Budgetdirect

I moved to Budget Direct some years ago to secure a competitive premium.
Last year, we made a claim on a damaged engagement ring which was repaired under our insurance.
I have just found out now that Budget direct have increased our premiums by exactly 50%. That's $1000 annually.
Similar to others I see, they explain this as due to natural disasters, local factors etc. However in exploring this more closely, I have been told by a senior BD advisor that indeed it is due to my claim, I quote: "..and recovery of the claim".
I strongly recommend not going with Budget Direct, and if you do, and make a claim, expect a hefty increase on renewal.

DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY! THEY MAKE EXCUSES TO NOT PAY GENUINE CLAIMS! THEY DONT RESPONSE TO CLAIMS UNTIL MONTHS LATER! You will know if an Insurer is good during claims time and it is no point buying any insurance at low cost when they dont actually pay you when you need to make a claim. This is an extremely hard lesson I learnt googling for "best insurance companies in Australia or cheapest", CHEAP IS BAD and this is BUDGET DIRECT, their name itself is a reflection. They spent a lot of advertising money and mostly appears at the top of search engines and many Comparison sites like Canstar, Find, Comparethemarket, etc, to ENTICE ignorant consumer like me to buy their policies but when it comes to claims time, they do not response at all until months later and make all sorts of excuses to NOT PAY GENUINE CLAIMS! So please DO NOT GET SCAMMED, read each and every fine print in their policy! They used this to argue themselves out of paying claims. I am taking my case to the AFCA, also read the reviews of other policy holders before you buy! I am a frequent business traveller, been buying travel insurance since 30yrs ago with different companies and last year, it was UNFORTUNATE I came across Budget Direct whilst googling. I bought a comprehensive multi-trip travel insurance in 2019 for my trip to Egypt and Jordan during Xmas holidays. Halfway through my trip, my Mum passed away overseas, and I had to break my trip and fly back for Mum's funeral. Hence, I had to rebook my Business Class Air Tickets and cancel half my trip, and rebook all hotels overseas attending mums funeral for a week. To rub salt into the wound, when I tried to make a claim, I received no response for almost 2 months, sent them multiple emails, they of course made excuses using COVID-19, asked for mum's death cert and all documents to proof my flights, travels, hotels cost etc. They then come back to inform that MY CLAIMS HAVE BEEN REJECTED! Below is their response:-

"The claimant has lodged the above claim under Section A-Cancellation and Amendment fees. As the claimant has already departed Australia she will not be covered under this section. We further considered this claim under Section C1- Cutting Your Trip Short & Section C2-Additional expenses. However, as the incident did not occur in Australia the claim does not fall within the scope of the policy and is therefor denied at this time."

I wondered why the Hell would anyone purchase travel insurance for overseas travel if not for unfortunate events like what happened to me! My mum passed away when I was travelling, and this is NOT A GOOD ENOUGH REASON for Budget Direct to pay my claims! So BEWARE all of you, think 100x before you think of engaging this company's services as CHEAP/BUDGET doesnt mean quality and this is often TRUE each and everytime. I am really keen to hear what the OMBUDSMAN AFRA had to say about this when I lodge a FORMAL COMPLAINT about Budget Direct tricking ignorant, unbeknownst consumers hundreds of million of dollars purchasing their policies hoping NO ONE MAKES A CLAIM and if one does, Budget Direct goes "see, read our 10,000 lines of fine prints in our terms of policies document when you purchase, you are not covered!!!" So unless you are a lawyer, and you have read through each and every word in the terms of their policy document, you are in for the SHOCK OF YOUR LIFE, when most of us would have thought we are covered by travel insurance if a family member passed away during your travels!!!

I saw their ad on TV and decided to call them to ask 鈥渨hat percentage of claims do you refuse?鈥?Natalie in the claims team said she 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 find that information鈥?and is 鈥渘ot allowed to give it out anyway鈥? If this insurer paid out a fair proportion of claims, I鈥檓 surprised they won鈥檛 tell you what percentage of claims they refuse. Just some food for thought!

I wish I had read all the reviews here before paying over a thousand dollars for a travel insurance that is worthless. They do not cover any claims as others have stated here. Our claim was also declined on complete bogus grounds. Will complain with Afca.

Are they cheap? Yes but it's easy to be cheap when they scam you when you file in a claim. Take your business elsewhere. It's not a coincidence that ALL reviews here are negative.

After Recent Storms, my parents who are pensioners were left with a damaged roof. They had contacted Budget Direct and had been told somebody will be there in 2 days. After 4 weeks and multiple phone calls later a builder had rocked up had a look and told them to leave immediately as the roof could collapse. It was extremely dangerous for my parents to stay in their home. A Couple of days later the roof did indeed collapse. They were moved to temporary accommodation while they assessed the claim. We were told that an Engineer would be onsite on Monday 2nd March. We waited a while and made a phone call to the insurance company to see where the engineer was. We had been assured an Engineer would be meeting us at my parents home to assess the roof. He had been booked in for 9am. I called and was told that the insurance company had not sent them the address and could not book anyone in. Once i got back to the insurance company to advise them of the issue, i also clearly made them aware that the roof had partially collapsed now and there was rain forecast that week. It was imperitive they send someone to Tarp the house or the house would flood inside. This had become URGENT. He advised me that he had spoken with the builder and that it was all fine, i let him know that the situation had now changed since he was out last and that there were large gaps in the roof due to the partial collapse. He advised me that he can only take the builders advice and that it was not required. I called the Builder and told him what the Insurer had said and he was furious at what they told me that he apparently said. The builder had advised them that the situation had changed. It had worsened.
He advised me to call the insurers back and insist with urgency that they organise to have the roof tarped as soon as possible.
I called back and was assured, they would 鈥榞et onto it.鈥?br />
2 Days Later and NO tarp. the rains have come and completely ruined all the plaster,ceiling and Timber flooring.
I called once again to let them know that now not only the roof was collapsed but the rain had totally destroyed the inside of the house. I was told not to worry as they will cover the damages the rain caused as it was too unsafe to have the Tarp put on.
That afternoon builders had arrived from the Insurer and put a Tarp on the roof. I Do not Understand how they can say it was to unsafe but then Organise to have somebody install the Tarp. Something that should have been done 2 days prior avoiding all the extra damage inside the house now.
Wednesday the Engineer finally arrived to assess the roof. i knew from the start this guy did not know what hd was doing. he had come to assess a roof yet did not even bring a ladder to get up there and have a look. He walked around the bottom of the house, took some photos from below and told me he had to call someone that k new more about roofs. really??!!
So the Budget Direct Engineer, has come to my parents ruined home and has basically not assessed anything because of the severity of the situation, yet he has submitted a report with his assessment. Apparently he knows how and why my parents roof collapsed.
We now have been notified that they have rejected the claim and will not be paying anything out, including all the damages inside the house caused by their delay.
They have said that they have looked on google earth from 2018 and have noticed a slight bow in the roof and that it was not structurally sound in the first place and that was the main cause of the roof failure, – not the Gail forced winds we experienced that uprooted hundreds of trees and caused so much damage around Sydney that afternoon in January this year.
So now they have removed my Parents from the Temporary accommodation and they are living in the back half of the collapsed house.
They make it easy to go online for Cheaper home insurance but when its time to claim they don't care.

Delivers intrusive and unsolicited advertising material addressed to "The owner of [your car make and model]" in plain white envelopes, which could be confused for government or other official letters. Marketing tactics like this are a source of confusion and distress, particularly for the elderly. Don't do it.

100% increase in Premium in 2 Years! Made one small claim in that time but they've said due to circumstances around the country the overall risk has increased. A complete joke.

DO NOT INSURE WITH THIS COMPANY
yes, their prices are awesome UNTIL you need to claim on your insurance…
I鈥檓 not sure exactly what they do class as a viable reason for them to honour their insurance promises Or what they actually will pay out for , in any incident , accident or situation..
I don鈥檛 know anybody that has had their insurance claim approved..
What I do suggest is lodge a claim with afca.org.au
who are the Insurance Watch dog for all insurance and financial institutions and companies , and unlike the ombudsman which is a complete waste of time …afca will step in
It鈥檚 super easy to do online , doesn鈥檛 take long at all ..
i was in a hit and run…at an intersection stationary , when a car came over a crest ,
speeding, colliding with my car , set airbags off etc and she was gone in literally 60 seconds.. I had 2 witnesses, if I had been injured or dead she would of just left me there ..we found her car and rego ..she wrote my car off ..
She didn鈥檛 report it to police etc
And my claim was rejected, apparently it鈥檚 my fault..
They didn鈥檛 even consider approving my claim or contacting her or her insurance company..
And I can鈥檛 tell you how many hours I spent on hold on the phone and getting the run around..

Cheap insurance does not mean you are covered when it is required and i learned the hard way. I had auto insurance with budget direct and encountered an accident which was no fault of mine. Budget direct sent me a claim# and their agent advised me this claim would be closing because someone would follow up to arrange a settlement. I did not receive a call and my claim was withdrawn without my consent or more like deception. Reaching their claims office was always lengthy 40 min hold times before and gave up after multiple attempts. The claims dept number was 1300 139 591 ext 10082. I am not sure if this was a dummy number or they deliberately create a long hold time expecting customers to give up filing their legitimate claims. You give up after making several attempts and encounter long hold times with no eta on call queues. Beware of the cheap allure of insurance because this company is a fraud and markets cheap insurance only to dishonour your claim.

Had a hole in my roof light tube after hail damage. Fly screens too damaged. Because I had to get the problems fixed, and failed to tell them when it happened they knocked me back outright for a claim worth almost $2K. I was not impressed with their attitude as they could not care less it seems. I intend to fins another home insurer.

Worst Customer Support. They ask hundreds of stupid questions for no reason. Don't accomodate their customers in nice way, never ever recommend budget direct.

quotes are inaccurate. With carefully worded disclaimers they tell you their quotes dont mean a thing. Go to the insurers website and the quote will change, at least for budget direct they do. What is the point of an inaccurate comparison website??

The worst service ever, liars , they put you through 10 people before they listen, never go with them ,don't use road side at all, they take your money and don't give a damm about you.

Elderly people often have trouble finding suitable travel insurance. Many Insurers have age restrictions and if you are over 75 they will not insure you. Others who do, often charge excessive premiums. While travel agents must provide Travel Insurance, too many of them will quotean excessive price for aged travellers. Budget Direct provided me (85
years old) with Travel Insurance at a most reasonable rate. This was
the first time I insured with them. Their rate was much less than the
previous insurers I have used and also provided a higher cover for
rental motor vehicles. This was the first time I needed to make a claim
for damage to the rental vehicle which occurred while parked at Heathrow Airport in UK. I lodged the claim on line at Budget Direct's user friendly website sending them copies of the relevant documents needed.The claim was settled in full without any fuss.Surprisingly while I had an excess of $200.00 on the policy there was no excess applied to this motor vehicle claim. Aged travellers especially should check with Budget Direct before taking out their Travel Insurance. All other travellers may also find that
Budget Direct's premiums will be "Better than most, and second to none".