About Budget

Our approach to pricing

There are many factors that are considered when we calculate the cost of your car, van or home insurance when you purchase your policy and, also, why it may change when your policy is due to be renewed.

Some of the key considerations are outlined below:

Motor insurance

  • Type of car – When you change your vehicle it may be considered that you are less familiar with it, thereby increasing your  potential risk
  • Address – Where you live is a key factor for many reasons including the risk of the vehicle being damaged or stolen
  • Age – More experienced drivers are statistically less likely to have an accident
  • Where the vehicle is kept – If it is kept in a garage overnight then this may be considered more secure than if it’s kept on the street
  • Excess – If you choose to have a higher excess then the cost of your overall premium may go down
  • Annual mileage – If your annual mileage is low this may mean that your premium is less than if you have a higher annual mileage
  • Endorsements and penalty points – Existing penalty points and endorsements can result in higher car insurance premiums
  • Claims – If you have had a recent claim then again, this is considered when the premium is calculated

Home insurance

  • Address – Where you live is a key factor for many reasons including whether this is prone to flooding or have more instances of burglary
  • Value of your contents – The more valuable the items you want to insure the higher your premium
  • Security – Having a burglar alarm, high quality locks, fire alarms and smoke detectors can all affect the price
  • Proximity to water – If your home is in, or close to, an area considered to be prone to flooding, this may affect your premium
  • Claims – If you have had a recent claim then again this is considered when the premium is calculated

To find out more about how your insurance price is calculated read our blog ‘My car insurance price calculation: why car insurers ask the questions they do?’.

The price you pay when you initially buy your policy may include an introductory discount based on the information you provide. For any policy changes, and when your policy is renewed, this will be recalculated. We’ll always aim to keep our prices as low as possible, but if you shop around you may find a more competitive price elsewhere.

Other factors will also be considered, including any claims or changes you may have made to your policy during the year. It is important that you also check the accuracy of the information provided in your renewal offer as any changes made after 14 days of your renewal date could incur an amendment fee and also a change to your premium.

The Amendment Fee is charged to cover the administration time taken to amend the policy, create new documents and notify the relevant third parties.

For more information about our Amendment Fee please click here.

For full details of all our fees please click here

We’re currently experiencing a high volume of calls into our contact centre and whilst we are doing our very best to maintain service levels, we ask that you only call our contact centre if absolutely necessary so we can keep our phone lines available  for vulnerable customers and those who don’t have access to online services.

If you need to check any details or make a change to your policy, please  log in to your Self-Service Centre. It will be much quicker for you to make changes to your policy online at the moment. Once logged in, you can also use our Webchat service which is available Monday- Saturday 8am-6pm and Sunday 10am-4pm to make changes, accept or decline your renewal or if you need to let us know about a claim. To log in, please click here.

We also have some other information that may be useful. Click here to read our FAQ’s, and information on what we are doing to support key workers can be found here.