Insurer of the Year award for Budget Direct

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INSURER OF THE YEAR: BUDGET DIRECT

You need to have enough insurance to protect your car, your home and everything in it. If you don't, you have to rely on your savings to cover the damage or loss.

The trick is to keep insurance costs low but get all the necessary features tailored to your needs, with a few bells and whistles. This year's winner, Budget Direct, up from second place last year, does the job.

consumer finance awards insurer of the year canstar budget direct travel contents car insurance

"Premiums for Budget Direct's Gold comprehensive car insurance and their home and contents insurance are consistently below market averagesacross Australia," says Rebecca Scarrabelotti, senior research analyst, wealth and general insurances, at Canstar.

"For example, within NSW premiums for Budget Direct's Gold comprehensive product are consistently below the average yearly premium in all age profiles we consider," she says.

"With their low premiums and well-featured policy, it positions Budget Direct as an outstanding value product in each state and age profile that Canstar rates."

David Murray's Financial System Inquiry's final report showed that 29% of homeowners and 67% of rentersdo not have any form of contents insurance.

With Budget Direct's home and contents insurance, all the basics are covered, such as fire, theft or attempted theft, malicious damage, vandalism, riot or civil commotion, lightning and earthquake, plus accidental breakage of glass, ceramic and sanitary fixtures. For an additional premium, there is the option to cover accidental loss or damage to the insured home or contents.

"Superior to the average market offering, Budget Direct also provides cover for loss or damage from storm and rainwater," says Scarrabelotti.

It also has the option to cover specified personal effects. She likes the feature of an optional sum-insured safeguard, which means Budget Direct will increase the sum insured by up to 25% if there is a total loss and the insured amount is not high enough to cover the cost of rebuilding the home.

Budget Direct's Gold comprehensive car insurance offers a great range of features that outperform the market average.

Features that some other providers do not offer include emergency accommodation, genuine parts used in repairs and a lifetime guarantee on those repairs as well allowing for a rental car if your vehicle is stolen, and the option of taking up roadside assistance.

"In addition Budget Direct allows consumers to apply and claim over the phone or online with access to a 24-hour helpline. Overall, the Gold comprehensive policy provides consumers with great features along with a supportive claims process that has both online and phone functionality," says Scarrabelotti.

Budget Direct's discounts are good value too.

For existing Budget Direct customers, you can get discounts on other Budget Direct products, such as a 30% discount offered when adding home and contents insurance to an existing policy online, and a 15% discount when adding a new comprehensive car policy online using the online policy manager.

In second place, CommInsure has a very strong home and contents offering that received the Canstar award for outstanding value for home and contents.

CommInsure's flexible policy conditions include no cancellation fee and the ability to pay monthly rather than annually at no extra cost. In addition, it is very competitively priced in all states, says Scarrabelotti.

WHY THEY WON

A range of competitively priced, superior insurance products

TOP PRODUCTS

Gold comprehensive car insurance and comprehensive home and contents insurance

RANKINGS

1. Budget Direct

2. CommInsure

3. AAMI

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Comments
Michael Randall
October 23, 2017 10.16am

How can you award these assholes insurers of the year when they will not insure my home and contents in the 2450 postcode. I have lived here for 8 plus years and I will not take flood insurance because it has not been required for where my home is.
This is blatant discrimination against all people in this postcode area, well done.
Why do they bother to advertise to this location ??

Money
Verified
October 23, 2017 10.57am

Hi Michael,

This award is based on Canstar's five-star rating methodology, which takes into account price and features: https://www.canstar.com.au/wp-...

It does not address the provision of insurance to flood-prone areas.

Please contact Budget Direct on 1800 288 149 with your complaint.

- Money team

Anne P
January 9, 2018 1.30pm

Hi Team,

Does the award take into account customer satisfaction levels and/or the level of claims paid out? Any insurer can offer more and price it below the market if it rarely pays out on claims or makes the claiming process a nightmare for customers, especially for genuine claims that would ordinarily be paid out by other insurers. Customer satisfaction with the claims process is extremely important to customers in the long run and should be given a huge weighting when determining who receives the best insurer award otherwise what is the point?

Money
Verified
January 9, 2018 2.16pm

Hi Anne,

The winner was chosen based on the insurance provider's range of products, their features and pricing.

With the help of Canstar, we crunch the numbers, and allow readers to do their own research as far as customer satisfaction.

- Money team

nicole
June 29, 2018 12.08pm

look like who ever offer more money ....you will give award to them

Money
Verified
June 29, 2018 12.22pm

The award is based on Canstar's five-star rating methodology.

Stanley
July 6, 2018 10.11pm

These rating systems fail to provide customers with the most important rating, which is customer satisfaction as Anne P has clearly outlined. If we have to do our own research for the most important thing we are looking for, why bother with your ratings?

Chris
July 7, 2019 1.16am

This company took two months to even assess my vehicle after a collision with a roo, then tried to blame the workshop they chose to ship the car to even though it was miles away from the accident and the workshop provided all information in a reasonable time-frame. I rang Budget Direct twice per week for two months, with no success, continually stalling and delaying, and they only acted when I threatened to get the ombudsman on board. It was an absolute nightmare as I was interstate with no vehicle for 2 months. Budget Direct were aware of my circumstances and delayed as long as they could. I couldn't think of any insurer I would rather NOT be with besides Budget Direct. The fact that you have awarded them multiple awards for excellence is an absolute disgrace and shows the flawed and dubious methodology you are using. I note you generic responses to the previous correspondents: simply not good enough, Money magazine. get with the program. get in the real world. I don't give a damn what Canstar says or what methodology Canstar uses. Get in the real world and get in touch with your readers and those who have to deal with companies like this.

Damien
August 22, 2019 3.44pm

We are a collision repair company and turn every budget direct customer away. Budget direct assessors want to pay us little as possible per hour to do their repair work (hence why their premiums are cheap). So the cheap insurance policy shouldn't be taken into account if you look deeper into why they are cheap. You get what you pay for.