Off the bat, you could do a lot worse than Budget Van Insurance when insuring your vehicle. Whether for hire or reward, tradesman or for personal use, in our other excellent article Man And Van Insurance – Top 5 Companies Tested, Budget actually battled its way to the top with relative ease.
Of course, Dial Direct did put up a good fight, but Budget nosed ahead in the last straight to take pole position.
In our other article, we tested each company on 7 basic customer expectations.
- Call Wait Time For A New Customer
- Call Wait Time For An Existing Customer
- Cost To Make Changes To An Existing Policy
- Compulsory Excess
- Review Rating
- Legal Cover
- Final Cost Of The Policy
Here is why Budget beat them all.
Budget Van Insurance
https://www.budgetinsurance.com/van-insurance/
Time To Answer (new customer): Almost right away.
Time To Answer (existing customer): 42 minutes.
Cost to make later changes to the policy: £20.
Compulsory Excess: £150.
Review Rating On Trust Pilot:
- Excellent: 68%
- Great: 17%
- Average: 4%
- Poor: 2%
- Bad: 8%
Level Of Cover:
- Legal Assistance: Yes.
- Breakdown Cover: +£49.20
- Personal Accident Cover: Yes.
- Windscreen Cover: Yes.
- Courtesy Vehicle: Yes.
Price:
Annual: £1189.19.
Monthly: 1 x £178.40 & 11 x £104.83 = £1331.53.
*This price is always a nipper for your first year of van insurance. After earning a couple of years No Claims Bonus (NCB) most van drivers pay less than £400 per year for this type of vehicle. Just something to note.
**This insurance quote was based on a 2007 SWB Ford Transit van. The driver was 30 years old with zero no claims discount on the vehicle. He would be a self-employed man and van so required insurance for “hire & reward”.
He also had 5 years no claims discount on his own car, held his licence for 10 years, has 3 penalty points for speeding, is living with a partner and has children under 16. The voluntary excess was £500.
Customer Service
Let’s kick off with the most basic of customer requirements. Getting through to a human.
Contact A Budget Sales Rep
Of course, like all insurance companies, they want your money, your business and your soul. Well, not really your soul but they’re certainly interested in what’s in your wallet so getting through to a sales rep was almost quantum quick.
Competition in the insurance market is fierce so of course, the resources they throw at sweetening up potential customers into buying a policy is off the charts. For them, it’s priority one!
But so it should be. That’s just good business sense and to be fair, each of the companies we tested almost answered the call before we had even dialled so Budget Van Insurance didn’t win, or lose here.
Budget, Customer Services & Your Van Insurance
Contacting a sales rep is spookily fast. But once you’ve been through the motions, paid, set up your insurance policy and then need to get through to a customer service advisor somewhere down the line, then yeah, this is where it all gets a bit less red carpetty.
That said, of all the companies we tested, the longest we had to wait to get through to a customer services dept was 42 mins. Even though Budget Van Insurance was still our Top Pick of the bunch, this was the only category where they struggled to keep up and lamed it in as slowest to respond to an existing customer at 42 minutes.
Their background music was pretty sweet so it wasn’t all bad and the rest of their services certainly make up for the extra 5 minutes longer we had to wait over the second slowest who was Zenith at 37 mins. Van Quote Direct was the quickest at 15 minutes but with a charge of £150 per each change to an existing policy, it’s no wonder they’re so keen to take your call.
Cost Of Making Changes To Your Insurance Policy
The Insurance Gold Rush
Ever since one insurance company, somewhere, at some point realised they could make a killing by just charging existing customers a fee to make changes to existing policies, the bandwagon didn’t stay empty for long.
Personally, I feel this is some form of minor theft or at the very least, some type of mild extortion as you’re LEGALLY required to inform your insurance provider of ANY changes that will affect your policy and of course, it isn’t free.
But some are fairer than others and again this was another Budget win. And a Dial Direct win. Actually, they tied at £20 per change to an existing policy.
This could be anything from adding an extra driver, removing a named driver, changing your home address or changing your vehicle details. It’s all £20 a pop, one change at a time.
But compare that to Van Quote Direct at £150 per change and all of a sudden £20 doesn’t feel so vindaloo. You really shouldn’t need to make many changes throughout the year anyway so you won’t feel much of a pinch – if any.
Compulsory Excess
There was only one loser in our Top 5 Review which was Zenith at £250. All others were even stevens at £150, including Budget Insurance.
Compulsory excess is the cost to you in the event of a claim against your van insurance policy. This is over and above the voluntary excess that you agree to when tailoring your policy.
It’s worth remembering that voluntary excess though is completely optional. You can opt for as high or as low an excess as you’re comfortable with and of course, the higher the excess then the lower the overall cost of the policy. And vice versa.
Either way, it’s bookie’s odds but as you don’t intend to get into any accidents anyway, it might be worth thinking about opting for a higher excess just to lower the annual cost of your policy. At least for the year while you earn your first year no claims discount.
Online Reviews
There was one company in our review of the Top 5 Van Insurers who left us wondering how in d’heck they’re still in business. Luckily it wasn’t Budget, who once again came out second from the top.
Budget Van Insurance Reviews On TrustPilot
- Excellent: 68%
- Great: 17%
- Average: 4%
- Poor: 2%
- Bad: 8%
That review page can be found at: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/budgetinsurance.com
Of course, no company in the history of the universe, anywhere, ever, can enjoy 5 star raving reviews across the board – if you’re a physicist then you’ll agree that entropy won’t allow it.
There will always be a Grumpalump who you’ll never manage to please, no matter what you do but also, there are of course those who genuinely had a bad experience for one reason or another.
And not to praise Budget Insurance too much either, Dial Direct took the top spot here. Albeit by a width of a cat’s whisker, the two were pretty evenly matched.
Level Of Insurance Cover
Again, let’s hear it for Budget Insurance. Everything was free short of breakdown recovery. Which was actually cheaper than actual breakdown recovery from the AA.
Level Of Cover:
- Legal Assistance: Yes.
- Breakdown Cover: +£49.20
- Personal Accident Cover: Yes.
- Windscreen Cover: Yes.
- Courtesy Vehicle: Yes.
Breakdown recovery at £49.20 extra I’m assuming is the most basic of services though. I really don’t know so it’s worth asking any provider to define “recovery” before opting for this optional extra.
The AA is around £14 per month for their roadside relay package which will get you AND your van home from any breakdown point in the UK. I wouldn’t leave home without this level of cover so it’s something you should consider before agreeing to the extra cost.
Overall Price
Price:
Annual: £1189.19.
Monthly: 1 x £178.40 & 11 x £104.83 = £1331.53.
Eek! Just eek! Again Budget came out as the cheapest of what were ALL expensive van insurance quotes so we found it slightly bittersweet that they were still able to provide the best policy cover.
That said, your first year of any new policy, whether it be a car or a van, is always an expensive one. After your first year though you should expect this price to drop by at least 40% to then get progressively cheaper with each consecutive year.
Most van drivers with 3 or 4 years of no claims discount pay less than £400 annually for an identical policy.
So, To Budget? Or Not To Budget For Van Insurance?
We tested 5 leading companies on 7 basic customer requirements only to find Budget Van Insurance flattening the competition in most of the categories.
Van Quote Direct was well in the running till we got to the “cost to make changes to existing policy” hurdle where it landed with a thump and got a face full of turf.
At £150 per change, this was unacceptable. Van Quote Direct were out of the race.
If Dial Direct weren’t always hot on the heels of Budget insurance too, they were taking the lead in categories such as customer reviews and a clear tie as the cheapest to make changes to an existing policy.
We’ve also used these guys in the past and had no problems at all. That said, even with the closest of 2 horse races, there can be only one.
Handy Notes
Handy contact information for Budget Van Insurance. Opening times, contact number, quote website for new customers and login page for existing customers.
Opening Hours:
- Monday to Friday 8am-9pm
- Saturday 9am-5pm
- Sunday 10am-4pm
Contact Number:
Budget Van Insurance Website
https://www.budgetinsurance.com/van-insurance/