How to Save on Car Insurance

Saving on car insurance may sound like an impossible feat, but there are some ways you can minimise costs and improve your savings. Understanding which factors can affect the cost of your insurance may be your first step and implementing changes based on these factors will be how you’ll save on car insurance overall.

To minimise costs, you should start by considering who is on your policy.

A feature of Budget Direct’s car insurance is a discount when you restrict your policy to drivers over a certain age. You can restrict your policy to drivers who are over 21, 25, 30, 40 and 50 years of age. Typically the older the drivers, the lower your premium will be.

The excess is what you pay to your insurer if you make a claim where you’re at fault. Electing to increase your excess may ultimately reduce your insurance premium. However, this also means that you would need to pay a higher excess in the event of a claim, and you should weigh up the benefits of changing your excess to your particular situation.

When purchasing car insurance, you’ll want to figure out which optional benefits you need. Opting for benefits that you want may not necessarily lower the cost of your car insurance, but it will help protect your car should the unforeseen happen.

Alongside Comprehensive Car Insurance Budget Direct offers:

• Accident hire car
• Reduced window-glass excess
• Choice of repairer

Please check the Product Disclosure Statement for more information.

If you take out a number of insurance products from some insurers, you may be eligible for a discount with them. While Budget Direct doesn’t offer multi-vehicle car insurance, we will discount your first year’s premium by 15% if you buy cover from us online.

Additionally, if you hold two or more insurance policies with us, you’re invited to become a Budget Direct Rewards customer, which gives you full access to exclusive offers and discounts across popular brands in travel, accommodation, shopping and much, much more.

Learn more about Budget Direct’s Rewards program.

By paying annually instead of in instalments (i.e. fortnightly or monthly), you’ll pay a lower premium and avoid instalment processing fees. While this option may not be suitable for all insurance customers, it may be worth it to those who can afford a one-off payment.

A No-Claim Discount or no-claim bonus is a discount on your comprehensive car insurance premium that increases the longer you don’t have an at-fault claim, up to a certain level. The more years you remain claim-free the bigger your discount will be.

You can even transfer your no-claim bonus or driver rating from your current insurer to Budget Direct, so long as you supply proof of your current rating. We’ll factor in the rating when we calculate your premium.

At Budget Direct we offer what’s called a Gold Low KM Comprehensive Policy, which is available to those that drive 10,000kms or less in a year. This type of cover attracts a lower premium. As long as you’re eligible, you can call Budget Direct on 1800 288 149 to request a Gold Low Kilometres Comprehensive Policy.

Learn more about Budget Direct’s Gold Comprehensive Car Insurance.

If you’re an existing customer with Budget Direct you can get a discount on your first year’s premium for a new policy purchased online. To qualify for our 15% discount you must start your car insurance quote online.

Another way you could lower your premiums is to reduce your risk to insurers.

You could reduce your risk further:

• Parking your car in a garage rather than on the street
• Using a carpooling service to reduce your mileage, but only if it puts you in a lower kilometre band.

Make sure that any type of risk is accurately reflected and updated in your policy as this could also affect the price of your premium.