Budget Direct has insured motorists in The Garden State since 2000.
Whether you live in Melbourne or Geelong, Ballarat or Bendigo, or anywhere in between, we've got a wide range of car insurance for you to choose from.
Switch and save
In comparison to their previous premiums for car insurance, our Victorian car insurance customers told us they saved an average of $###† by switching to Budget Direct Comprehensive Car Insurance.
Here’s a brand-by-brand breakdown of our customers’ self-reported savings.
| Victorians who switched from… | Told us they saved an average of… |
|---|---|
| AAMI | $### |
| Allianz | $### |
| Coles Insurance | $### |
| RACV | $### |
| APIA | $### |
| Woolworths | $### |
| Youi | $### |
Use our Comparitron™ tool to compare car insurance savings reported by our customers throughout Australia.
Award-winning 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.
Canstar also awarded Budget Direct with the Outstanding Value Car Insurance Award for Victoria in 2022.
Choose your cover
With Budget Direct, you can select one of three types of car insurance:
Third Party Property, Fire and Theft Insurance
Provides the same cover as Third Party Property Only, with extra protection against loss or damage to your vehicle due to fire and theft.
Read more about Third Party Property, Fire and Theft Insurance
Highly rated claims
Assessments and repairs
If your damaged vehicle is driveable, we’ll ask you to take it to one of the following to be assessed and fixed:
- one of our network repairers
- a local repairer (if there isn't a network repairer near you).
Alternatively, we may ask you to take your car to one of our three assessment centres, in Melbourne:
The assessments generally take about 15 minutes and we can even help find a repairer for you.
If your damaged car is not driveable, call us on 1300 885 996 and we’ll arrange for it to be towed.
After assessing your vehicle’s damage and authorising the repairs, we can appoint a repairer and manage the whole repair process on your behalf.
Our repairs are guaranteed for as long as you own the car.
Alternatively, you may be able to nominate your preferred repairer.
Roadside Assistance
For $89.95 a year – about $1.75 a week – you can take advantage of our 24/7, nationwide Roadside Assistance service.
Whether you’re broken down in Mildura, Melbourne or Mallacoota, our Victorian network of roadside contractors means you’re never too far from help.
Compulsory Third Party (CTP) Insurance
All vehicles in Australia must have CTP cover before they can be registered and legally driven on the road; motorists pay for this cover either as part of their vehicle registration fee or separately.
In Victoria, CTP insurance is provided by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), which levies a ‘transport accident charge’.
The charge appears on VicRoads registration renewal notices as ‘TAC Charge’ or ‘TAC Premium’.
Accident towing
In most cases, we can arrange for our customers’ undriveable cars to be towed from an accident scene to the tow company’s yard and, in turn, to our motor-vehicle assessors and repairers.
However, residents of Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula and Geelong are required by law to call an ‘allocation centre’, which will arrange the tow on their behalf.
Frequently asked questions
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.
What does car insurance cover?
The things your car insurance covers depends on the type of cover you have; in Australia, there are three broad types of car insurance:
- Comprehensive Car Insurance, which covers loss or damage to your car, as well as your liability for the damage it causes to other people’s property, including their vehicles. Read more
- Third Party Property Only Car Insurance, which generally only covers your liability for the damage your car causes to other people’s property, including their vehicles. Read more
- Compulsory Third Party (CTP) Insurance, which covers compensation claims made against you for injuring or killing someone in an accident.
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.
Car Insurance Knowledge Base
Your questions about insurance all
answered in one place.
Useful links
† {comparitron-disclaimer}
*Based on customers in Victoria who have made a claim on Budget Direct Car Insurance, and who were surveyed between 10 February 2015 and 31 August 2023. Visit www.budgetdirectreviews.com.au for more details.
