What’s covered by Comprehensive Car Insurance?
Upgrade your Comprehensive cover
For an additional premium, you can customise your comprehensive car insurance cover by adding one or more of these optional benefits to your policy:
How do I add an optional benefit to my policy?
You can add one or more of these benefits when you get a quote and buy a policy or — if you’ve already bought one — by contacting us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
(Note that you can reduce your window-glass excess only within 21 days of buying your policy, renewing it, or transferring it to a replacement vehicle.)
Get a quote online and save 15%^
Because we don’t insure unsafe drivers, we can keep our premiums low for safer drivers like you.
Get a comprehensive car insurance quote and buy a policy online and you’ll receive a 15%^ discount on your first year's premium.
Find out more
The information on this page is a summary only. For more details about Budget Direct Comprehensive car insurance, including the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions that apply, please read the product disclosure statement (PDS)
How to make a claim
If you need to make a claim, we’re here to help you get back on the road as quickly and smoothly as possible. Make a claim on your Comprehensive car insurance.
Award-Winning Australian car insurance
After comparing over 47,000 quotes, comparing 50 Comprehensive Policies offered by 41 insurance providers, across 42 Consumer profiles, Canstar proclaimed Budget Direct winners of the National Outstanding Value Car Insurance Award for 2023. In the process, Budget Direct became the only brand in any category to win a Canstar National Outstanding Value Award 17 years in a row.
We also won Money magazine's Best of the Best 2023 winner for Best-Value Car Insurance 5 years in a row (2019-23); Mozo Experts Choice 2023 award for Exceptional Value Car Insurance; and Finder's 2023 Best Car Insurance - Value award.
We were also rated 5 stars by LMI ClaimsComparison for our Motor and Home & Contents Insurance product. The rating is based on both quantitative and subjective data, as well as policy features that are deemed by LMI ClaimsComparison as important to a positive claims experience.
More ways to save
Here are some ways you can reduce your comprehensive car insurance premium even further:
How can I get these savings?
You can select your driver-age restriction, kilometres travelled and/or Basic Excess when you get a quote and buy a policy or — if you’ve already bought one – by contacting us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.
More reasons to choose us
Roadside Assistance
For just $89.95 a year – less than $1.75 a week – you can take advantage of our 24/7 nationwide Roadside Assistance service.
With our Australian network of more than 2,500 contractors, you’re never too far from help.
Frequently asked questions
What are the different types of car insurance?
Budget Direct offers three types of car insurance:
- Comprehensive covers the loss of, or damage to, your vehicle due to an accident (regardless of who’s at fault), vandalism, fire, weather, and theft. It also covers damage caused by your vehicle to other people’s property (e.g. their car and home).
- Third Party Property Only covers damage caused by your vehicle to other people’s property (e.g. their car and home). It does not cover damage to your vehicle (unless it’s damaged in a no-fault accident with an uninsured driver, in which case you have limited cover).
- Third Party Property, Fire and Theft provides the same protection as Third Party Property Only plus cover for loss or damage to your vehicle if it’s stolen or catches fire.
The type of cover you have is shown on your car Insurance Certificate.
How can I get cheaper car insurance?
By not insuring unsafe drivers, we can keep our car insurance premiums low for safer drivers.
Depending on the type of car insurance you choose, there are a number of ways you can reduce your premium even further, namely:
- Select the right level of cover. Do you need comprehensive cover for your car, or would third party property insurance be enough?
- Set a driver-age restriction. You can get a lower premium by restricting your policy to drivers over a certain age (21+, 25+, 30+, 40+, 50+).
- Increase your excess. If you’re comprehensively insured and you increase your Basic Excess, your premium may be reduced.
- Maintain a good driving record. For each claim-free year, you’ll receive a No Claim Discount (NCD) on your premium; the NCD is capped at 5+ years, at which point we’ll give you a Rating 1.
Is it worth having fully comprehensive insurance on an old car?
Your decision on whether to comprehensively insure your old car will generally depend on:
- its market value; and
- your ability to cover the financial loss on your own if your car was, say, written off in an accident.
If your car has a low market value (e.g. $2,500), you may decide third party car insurance is all you need.
In other words, you may decide it’s not worth paying more for comprehensive car insurance as, over time, it could outweigh the cost of replacing your cheap car.
It’s up to you to do the maths: Figure out whether the lower protection and cheaper premium are a reasonable trade-off in your circumstances.
Can I choose my own repairer?
You can nominate your preferred repairer as long as your policy includes the ‘choice of repairer’ policy option.
If you nominate your preferred repairer, and they are not a repairer from our repair network, we’ll ask you to provide us with the repairer’s quotation for the repairs so we can determine whether:
- the quotation is competitive, and
- the proposed repair method is satisfactory.
If either of these criteria is not met, we may decide not to authorise the repairs, and instead offer you the option of:
- having your car repaired by an alternative repairer chosen by us, or
- paying you the reasonable cost to satisfactorily repair your car.
If the car is unsafe to drive, we will pay the cost to tow the car to your preferred repairer up to a maximum of 100 kilometres.
Note that, if we authorise your nominated repairer to undertake the repairs, we’ll guarantee the quality of the repairs but not the time it takes to complete them.
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*Based on customers who have made a claim on Budget Direct Comprehensive Car Insurance, and who were surveyed between 10 February 2015 and 31 August 2023. Visit www.budgetdirectreviews.com.au for more details. ‡ Your car would not be covered while it was being driven by someone under the restricted age.
# Click here to read Canstar's award report and rating methodology.
