I recently (10 days ago) renewed my motor insurance - going for the cheapest insurance company going - Budget

I received my insurance documents 2 days later - Great I thought

but I had also paid an extra £59 for RAC cover - no sign of that

I assumed that I would receive the documents directly from RAC - But nothing yet - I emailed RAC - no response

My insurance ran from 1st September  - I am worried by the lack of breakdown cover

I wrote (snail mail) to Budget on 29th August to remind them - no response at all

Today - I have written to the Service Quality and Assement Manager to try to get a response from them

Can anyone give me an email address to contact at Budget customer services - They don't publish email addresses

Hi -- Can't find email but there is a freephone number, ring it  0800 072 0644  and select option 3.

Just my bit to help out, whilst I was online.

Twee:

I recently (10 days ago) renewed my motor insurance - going for the cheapest insurance company going - Budget

Well, there's your first mistake... going for the cheapest insurance company going.

However, my advice is the same as VCM's. Give them a call. Letters/Emails go a-stray and your telephone calls will be recorded (however, they go a-stray too)

Budget are a good company and if you have selected Breakdown online then you'll have it.

This will just be a post room error, if you are struggling to contact via e-mail, which isnt always the priority repsonse for some customer services, ask someone to contact on your behalf to explain that you are unable to phone and request that your breakdown is re-sent.

I did write (post) to the standard address no response - but have today sent a letter to the compaints section

I have also emailed RAC again

On Saturday - I received through the post a photocopy of a document (just about readable) with a phone number 0800 015 5438 to phone if I have car trouble

No mention of RAC or any other company - So hope that I don't need Budgets own breakdown van .......

I have also received a reply from RAC - telling me that this is not their problem and to deal directly with Budget......

I think you may have a problem. In my recent expereience, Budget is a shambles. I switched to Budget last March, on the basis of a reasonably cheap quote. Someone ran into the back of me in April - a no fault accident. Budget's handling of the claim was really appalling. I have now logged 87 emails, 42 phone calls and 3 letters to seventeen (!!) different agents handling different parts of the claim. 9 months later, there has been one court case (settled in my favour) and another is pending, due to Budget's inability to wrap my excess claim-back with their recovery of costs. Booking the reapir took eight weeks, booking the car hire took three weeks. The car was off the road for two and a half weeks due to administration screw-ups between the reapirer and Budget trying to get a bumper moulding for the car (ps the damage was invisible!).

To add insult to injury, they have just sent an auto renewal which doubles the premium and is 4 times the quote from Direct Line.It's also double their own quote via monetsupermarket.

And they wonder what I might do.

If you've got an option to cancel in the cooling off period, my advice is simple. Do it!

Too late - but thanks for the warning

My insurance policy ran from August - last year !!

Hi, Sorry to read about your problems with Budget Insurance. I changed my car in Feb 08, they quoted a huge increase in premium to change my existing policy that still had 11 months to run. I then asked for a quote based on cancellation of the old policy and establishing a completely new policy, this turned out to be £140 cheaper but Budget were not going to offer that unless I specifically asked for it. I surrendered the old policy and waited for the premium to be returned in 7 - 10 working days as Budget had agreed. Here I am 10 weeks later after numerous telephone calls to totally inert staff still waiting for the money they owe me. At one point they claimed that they had made transferred the money they owe into my account but my bank had rejected it and returned it to them????? If that sounds like poor customer service - get this, I have now discovered that they have claimed the money they owe me from my bank account yesterday, as a result after 10 wasted weeks waiting and innumerable wasted telephone calls they now owe me twice the sum they owed me at the outset. Absolutely ludicrous, I have just had another 35 minute telephone call trying to get answers from a supervisor in a call centre in South Africa, fat chance they just do not want to accept any responsibility for my problem, so I have once again achieved absolutely nothing. My advice to everyone would be stay well clear of Budget Insurance, if they already have a direct debit on your account you should cancel it immediately.