Budget Direct Home & Contents Insurance

I would give zero stars if I could. After being a customer for a year I received my first renewal with budget direct which had a small increase of 25%....... No claims had been made, no changes to the policy, just a 25% increase for no apparent reason. Using their chatbot to review my policy and see why the massive increase in my premium, only to… Read more

get an AI chat bot that made continuous mistakes, constant misunderstanding's and after making changes to the policy INCREASED MY PREMIUM BY ANOTHER $200.

By far the worst customer service I have ever received, to the extent I have cancelled my policy and gone with a more expensive insurer just so I don't have to endure the incompetence and disregard of this company.

Quotation and information provided by your staff was very good. It assisted us to compare our existing coverage with your proposal. Your new policy was easy to understand and was slightly cheaper than previous supplier. Show reply

Worst insurance company i have ever been with ! My experience was they lied and did anything to get out of paying any legit claims . I wasted my money going with Budget Direct , please read the fine print , as i found it misleading , Ambiguous and Conflicting statements . I feel This is a greedy company only after Taking $$$$$ from their… Read more

customers and not honoring the insurance claim ! Why would any one want to support such a corrupt company ? !!

I contacted them to get a quote for home and contact insurance and their quote was almost $1000 more compared to my current provider. But that is not the problem, problem is that they ask you to agree to a statement when you call that they will… Read more

share our data, and i made a massive mistake by agreeing to that. Since that day my email has been flooded with spam from these weird companies, my phone keeps ringing with the spam numbers and i keep getting texts from these weird companies. They clearly shared my data to some shady companies and now i am getting spammed like there is no tomorrow. I feel like they are not really in business of selling insurance, instead they are in business of selling data. Please please please don't give your data and permission to this company or be ready to get spammed. You have been warned.

Be prepared to be disappointed!!! 60 x earthquakes in 3-4 months, repair of house damage declined 3 x times, the excuse is that it was caused due to natural earth movement? They are cheap for a reason, NEVER AGAIN!!! Show details

Excellent customer service when our call finally got to a consultant . The policy offered a very competitive rate & appeared excellent value for money when compared to other companies . Show reply

Excellent experience with the consultant and signing up with our new home and contents Insurance with budget direct. The consultant was very informative and advised us of the additional items that we could add to our Insurance, which we did do. Overall it was a seamless and easy process to sign up with budget direct and we saved so much money on… Read more ·  1

our new home and contents insurance policy compared to what we used to pay with one of the larger traditional Insurance

I was asked the type of dwelling.first time ever.was with the NRMA for 40 years.My home is brick vaneer. NRMA would not distingush the difference between full brick and brick vaneer,was the home elevated or ground slab,which in my opinion would reduce my premium.So I was happy that Budget Direct asked these questions.Flood insurance was… Read more ·  1

optional.great,as where I have lived for 45 years,it has never flooded. The ease of insuring was great,done in minutes. Saved over $850 ,which is handy as I am a pensioner.

Purchasing our first home, we were completely green and didn’t know how the process worked. We had contents insurance for years renting but not building and contents insurance. We did a quote using the calculator and Budget Direct were the best for our needs. Speaking with customer service was easy and always super friendly. We look forward to continuing our business connection with Budget Direct and recommend them. Give it a go! Show reply

Had contents insurance but not home insurance with Budget Direct. Advised budget that we were soon commencing major renovations on our home. I answered an inordinate number of questions on the scope of work. A few days later I had a follow up conversation with budget answering another bunch of questions. A few days later I received an email… Read more

advising that the scope of renovations meant that budget could no longer accept our policy and was ceasing the contents policy in 3 weeks. Then a day later received a follow up email advising the policy was being canceled in 5 days. At no time was i contacted with the actual reason for their determination or any offer on how we could do to continue the policy ie extra monitoring of the house, ensure the contents were padlocked although they didn’t actually ask what we were doing with our contents during the renovation. Also not happy that Budget changed the cease date of the policy without actually having the fortitude to ring me. I had similar foundational issues which caused me to cancel my vehicle comprehensive insurance with them 5 years previously.

My experience with Budget Direct has been nothing short of appalling. I lodged a house insurance claim that I believe was entirely reasonable and fell within the coverage I had been paying premiums for. After submitting all the required information, I then waited an entire month before finally being advised that my claim had been accepted.… Read more

Naturally, I relied on that decision and believed Budget Direct had assessed the claim properly and would honour its obligations under the policy.

To my shock, approximately two weeks later I was contacted again and told that my claim was actually being declined. I was informed that a formal email would follow explaining the reasons. After waiting weeks for an outcome, being told my claim was approved and then having that decision reversed is completely unacceptable.

The whole process has been marked by delays, poor communication, inconsistency, and a lack of professionalism. It raises serious concerns about the way claims are assessed and how customers are treated. If Budget Direct can tell a customer that a claim has been accepted and then later reverse that decision, what confidence can policyholders have that claims are being handled fairly and competently?

Insurance is supposed to provide peace of mind when something goes wrong. Instead, I have been left stressed, frustrated, and feeling completely let down. I paid my premiums in good faith and expected the insurer to honour a legitimate claim. Rather than receiving support when I needed it, I have faced delays, confusion, and what appears to be an unjustified refusal to pay.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Budget Direct. Customers deserve clear communication, consistent decision-making, and fair treatment. Unfortunately, my experience has been the exact opposite.

I am extremely disappointed with the service I received from Budget Direct. I contacted them to discuss contents cover including lost or stolen items outside Australia and simply wanted an explanation as to why individual items needed to be listed rather than allowing a total insured amount. Instead of answering my question, the consultant… Read more

repeatedly asked the same questions about how many items I had, their individual values, and even the karat value of gold items. It felt like talking to a robot rather than someone genuinely trying to help.

The process was unnecessarily tedious and time-consuming. I was placed on hold for a lengthy period, only for the consultant to return and tell me that the percentage wasn't sufficient and that they couldn't provide cover. When I asked why, he was unable to give a clear explanation and simply continued with the script instead of addressing my concerns.

Good customer service involves listening to customers and answering reasonable questions. Unfortunately, that did not happen in this case. The lack of communication, lengthy delays, and inability to provide clear explanations made for a very frustrating experience. Based on this interaction, I would not recommend Budget Direct.

I mean all I did was buy insurance. I don't know how good it is yet cause I am yet to use it. Buying it was simple. I can review that. 5 stars for taking my money. Hopefully it will be retruned one day should I ever need it. Show reply

Very disappointing customer service experience with Direct Budget today. I called to request the addition of a secondary mortgagee to my insurance certificate, and the representative’s attitude was unnecessarily rude and unhelpful. It felt as though assisting customers was a burden rather than part of the job. Regardless of the request, customers… Read more

deserve to be treated with respect and professionalism. Based on this interaction, Direct Budget has some work to do when it comes to customer service.

Saved a lot of money over my normal insurer. It really does pay to see what else is on the market. I've been with the same insurer for over 40 years, but Budget Directs premium was too hard to refuse Show reply

This company is awful! I am disgusted in how my mother’s claim has been handled. She is a 66 year old widow with a health condition, whose house was flooded and due to poor handling and delays in processing her claim she has been out of her home for 5 months. It has been an extremely stressful and exhausting experience for her. At this point the… Read more

treatment she has recieved is dismissive and borders intimidation rather than support. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

I recently had a claim denied by Budget Direct, and my experience has been extremely disappointing. It felt as though their first instinct when a claim is lodged is to look for reasons to deny it, rather than genuinely assess and support customers through the claims process. The company appears to invest heavily in marketing, advertising, and… Read more

paid endorsements, including recognition from organisations such as Canstar, which can create an impression of customer value and reliability that does not align with my claims experience.

Insurance is ultimately tested when you need to make a claim, and unfortunately this is where my experience with Budget Direct fell well short of expectations.

Insurance sold with Budget Direct-Yes! Insurance Solved with Budget Direct-Good Luck! If you are considering buying any Budget Direct product, be advised that is the easy part. As with all insurances, the product you buy can only be evaluated when it comes time to rely on it. We had occassion to lodge a claim last February. Initially the online… Read more

claim process was quick to respond while they extracted our "Excess Payment". We were initially contacted by a Budget Appointed contract assessor who bought in their experts to formulate a "Scope of Works". The trades to be involved were plasterers, painters, structural fabricators and electricians.

It is now coming close to three months and in summary here are the KPIs for customer service by Budget Direct.

1. Number of times I have contacted them=11 2. Number of times they have promised deadlines for a response =4 3. Number of times they have reached out to me =0 4. Excuses used. "waiting on "Scope of works"=5 "seeking clarification from Contract building assessor"=2 "seeking clarification regarding warranty by contractor"=1 "seeking ammendment of scope of works regarding an item they consider to be ""maintenance item"".=3

Everytime you call them, there is a recorded preamble that sets out expected codes of conduct by the customer. It is like a form of Chinese water torture to further raise your frustration levels. It is particularly galling to learn that our claims manager is receiving bonuses. Based upon their abysmal attitude to customer service I can only imagine they receive Bonus payments for wearing clients down until they go away.

I have tried to clarify our position by discussing our case directly with a representative from the appointed "Claim assessor Contractor". They say "the matter is with Budget Direct ".

In summary. Their advertising is slick and at saturation levels. Their online quotation and payment system makes it easy to feel you are getting peace of mind at a fair price. And thats the end of it!

It now appears a compalint to AFCA is my next step in this sorry mess.

Both of the staff that assisted me were absolutely excellent. They were patient, kind and very informative. Truly exceptional customer service and lovely humans. Budget Direct is very fortunate to have them. Show reply

After comparing all options this was by far the best. Great service when I called for clarification on a few points and very easy online experience. Saved over $400 in comparison to my previous 12 year insurance provider. Show reply

Disappointed to have just recently cancelled both car insurance & home & contents insurance with Budget Direct. Hard to fathom how little real effort they make to keep their existing customers in comparison to attracting new customers. With 25% annual increases on their policies, with little interest in any actual discussion beyond increasing our… Read more

excess, we will continue to play the “game” and seek new policies elsewhere. This year saving just under $800! Surely the extra time involved for Budget (& the customer) signing up & checking on new policies would make retaining existing policy holders with more modest annual increases an obvious choice. I won’t hold my breath.

Stay away from these excuse making crooks. Took 5 months to do anything other than call me 30 times asking for the same info already provided or discussed. I ended up printing out 100-140 photos to send express via post because they “apparently” couldn’t see the photos. They then denied me 5 months later saying I never added a causation report… Read more

yet this was discussed over 6 times with budget direct, 2 different builders, and 10 different people on 10 different calls, I believe they are trained to make you “give up” and “perplex you” to the point you give up. Stay clear of these gooses! Their job is to find reasons to not pay you out!!!!

I had a tree fall on my shed in July 2025, it has only just been completed now, I started my claim and paid my excess to only then have a phone call and was told I was in a flood area and would need to speak to someone in regards to my policy, I laughed cause where I live never flooded, the got transferred 40 min later, then lady had no idea what… Read more

the other lady was on about, so wasted my time there, the several weeks later had people to finally come remove the tree and someone dismantle the remaining shed, the found the tree was connected to the other tree we had so they were classed as one tree, several weeks on tree loppers come back out and then destroyed my yard with heavy machinery which was not told about and then dropped the tree on my concrete slab where the new shed was to be built, I never had any phone calls for the insurance company or company the hired to manage the claim to let me know anyone was coming out people just showed up at my door after repeatedly asked to be called, then several months to find someone to remove the old concrete slab and lay it down as the company they hired to over see it wouldn't do anything about it, then the insurance company was trying to pay me out of the whole job and I refused, then I received a email saying my premiums were going up to nearly double what they were when speaking to the case manager about this saying this doesnt sound right and can they do something as this has been a nightmare of a claim i was told nothing they can do but put a complaint in which nothing come of. November 2025, we had quotes for a new shed and concrete and that kept getting declined as they were saying the shed wasn't the right size etc, so I had to say to them that these are the experts you hired and your doubting them, by this point I was fed up, I advised them a decision had to be made otherwise I was going to the ombudsman and getting a letter of demand from my lawyer, 24hrs later had approval, nothing happened from then till mid January when concrete slab finally got poured and then a month later the shed got built, then took another month to have the rubbish taken away that was left behind scraps of metal and that from the shed builders, this has been a nightmare of a claim and over 7 months to have a back shed built, because these gum nuts cant get stuff done in timely matter, or hire people who damage your property. Will not be renewing my policy at all and have advised others to not even look at these guys.

I recently had an extremely disappointing experience with Budget Direct regarding a simple ceiling damage claim caused by a heavy hailstorm. Instead of providing support, their team demanded that I begin major maintenance work within 30 days before they would even proceed with the basic ceiling repair. This requirement is completely unreasonable… Read more

and unlike anything I’ve experienced with any other insurer. For context, I was previously insured with Allianz for three years and had the exact same ceiling issue due to storm damage. Allianz covered everything without unnecessary complications or demands. Budget Direct, however, has made the process stressful, confusing, and unacceptable. This was not a faulty claim, nor was it a scam. It was straightforward storm damage — yet I was treated as if I needed to prove something beyond common sense. I switched to Budget Direct because their premiums were cheaper, but now I deeply regret that decision. The customer service, claim handling, and overall process have been far below industry standards. I will not be renewing my policy when it expires. If you value smooth claims, fair treatment, and reasonable processes, I strongly recommend thinking twice before choosing Budget Direct.