Budget Direct Home Insurance Review

Beware they are cheap but will not approve your claim

We had a big storm event comes through victoria few months ago, i filed a claim due to the storm water came in and leak through bedroom and garage. They sent building assessor who tried to search for all excuses that they would not approve the claim saying that the house was not watertighted as pre existing condition and the flushing needed to be repaired, they even put the conditions of repair to be done at no cost to them as requirement to keep the policy, i challenged the statement of flushing to be repaired and house was not watertight as pre existing condition as similar rain events came weeks after without any leaks to my house and i challenged them to came and saw themselves during the rain should there was any leaks, nobody dare to come. They only said the building inspector report said so. There is no leaks from any rain event from that time until now, I really disappointed with their decision, their explanation, and decided to cancel my policy. Hopefully this will provide insight to others that is looking to switch to them.

Frustrating customer service - 3 failed attempts to get new policy

Queued for 30 minutes the day before buying a new car to add cover for new car. Customer service person, not very experienced, spent ages trying to find my standard options on their system. Failed to do so and so I emailed them all the details. Rep said that I would get a new insurance certificate to confirm overnight, but was never sent. So next day at car dealership, had to queue for another 30 mins to confirm if my new car was insured. Rep said that even if you change you vehicle, they don't automatically send a new certificate, which I found was unusual. Requested that they send the new insurance certificate to confirm. When looking at the details of the certificate, because they couldn't find the standard features from my car on their system, they added generic text to the modifications section - Mech - Transmission change - complete wrong as there was no change to transmission! - Misc - Other modifications - what does this mean? These terms were not only incorrect, but was also so vague to be completely useless. So contacted them again, this time via their SMS service, as I didn't want to queue for another 30 minutes. After 4 attempts via the sms service, having to follow up multiple times and having to authenticate every time the service times out, they still didn't resolved the issue. Having wasted so much time to just get a new policy, I cancelled the policy. Got a new policy from Coles and saved $500! If this is the level of customer service for a new policy, I wonder what happens during a claim...avoid and go somewhere else.

Found them to be very misleading, rude and

My experience dealing with a claim that was rejected. I found the information very misleading and the staff very rude. I’m in the process of changing insurance companies

They just doubled my premium for no reason

No reason given. Dumped them

had to get a legal letter written at my own cost before they would action anything

This is a terrible company, they will make you fight tooth and nail when you have a home insurance claim which is completely valid. I was out of pocket for legal advice in which they were wrong. Now to get the money back for the advice i will have to take legal procedings although they did fulfil the claim eventually. Still out of pocket for nothing and horrible company- i have switched policies. Don't generally complain but beware!

Check the small print

There is a reason that Budget appear to be the cheapest. Check the small print to make sure that it covers all your needs. We were with Budget for 15 years. Never had a claim until a couple of years ago when we were burgled twice (both times family members were at home asleep with all doors locked). We had already paid more than ten times the amount of our claims through the insurance premiums over the years. No huge claim and the perpetrators were caught thanks to DNA from blood where they broke in. But because we made 2 claims within a 5 year period we were told we were no longer eligible to be insured with Budget. Also very unimpressed with the claims process. It took months to be paid and the claims officer was very inefficient despite receiving detailed police reports of the incident. I would never insure with them again, even if they offered it.

It's raining

Wouldn't insure our property because it was raining. We live on top of a hill 150m above sea level. Quoted the day before and when I phoned to pay the premium they stated there was an insurance embargo on our post code.

NO FLOOD COVER...CHECK YOUR POLICY

Bought a policy through Budget Direct with whom we had several policies Car and Contents. When we bought our home recently we just opened a H&C policy with them thinking it was going to be covered. A month in and I checked the policy after a storm event, no damage, but just making sure and low and behold no flood cover. Zip, none, zilch. It would cost us almost $1000.00 more per year to include flood. We have since re - insured with another company but all companies researched included flood in their general policy. AAMI, NRMA etc. I now get a refund of more than I paid for the new policy after 40 days. I was shocked actually and will rethink my other policy with my car when it falls due. So don't believe they hype or the adds. There is a reason they do not include flood in their spunky media adds. They do not cover it other than an overpriced optional extra.

Shocking experience

Worst experience I’ve had with a insurance company

Covers all necessary aspects of home insurance at a very competitive price