Best of the Best 2025: Best-Value Car Insurance
By Money Team
Budget Direct has been named Money's Best-Value Car Insurance as part of the Best of the Best awards.
If you were to create a Venn diagram with the word 'value' in one circle and 'comprehensive car insurance' in the other, it wouldn't be a surprise to find Budget Direct in the middle.
After all, not only has Budget Direct been recognised for Best-Value Car Insurance for 2025, it has secured first place in this category for the past seven years - a notable achievement.
Budget Direct finished ahead of AAMI and ING to claim top spot. In large part that came down to the fact that, on average, its premiums ranked as the lowest on offer across the vehicles and locations analysed for the award.
The focus wasn't just on one make of car. In recognition of the range of vehicles on our roads, the judging for this award took into account the most popular small, mid-size and large cars in Australia, plus one of the more popular electric vehicles.
Whether it's a hatchback, a ute or a hybrid SUV, Australian car owners who choose to cover their vehicles with comprehensive insurance appear to be well aware that the cost hasn't been immune from inflationary pressures in recent years.
According to a survey by financial comparison website Mozo, nearly half of car insurance customers surveyed said their annual premiums had increased by $100-$300 in the 12 months to August 2024.
The encouraging news is that many car owners aren't taking these hikes lying down, though.
In fact, a significant number of people have been making the effort to secure themselves a better deal on their insurance.
Australians shopped around in search of a better deal on 11.3 million car insurance policies during 2023 alone, according to research by Roy Morgan. For reference, that represented about a third of the total pool of 33.7 million car insurance policies active in Australia.
Beyond finding a policy with a lower premium, car owners looking to save may also want to think about increasing their excess, switching to annual rather than monthly premium payments and taking advantage of any low-use discounts available for driving fewer kilometres a year.
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