beaters I talked to would deal with BD). Their settlement offer was $1,150~ even though my quote was $1,400~. Their excuse was "That is what our estimator has quoted for the repairs" and I said "fine, then they can come and do it. And if they cant do it for that price, the place that can is $1,400~"

      Another 2 months of arguing and a call to the relevant insurance ombudsman, they finally said "we will give you a once off good will payment of $400~ to cover the gap that wont affect your insurance policy". 6 months later, I got my renewal in and it had gone up over $800 for the year. I called up and asked why, and they had said that because I had an accident, I was deemed a higher risk of having another accident, even though the accident wasn't my fault.

      OP may think they are getting "choice of repairer" when the realism of it is that a lot of panel beaters will turn you away if you mention that you are with BD. I learned very early on when trying to get my own quotes was that if I mentioned BD at all, they would just decline to even quote.

  • The Value on 25/01/2025 - 20:11
    +4

    I've been happy with AAMI but I had a dashcam and I was clearly not at fault.

    • ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 20:46
      -1

      Dashcam is a must here.
      It is an unfortunate mine had no battery left when I got hit so idk what would be the experience :(

  • Wiadro on 25/01/2025 - 20:35
    +1

    allianz

  • ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 20:44
    +1

    Update: I have checked https://www.productreview.com.au/ and the major/popular insurance companies are like 2.x, 3.x

    BudgetDirect with 8936 reviews is at 3.7. Yo, that is freaking a lot of reviews haha
    NRMA with 1627 reviews is at 1.7
    AAMI with 2018 reviews is at 1.7
    AllianZ with 1181 reviews is at 2.4

    ahm Comprehensive with 202 reviews is at 4.2 that covers the same as BD but around $2k

    The problem isn't just paying what is fair but having a proper help when you need it.
    I thought this was gonna be easy but holy smokes.

    • Hellfire on 25/01/2025 - 22:14
      +11

      You can basically ignore product review, all it measures is how well a company tries to manipulate the scores.

    • HeWhoKnows on 27/01/2025 - 14:26

      Sort by "Claims" as they appears to be your priority measure

      Should be with any insurance really

  • Bruceflix on 25/01/2025 - 20:45
    +8

    Many horror stories regarding Budget Direct. Best avoided.

    • ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 20:47

      Yup, totally.
      9k reviews with drama after drama, it is not worth it.

    • JIMB0 on 26/01/2025 - 10:47
      +1

      There's plenty of horror stories with all insurers.

  • kevkay on 25/01/2025 - 21:03
    +4

    The least troublesome one I had was NRMA - it was a smooth process to get choose my own repair shop + get a hire car, but I couldn't stomach the yearly premium increases.

    • ratoloko on 25/01/2025 - 21:59
      -1

      That is not good hey.

      This reminds me Dodo Electricity & Gas, I was already paying a lot and they kept increasing but new customers had better deals.
      I switched to GloBird and never felt so rich if you know what I mean, they did increase once during the energy crisis but it was like a few cents here while got cheaper for the rest. Dodo?? Never!!!

      This appears to be the normal, screw people already paying and provide better deal for new ones.
      I bet you the premium would be cheaper for a new client.

  • letsgetquizzical on 25/01/2025 - 22:05
    +5

    I am currently in the eighth month of a dispute over my former (plug-in hybrid electric) car, where they determined that the car was no longer working because of wear and tear, and not the immense flooding incident that saw pools of water still physically on the car's traction battery months after the fact. They came to this conclusion because their assessor misidentified a completely different part of the car as the "hybrid battery", and even after presenting THREE expert opinions (from Mitsubishi Motors Australia, from my local Mitsubishi dealer, and from a forensic assessor of my own) I'm forced to take them to court.

    Do NOT use Auto and General (Budget Direct) for ANYTHING.

    • HeWhoKnows on 27/01/2025 - 14:31

      Yes Auto & General (A&G) are the underwriters for MOST if not ALL of the cheaper insurers.
      So in reality there arent many insurers at all.

      Its a bit like all the MVNOs.
      But in reality there are only 3 network operators - Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
      So when you want to compare on reception, in reality there are only 3 networks to choose from.

  • kerfuffle on 26/01/2025 - 09:13

    NRMA let you pick any repairer; it’s an optional add-on.

    • HeWhoKnows on 27/01/2025 - 14:36

      They also have the LOWEST market value

  • 2esc on 26/01/2025 - 09:19
    +3

    Avoid Budget my mother in law lost the car in bushfires they wanted a complete service history of the car and where do most people keep the service records.

    In the car.

    One mechanic that did service the car that she might have been able to get records from dead from the fires.

    With the stress of the fires she did not need that when it was clearly not her fault.

    Eventually they did pay but only after intervention by sister in law with legal and threats of bad publicity.

    How many claims have been rejected by Budget? Does canstar know those statistics?

    • HeWhoKnows on 27/01/2025 - 14:38

      "they wanted a complete service history of the car"

      This have nothing to do with accepting or rejecting a claim!

      Budget insure based on market value. As does almost every other insurer.
      These things they asked for was to determine fair market value.

  • Bignudge on 26/01/2025 - 10:36
    +4

    I've moved all around over the years and found NRMA and Shannons to be the best. Yes they can be more expensive but you'll see why very quickly when you have Wooleys Car Insurance and get into a crash lol.

    Over the past 10 years I think I've lodged 3 not at fault claims with NRMA (2 cars and 1 house claim), and 1 not at fault claim with Shannons. As I had the required details of the at fault driver and dash cam footage… they were all super quick to remove any inconveniences for me. The whole repair process took probably 3 months but they provided a brand new rental car from beginning to end. They even towed my car back to my house after repairs cause their shop opening hours matched my working hours exactly.

    • ratoloko on 26/01/2025 - 15:38
      +1

      "Shannons" I have crossed that name once or twice but I don't know much.

      Their comprehensive is actually very fair with right to repair as default and not as extra like NRMA.
      Their excess is pretty good too at ~$600 while everybody else will only gets "cheaper" if you increase it to $800-1k

      They appear to be focused on car enthusiast, there is a question asking if you maintain your own car and motorcycle which I do maintain my own bike.
      Out of curiosity, I tried it again and answered "No", I was asked more question and automatically blocked asking me to contact AMMI since both companies are under Suncorp Group.

      I see that as positive, the company in favor of enthusiast over those who cannot change a tire on the side of the road.

      • Bignudge on 26/01/2025 - 16:36
        +1

        Yeah it's a pretty good insurance company in my opinion. Some things to add:

        1. They automatically include one excess free windscreen claim per yearly renewal.
        2. They are happy to neogotiate a higher agreed value outside of their default range for your car if you have mods or accessories etc.
        3. I can understand the person on the phone when I call them.

        Note: Before providing cover, they will ask a range of questions to prove you are a car enthusiest. Technically you should be able to pass if you've changed your wipers once as that's "servicing" the vehicle I guess.

  • pjbargain15 on 26/01/2025 - 11:08

    Same sh*t with BD as others. I had bought comprehensive because it was cheap and I had never gone through a claim ever before… Unfortunately, I had to make my first one with BD. Their repairer was 75 kms from me, and no I am not in rural, I live 20 km west of Melbourne CBD, and their repairer was 55 km east of Melbourne CBD and that was the only one available to me. I had no choice of repairer. They did not even disclose the repairer when I bought the policy. When I asked why, they said they change repairer based on several factors and depends on the type of work… Anyway, I drive up there, taking a day off my work, because they only work Mon-Fri 9-5. And I hear nothing for 2 months after dropping the car there and taking an uber back at my own expense. Once I get the car, some of the work was still pending, BD asked me to take the car and they will send me instructions to resolve this later. I was desperate for the car as well, as managing 2 months without a car was hell and rentals were getting too expensive. I had to make 2 more trips to that repairer and 1 additional trip to another repairer as instructed by BD to finally resolve the issues. I changed my provider to YOUI after that. Haven't had to lodge a claim yet, so don't know how YOUI is but I have a choice of repairer with YOUI.

  • ratoloko on 26/01/2025 - 11:54

    WoW, Isn't there any regulation against these practice???

    How insurance companies can just f you up and that's it???

    There's a channel on YouTube where they cover cases like this where people who have been scammed, this is a scam, they go after the companies and make the issue public.
    In my cases, the companies settle but this is an issue affecting every insurance company so there's no regulation.

    • ratoloko on 26/01/2025 - 11:56

      Current Affair Channel on YouTube.

      It's good to see people having some happy ending after loads of stress but some aren't so lucky.

  • Bargainitis on 26/01/2025 - 13:29
    +1

    Found Allianz to be good to me.

    Was in a hit and run (car swiped ours with no dashcam). They just needed a police report - they sorted everything out and waived the excess.

    Also for some reason, was the cheapest vs. others including Budget Direct.

    Parents is with Aami and no issues either in a recent claim (at fault).

    • ratoloko on 26/01/2025 - 15:10

      What was the quality of the repair with AAMI??
      AAMI does not have "pick repair shop option", one of the biggest problem with insurances is the poor quality of the repair shops.

      Allianz is like $4.4k pa while everybody else is around $2k pa Nope thanks.

  • aragornelessar on 26/01/2025 - 13:55
    +2

    Only experience with claiming through comprehensive NRMA was my dad who doesn't speak English well. He was turning into a driveway and motorbike overtook him as he was turning and hit him. He claimed my dad was in the wrong but NRMA took statements, sent an investigator out and once he saw the solid double lines took care of the rest. His car was fixed with no dramas.

    • ratoloko on 26/01/2025 - 15:11

      I will have to call them next week because I cannot even create my online account year later.
      Their auto quote system wants to agree with -$1k less than the car would cost.

      • aragornelessar on 26/01/2025 - 21:45
        +1

        Curiously, what browser are you using? I had issues when using Brave and Firefox from memory but when I changed it to Chrome with no extensions, it worked. It would just loop when I tried logging in with the correct credentials - maybe give another browser a go? Their online chat has been helpful too when 'dad' had to contact them to update some details

        I also saw they're doing some new account platform - there was a notice that said one of his policies was on the older platform and would need to be managed separately. Not much concrete help I know, but maybe something

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