Budget Insurance for Car Home & Van (Reviews)

Budget insurance has three main products: car insurance, van insurance and home insurance but they also offer life, bike, pet, commercial vehicle and travel insurance. They are a brand of the BGL Group established in 1992 and you can get a quote or buy insurance from their website Budgetinsurance.com where the stated motto is that of the current advertising campaigns, "No wonder smart people budget".

Budget's head office and Fusion contact centre is in Peterborough but they also have contact centres in Coventry, Peterlee and Sunderland to help you out and all at the end of a freephone phone call. Budget will find you the best quotes by searching their panel of around twenty leading insurance providers such as Zurich, Churchill (not one you often see in a brokerage), Norwich Union and CIS. They state, like most brokers, are able to insure you for less because they have negotiated a special deal with many of them.

Van insurance cover incorporates a courtesy van for seven days, legal protection cover, an option to extend your cover to take in short trips to Europe as well as breakdown cover which includes roadside assistance and towing service.

If you are a van dealer there is a special quote line which was launched in 2005 and you can earn commissions when you refer your customers to Budget, to join the scheme you only have to phone the number posted under this section on the website and they will send you a pack of dealer cards with your reference number printed on them. You will be paid for each person you recommend and have the option to take payment in cash (possibly taxable) or vouchers (possibly not-taxable!) from a wide range of top stores including Woolworth's, Car phone Warehouse, Halfords, Boots, HMV, Iceland, WH Smith and JJB Sports. We've seen similar programs with Norwich Union who pay car dealerships to recommend their insurance to new car buyers.

If you are looking for classic car insurance you will be interested to learn that Budget have teamed up with on the UK's classic car insurance specialist, Lancaster, to give you a better deal including flexible payment options, agreed valuations, limited mileage discounts and instant cover at lower premiums.

At the beginning of 2008 the team behind Budget in partnership with Temporary Cover limited launched a new product which targets the need for short-term motor insurance and this is available via the links on the website or by phone. This is ideal if you want to borrow a relatives or friends car, want to take a test drive or need to use a courtesy car whilst yours in a garage.

The website itself features many extras such as insurance news stories, competitions, route finder, used car DVLA check, find a city, a renewal reminder email service and car buying. They have built a dedicated site at www.budgetinsurance.com with information on all their services (www.budgetinsurance.co.uk works fine too). This is not to be confused with the car hire firm at www.budget.co.uk (also their international site www.budget.com) even though their logos and site's have similar colours, services, images and layouts. They are not linked so don't go forwarding your personal information to the wrong company looking for answers.

Budget has teamed up with Bank of Scotland Freeway to offering a Car Buying service - an alternative way to own a new car as you can purchase any make of car for a monthly fixed payment with no deposit with up to five years to repay. At the end of the term you can hand the car back with no further payments, make a final payment and keep the car or start over with another car. If you wish you can include servicing, maintenance and early termination insurance to be built in with the price. Remember to always match up the figures you're given with other car leasing companies and even dealerships who throw out some seriously inviting offers from time to time. (I just jumped on one myself that saved me ?6,000 off the book price!) †

22/02/2010 Having spoken to a call centre staff member who could not have been any more unhelpful I will not be using Budget again. Even if it meant saving a bit of money Im not prepared to utilise a company who's staff appear to do their best to try and be as condescending as possible. I only wanted to change my vehicle details but this turned out to be a lengthy and expensive affair. Roll on September when my policy year expires whereby I will be being saying goodbye to Budget forever. I should know by now that you only get what yoy pay for.

20/02/2010 I am very disappointed with Budget car insurance. I wanted to cancel my policy for a car I have just sold and they want a £35 cancellation fee and £70 as I am leaving early - I have already paid £115 for my policy and the total premium was only £230! I asked to transfer it to another car so they offered me a premium of £395 for the year with £100 excess, or £383 for a £300 excess. Guess I'll have to take the hit on cancelling...