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Money magazine reveals winners of Best of the Best 2020

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More than 110 gold-winning products are headlining Money magazine's Best of the Best awards for 2020, announced today.

Now in its 19th year, the Best of the Best awards recognise outstanding financial products and services including credit cards, term deposits, loans, super funds, managed funds, insurance and online brokers; as well as personal and business services such as broadband, phone plans and cars.

Winning the coveted Best Investment Manager is Macquarie Investment Management; while Best ETF Manager is State Street Global Advisors SDPR ETFs. In superannuation, the Best Super Fund is AustralianSuper and the Best Pension Fund is Cbus.

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Editor-in-chief Michelle Baltazar at the Best of the Best awards lunch.

Rainmaker Group managing director Christopher Page presented the awards at a lunch at Establishment Ballroom in Sydney yesterday. Money chairman and chief commentator Paul Clitheroe said the magazine has always highlighted the common sense approach to personal finance.

Household budgets are tight, and making the switch to this year's winners can help alleviate the burden. This can mean saving hundreds of dollars immediately and tens of thousands of dollars over time.

"Choosing the best products can make you 100 to 200% better off - it can help you halve the price of what you may be paying now," says Rainmaker Group's executive director of research and compliance, Alex Dunnin.

"You could double your superannuation savings or investments, double your internet value, half the fuel consumption in your next car," he says.

But figuring out which products offer the best, cheapest, most featured, smartest, and best value can be hard work.

"For most of us, the hardest part of starting a financial makeover is deciding where to begin when considering a change or a new start with financial products," says Money editor-in-chief Michelle Baltazar.

"We recommend you start with three household expenses that take up a big slice of your expenses, such as your home loan, insurance and credit card payments," she says.

Money magazine worked with research houses and industry experts Rainmaker Information (publisher of Money magazine), InfoChoice, WhistleOut and WhichCar to determine the award winners and finalists. The full list of awards is available in the December-January magazine, on sale now.

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Comments
George Bloomfield
April 5, 2020 6.26am

Well your best of the best reference to BUDGET DIRECT for car insurance. They are FAR FAR from the best of the best. Not sure what you rated them on but not on facts,

They dont insure family members who drive your car unless they are nominated on the policy.

They send you the policy document AFTER they have debited your credit card (after first payment)

When they amend your policy without your advice they dont tell you

When they amend it and finally send you the documents - there is nowhere to reply to as its an unmonitred email. And when they do send you a link to their ONLINE POLICY MANAGER - you cant correct or amend anything and the only link to a contact is to tell them "what you think of their service today". In other words you cant do anythign about the mistakes they made (deliberately). This can go on because whilst they amend a car that is AS NEW to condition : GOOD, and then say you entered a MARKET VALUE contract - they will value it AS GOOD, but wont even tell you the actual value. And guess what, the MARKET VALUE when asked is NOTHIGN like what they actually sell for.

So you vote this BEST OF THE BEST - seems like Money Magazine isnt either doing what it purports to ie ranks based on neing BEST OF THE BEST. Or its sold its soul for Money.......certainly i will think twice about Money Mags reviews in the future given the incomprehensible rating for Budget Direct

Jenni Paterson
November 19, 2020 11.57am

Thankyou George. Was just getting an online quote from Budget then contacted their virtual assistant as I could not find what the car would actually be insured for.

Started to feel quite uneasy about it all when I found out it was insured for market value, and market value was something that was decided only when the car was damaged.

Mmmmm........ Sounds a bit fishy to me. Who really pays out insurance for an undisclosed amount of money.

I too do not think Budget warrants being the Best of the Best and seriously wonder what criteria this is based on - certainly not transparency and honesty. Certainly not being upfront with people about how much they are actually insured for.

Fiona Morrison
May 5, 2020 1.31pm

I feel that the Budget Direct company is misleading in its advertising to provide the lowest price possible and consistently told me that the elevated renewal premium on my Home and Contents Insurance was due to the actual cost of insuring my property and that this locality had been reassessed by their underwriters as requiring a premium 54% more than the previous year.

This is evidently misrepresentation as the new quote I received as a new customer via the link to their website from the 'Insurance Compare' site revealed a quote even cheaper than the one that had been reduced by a 'discretionary' amount after my questioning its validity (I was on the phone for an hour discussing this matter on my second call regarding this issue).

I would like this blatant duplicity and misinformation of the insurance company's processes in determining Home Insurance premiums exposed and for a formal acknowledgement that my case was dealt with in an unethical and unprofessional manner. I do hope this isn't happening to other customers.

Daniel Geus
July 17, 2020 12.03am

You're not the only one Fiona. My home and contents also went up by over 50% this year. Took my money elsewhere. I tend to look at those awards with cynicism.

S Forster
September 25, 2020 11.01pm

Budget Direct are one of the most unethical and unprofessional insurance companies out there. Just ask anyone who had travel cover that was advertised to include pandemic cover. They happily sold travel insurance until there was actually a pandemic in March 2020 then they claimed it was a known event from the start of the year so no cover!

C VS
October 4, 2020 4.01pm

I received two quotes from Budget Direct within days for Contents Insurance, everything being equal - and within days the quote had risen by 30%. When queried as to why, the individual quoting said because there's been activity in my area (Ascot, QLD) in the last few days and she was slapping on an administrative fee - but could not answer why there's this fee added. Budget Directs agents blatantly lie to you, their quoting is unethical and they make up pricing as they go to see how much they can squeeze out of you. When asked if they price match other providers they refuse although its meant to be the best value insurance as per their advertising. If they behave like this now, I cannot imagine what it will be link at claim time. Stay well clear and save yourself the trouble. Thanks, No Thanks!

Charlie Gunning
May 7, 2021 6.28am

Thank you for all your comments on Budget Direct guys. I was about to change to them because they are much cheaper, but I see it would be a false economy. All the things you describe, I have experienced myself. I think they are a money vacuum cleaner that relies on their massive ad campaign on tv to get suckers in. They will not supply documentation until you pay, which is a red flag right away. A contract isn't worth the paper it's not written on. In this case, the phrase "any insurance is better than none" is not sensible. I bet the claims process is a nightmare. I'll stick with the big boys and just take a hit on the excess to bring the premium down on my car. Thanks again.