**** Busted - Stay far away!

I bought a second-hand vehicle in November 2019. I had previous vehicles insured with other insurance companies, all of which I’d sincerely recommend. This was however my first time with Budget Insurance. Based on my experience with Budget Insurance, I would recommend going without insurance rather than insuring with Budget. The initial process of opening a policy with Budget Insurance was amazing, very friendly and relatively effortless. I logged a claim online with Budget Insurance on the 23rd of June 2020 for an accident that occurred earlier on that same day. I don’t claim very often, my last claim (prior to this one) was many, many years ago and handled well by my previous insurer. The claims logging process at Budget Insurance was convenient, I can only complain about a couple of things; they ask you to rate the service before they’ve even started with the actual work and the claims logging system provides them with insufficient information for them to proceed with the claim. After a few days passed, I followed up with a telephone call during which I had to repeat all of the information previously I provided in their online claims logging system. Nevertheless, Budget Insurance collected my vehicle on the 29th of June. Unfortunately, they damaged my vehicle during the process of loading it onto their collecting vehicle.

On the 15th of July, seventeen days after collecting the vehicle, I received a telephone call from Budget Insurance to inform me that they're rejecting the claim due to the accident was caused by "deterioration and breakdown" which is not covered by my policy. The telephone call was followed by a formal letter from Budget Insurance the following day (16 July), confirming the rejection due to the reason previously provided. If you’re considering to insure with Budget Insurance, take time to read through their contract thoroughly, they’ll have slippery slipway to wiggle themselves out of any claim situation. Their whole process of opening new policies is focused on signing you on telephonically and obtaining your banking details as quickly as possible, obviously to avoid that you take time to read their contract.

Prior to the phone call I wasn't too much bothered about the seventeen days that passed, since I reckoned that Budget Insurance was probably busy liaising with suppliers and repairers in order to provide me with an adequate service. I was however very disappointed when I realised that all of this time was wasted (and their effort spent) to come up, eventually, with an excuse to reject my claim. Budget Insurance advised that I should send an email to their dispute resolution department if I’m unsatisfied with the outcome of their assessment. I therefore sent an email to *** on that same day (16th of July). For any person concerned, I can testify that this is a pointless, time-wasting exercise.

As mentioned earlier in this review, the vehicle was bought in November 2019 and apart from that I serviced in on the 2nd of December 2019. I asked Budget Insurance in my email to explain to me how deterioration applies to a vehicle, that they were happy to insure at that time, which is effectively only 7 months old and up to date with being serviced at a certified dealership. The vehicle was basically in the exact (if not better) condition than the day I bought it and zero deterioration occurred to the vehicle during the short period of time I owned it. In my email I asked Budget to keep the vehicle but also postpone debit orders from my account until they’ve repaired the damages they caused and provided me with the formal response confirming the way forward. Along with my email I sent a video of their collecting vehicle damaging my vehicle.

After my email, a Budget Insurance representative contacted me telephonically on the 20th of July who acknowledged my email and promised me a formal response by the 24th of July. In the telephone conversation, the person enthusiastically mentioned to me that they would be following the same procedures as an ombudsman (probably to discourage you from taking that course of action when they eventually confirm the rejection).

A Budget Insurance representative contacted me telephonically after the telephone call on the 20th of July (on the same or day or shortly after), to inform me that they repaired the damages which they caused to my vehicle and the person wanted to find out when and where they can deliver it back to me.

Finally, I received the formal response on the 29th of July. I’m not sure what caused the delay in the response since it didn’t differ much from the initial rejection letter. None of the points I queried in my email were addressed in their response. I rep**** via email to the formal response on the same day (29th of July) to which I haven’t received a response to date.

A Budget Insurance representative contacted me telephonically after I sent my response to their formal response on the 29th of July (on the same or day or shortly after), who asked me to describe the damages they caused to my vehicle since he was standing next to my vehicle at that moment and in the process of assessing the damages they caused. This confirms that they haven’t repaired the damages which they caused, as they led me to believe in the previous telephone conversation on or around the 20th of July and that they were eager to deliver my vehicle back to me without repairing these damages!

On 31 June, I was telephonically contacted by a Budget Insurance representative who informed me that the towing service used by them, whom Budget Insurance holds responsible to carry out the repairs to damages they caused, is only willing to repair a specific portion of the damage they caused but that they refuse to take responsibility for the other portion of the damage they caused, claiming that, that specific portion of the damage wasn’t caused by them. It is almost impossible to cause damage to that portion on a vehicle in the normal way of driving a vehicle, therefore the damage had to be caused by Budget Insurance. Further, in my opinion, it is very unprofessional of Budget Insurance to present their towing service to me as a separate entity from them.

On the 3rd of August I sent formal letter, again to Budget Insurance’s dispute resolution department, in which I stated these issues as described above. Since my vehicle is still in their possession after all of this time, I asked them to provide me with a detailed assessment of the damage I caused (with separate cost to repair everything included), an in-depth report of the state of my vehicle when they received it from Budget Insurance's collecting company (battery working, extra damages due to Budget Insurance's arranged pick-up etc.) and a comprehensive report of the current state of my vehicle (e.g.: battery still working, damages caused by Budget Insurance's arranged pick-up company fixed, etc.).

In my experience with dealing with Budget Insurance it seems that they’re not actually in the “insurance” business but that they’re rather running a “profitable dispute resolution” ****, focused on gaining revenue rather than providing customer service. In hindsight it makes sense that they’re keen to provide insurance at competitive rates since they’re actual intention is just to get hold of any amount of money your willing to give them, but to avoid paying out claims (at all cost, it seems). Not only were they unwilling (or unable probably) to repair the damages I caused to my vehicle in an accident, they don’t even want to repair damages caused by them (extremely reluctant at least).

My vehicle has been with them now for 43 days (and counting). I’ve been coping without transport since they collected my vehicle and I haven’t yet received any responses; to my email (29 July), nor to my more recent letter (3 August). They haven’t even provided me yet with an indication as to when my un-repaired vehicle will be delivered back to me so that I can commence the actual process of repairing it. I do however receive frequent SMS’s and telephone calls notifying me that my premium is unpaid and in arrears and to find out whether I would be interested in a Budget life insurance policy… confirming yet again what their focused on…