Budget Direct Car Insurance

Budget direct sent me an automatic car renew for 1130.71. The insurance has increased significantly instead of reducing. Then I went to compare in iSelect. They also suggested Budget Direct as the best and price at just over 1200.00. I suspected both. Then I checked with AAMI. It came up with 853.24. This saved over $275.00. Please avoid ISelect… Read more

to compare as it does not consider all insurance.

Budget Direct did the same with my landload insurane increasing by $1000.00. I got it less than Budget Direct's previous year insurance.

Absolutely terrible service from Budget Direct. After my car accident, it took around one month to have my vehicle repaired. When I finally received my car back, I discovered a crack in the windscreen, which I raised with them immediately. Instead of taking responsibility and resolving the issue, Budget Direct refused to repair the windscreen.… Read more

What made the situation even worse was the customer service. Even after escalating the matter to their complaints department, I felt that nothing was actually done to resolve my complaint.

The whole process was incredibly frustrating. The customer service was rude, dismissive and unhelpful, and I felt like I was simply being passed around rather than having my concerns genuinely addressed.

After paying for insurance, I expected much better treatment when I actually needed to rely on the company. A month-long repair wait, a damaged windscreen returned with my vehicle, and a complaints process that did not resolve the issue is completely unacceptable.

Based on my experience, I would not recommend Budget Direct.

I’m really disappointed with not the policy but the price increase and the process of refunds. We had automatic renewal and it is our fault we did not shop around until a few days after seeing how expensive it was. We have an older car and the price was over $1100! This is crazy as the car isn’t worth much more. We did our sums with the… Read more

exact same details (eg the market price and excess) and with adding windscreen cover two other providers were $600 !!! So we were in the period that we could cancel.

We cancelled, and we were ok with you won’t get your money for a week.

Then a week later my husband gets an email we can’t process or put the money back on your card. The message stated we will send a cheque if we don’t here back from you on the 8th August unless you tell us. Of course they had our correct details nothing had changed we get refunds all the time! Just an excuse to hold on to your money and over $1100 for a few more weeks .. not on!

So my husband tries the chat. It’s an AI bot and you go round in circles. Finally he gets to a point and you put in your bank details and then magically it times out! So again go back to the chat wasting another 30 mins of his night. Finally goes through and that will take another SEVEN days to get your refund. This is sooo wrong. Not only are they taking advantage with high insurance but the process of refunds is not straight forward. I feel for the elderly going through this process. The ACCC should look into these practices.

Day one - no refund yet.. Will it take over 7 days or will they try something else?

Cheap and Disappointing – You pay for what you get. Cheap and most times disappointing especially when u put in a claim. If someone in the family was driving your car and was not included in the policy then claims is denied and your policy would not be renewed even though… Read more

the policy was taken out on another family member. Budget will even go as far as investigating all other past claims.

Having a terrible experience with Budget Direct, I quit and will never buy their vehicle insurance ever. The fact is that, I have a car crash in… Read more

April with another vehicle. Which the other car hit my right rear end. Where in common sense is that the other driver is at fault. While I have a dashcam record, they said it is not clear enough. I requested them to provide the solid evidences the other party have for me to discuss with my lawyer, they just ignored it. You guess what I got after two months after the crash, their legal recoveries department surprisingly stressing me to admit fault once in a phone call and I got another call said that I have no further evidence so I am the at fault driver. Isn’t that amazing ? I don't know whether their staffs are incapable or ignorance. One word to describe, Crap!

Left on the side of the road for nearly two hours because they didn’t transfer our policy to our new car correctly. We did everything right and called more than two weeks in advance to have the policy updated. Despite that, they failed to update… Read more

their system.

After spending 1.5 hours on the phone, we were told we had to pay because our policy had only been updated “today” — even though they never processed the change when we originally called. We were passed around from contact centre to contact centre, with no one actually helping.

We have all the emails and proof.

I can’t express how poor this experience has been. You get what you pay for. Their customer “experience” director should be fired!

And as I type this, I am still sitting on the side of the road. I have been here since 11 a.m.

Man these guys came in at $800 cheaper than NRMA and the other insurance companies, stoked I got a good price on it. Pays to do a bit of research out there, just hoping it is smooth during a claim though. TIme will tell Show details ·  1

Only purchased policy in last 6 weeks thankfully no claims yet. Application process was easy, having a table with specifics for comparison and seeing cost as you added information is important in deciding on a policy. Taking photos rather than trying to describe car is a great idea. The only hitch was getting them to load but knowing I had cover straight away was a big relief. Show details ·  1

This process was made a lot easier with the customer service I received . As they were extremely helpful & offered different options to suit my needs & requirements & above all very friendly & professional in their manner , extremely down to earth . Show details ·  1

Experienced a car incident where my car rear end was hit by budget direct customer. The result the rear bumper came moose and near fell off . The Insurance chose not to fix its customer’s car even though their customer’s car was a lot bigger and sturdier than my Corolla car. I found that v strange as they don’t have no more obligation for… Read more

further liability. An Easy way out .

For my case , the insurance took almost 1 month to inform the outcome and they felt proud that they did it within the industry standard they said. We are in limbo and found it very hard for them to make allowances for car rentals service . The experience was just an extra layer of adding further stress and pain during the waiting for their decision

in the end, they decided to pay out for the car as a write off despite the fact the car can be repaired. The difference in the cost for the repair it is $100 extra and they decided not to satisfy the customer . This is how the company works just inform you So beware. They put their companies advantage over customers car sentimental value. stressful time and comfort. Budget direct is really all about their own “budget”.

Was involved in a small incident where I will admit to fault but before the other driver submitted his claim he added extra scratches so I would have to pay for a whole new bumper even though the damaged caused was minor but he also had paint peeling off in other areas. Insurance company is stinging me for the whole amount too even though I can… Read more

prove he added more damage after the incident..... Insurance fraud at its best. Also it had been 4 months since I wrote my letter of proof......yet I still had to contact them to find out what was going on, was thinking they'd take me to court, but no the service is non-existent. I'm still waiting for this to be resolved......and moving away from this company.

I took out a comprehensive insurance policy for my van with Budget Direct in December 2025. Unfortunately, my van was involved in an incident in February 2026, and I lodged my claim immediately. It has now been several months, and my claim still has not been resolved. During this time, I have received numerous calls from the Budget Direct review… Read more

team, but despite these conversations, there has been no outcome and my van has still not been repaired.

Today, I spoke with Mohammed, who advised that he would provide me with an update by this Friday.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Budget Direct. I expected better communication, faster claim handling, and a stronger commitment to customer service. Unfortunately, my experience has fallen well short of those expectations.

Bad service. Made me wait over a month driving my car around in disrepair until I could finally book it in. Their automated service kept asking for photos of the accident when my phone wouldn't allow me to send. So I sent the photos on the day of the accident via email which they never bothered to check. The email address was the one… Read more

provided by then after the claim too. They never bothered to inform me they had approved the claim either and neither did the smash repairer they had advised me to accept. I've been a loyal customer to Budget for years and they treated me poorly. I have left them now for another company which promises better service and lower premiuns

This company increased my premiums from $53 a fortnight to $83 a fortnight in the space of one year. Terrible company. Complete and utter scam. Can’t understand why they’ve won so many awards. Avoid at all costs. Show details

Budget direct ripped off my elderly parents $500 more than any other car insurance company...they should be ashamed to take advantage of older people who cant speak well English.. Show details