Budget Direct Home and Contents Insurance

Who is Budget Direct?

Budget Direct has been on the insurance scene since 2000. ​​In that time, they’ve taken home Money magazine’s Insurer of the Year ten times, including an impressive eight years in a row from 2017 to 2024.

Not one to rest on their laurels, Budget Direct also further impressed Money magazine and won the Best of the Best award for Best-Value Home and Contents Insurance from 2017 to 2020 and again from 2022 to 2024. Impressive! 

Why consider Budget Direct?

So what has Budget Direct got that keeps them winning awards?  Well, Budget Direct offers: 

• 24/7 online and phone claims service
• ​​​Each year to help keep pace with the rising costs of repairing, rebuilding and replacement, they will automatically increase the sum insured amounts of your home and contents in your renewal offer. Your premium will also be adjusted accordingly. It’s still important to check if your sum insured is adequate.
• Quality repairs ​are ​guaranteed by their trusted partners, including using quality materials
• The option to choose a higher excess to reduce your premium at any time 

What types of home and contents insurance does Budget Direct offer?

There’s no place like home and no two homes are the same. Luckily, Budget Direct has customisable insurance policies to better suit your home and lifestyle. You can start with any of these four bases, then add additional optional covers.

• Home Insurance 
  Also known as building insurance, this could help protect ​​​the structure of ​your home from events such as storms, fire and theft. This generally includes cover for repairs, rebuilds and temporary accommodation.
• Contents Insurance 
  This helps cover most items inside your home including your furniture, electronics and other valuables. Budget Direct offers new-for-old replacements for your contents if they’re damaged during an insured event, subject to the terms, conditions and limits of your policy.
• Home and Contents 
  Keep things simple with one policy to cover both your home and contents.
• Landlord Insurance 
  If you have an investment property, this acts similarly to home insurance if​ ​loss or damage occurs​​​​ from an insured event.

Helpful Tip

Many of us have personal items we take out of the home with us, like jewellery, a snazzy camera or your trustworthy bike. ​​​​​​Depending on the value of these items, you can be covered for an additional premium under personal effects.

Which events do Budget Direct’s home and contents policies cover? 

Whether it’s a burst pipe in the middle of the night or someone breaking in, these kinds of unwanted events are unfortunately something we need to think about. While you can’t stop every disaster from happening, appropriate insurance can help make it that much easier to get back on track. 

Budget Direct home and contents insurance helps cover your house and personal possessions in case of loss or damage caused by the following events: 

• ​​​Storm and rainwater (doesn’t cover any loss or damage caused by flood). If this doesn’t meet your needs, you can add optional flood cover.
• Fire
• Lightning
• Theft (including attempted theft)
• Escape of liquid (like a burst pipe)
• Impact at home (like a fallen tree)
• Breakage of glass, ceramic and sanitary fixtures
• Malicious damage, vandalism, riot or civil commotion
• Explosions
• Earthquake or tsunami 

You could also customise your Budget Direct insurance policy with optional cover available for (eligibility criteria may apply):       

• Flood cover
• Personal effects (for items that you take away from your home with you, like laptops or jewellery)
• Motor burnout (like for your fridge)
• Commercial storage, if you store your items in a storage facility
• Accidental damage
• Sum Insured Safeguard, which increases your ​sum insured amount by up to 25% if the cost to repair, replace or rebuild your home is more than you’re insured for 

What are the benefits of insuring your home and contents with Budget Direct? 

Insuring your home and contents with Budget Direct also comes with some benefits above and beyond the policy itself. For instance, they have their own rewards platform, which is free for customers with two or more Insurance Policies. ​​It provides discounts for a range of exciting options, including dining and takeaway, travel and leisure activities, and gift cards. 

How do excesses work with Budget Direct? 

When you sign up for a policy with Budget Direct, you’ll ​​​have the option to nominate an excess between $100 and $5,000. Choose a higher excess and lower premiums, or a lower excess and higher premiums. 

How do I make a claim with Budget Direct? 

When it’s time to make a claim, Budget Direct has a simple process. After all, who needs to be dealing with endless phone calls and paperwork while they’re trying to get things back to normal?

Check your cover

Before you lodge a claim, you can review your cover to see what’s included, however if you’re in any doubt as to whether your loss or damage is covered, you can still lodge a claim and it will be assessed accordingly.

Have your info close to hand

To help your claim progress swiftly, Budget Direct needs to know the details of what happened, including the time, date and location, and any photos of the damage. If you have one, include the police report too. It can be a good idea to have all of these documents and information ready to go when you start your claim. 

Depending on your claim, you can also lodge any other damage reports or proof of ownership now. However, if you haven’t got them yet, you could still get your claim started. You can add this information to the claim later as needed. 

Lodge ​your claim

Once you’ve collected all of the relevant information, your next step is to decide how you want to make a claim. You can choose between notifying Budget Direct of your claim online, or calling so that one of Budget Direct’s friendly team members can assist you. Rest assured whether you choose to claim online or over the phone, you’ll be able to start your claim 24/7. 

With your claim in Budget Direct’s court, they’ll start assessing. This may include reaching out to you for more information or having someone come to assess the damage. Once they have all the relevant information they’ll make a decision within 10 working days unless you hear otherwise or there are special circumstances, so you won’t be left hanging either way.  Once a decision has been made, if the claim has been accepted Budget Direct will repair, replace or pay you cash for your insured damages or losses up to the sum insured. 

What payment options does Budget Direct offer?

Using direct debit, credit card or debit card, you can choose to pay your Budget Direct home and contents insurance premium fortnightly, monthly or yearly. Each has its own benefits but annually works out the cheapest as there will be no fee for paying by instalment.

Where can I compare Budget Direct Home and Contents Insurance?

If your existing home and contents insurance (or lack of) is leaving you feeling less than ​happy, iSelect can help. You can use our handy online comparison tool to learn about a range of Budget Direct home and contents insurance options, as well as policies from other providers.