If you want to buy GAP insurance, as with many personal finance products, initially it can seem quite complex and even daunting. It doesn’t have to be though, read our article to understand why.
Whilst buying a new car is a fantastic feeling, as soon as you drive your car off the forecourt it starts to depreciate, to lose value.
The issue is, if your car is written off, your car insurance provider will usually only pay the current market value for your vehicle.
So quite simply the reason you buy GAP insurance is to cover the shortfall should your car be written off and your insurance provider doesn’t pay you enough to pay off your car loan or get you an equivalent car.
Car dealers will invariably try and sell you GAP insurance.
Be very careful though and don’t accept the first deal you are offered.
Car dealers are known to overcharge for these policies – in fact the consumer advice programme, Rip Off Britain, has even covered this topic.
So How Do You Buy GAP Insurance?
1. Consider the type of GAP Insurance you want
There are a number of options:
- Return to Invoice (RTI) which pays the difference between your car insurance claim settlement amount and the amount you paid for the car, the invoice amount for the car.
- Return to Value (RTV) which pays the difference between your car insurance claim settlement amount and the value of your car at the time you took out the policy.
- Finance or Lease GAP Insurance which pays the difference between your car insurance claim settlement amount and the amount outstanding on your loan or finance agreement.
- Replacement GAP Insurance which covers the cost of replacing your car with exactly the same make/model or equivalent as you originally bought.
2. Compare GAP Insurance Quotes
By all means get a quote from your car dealer.
However do also compare the quote with other providers.
There are a number of online GAP insurance providers, including ALA Insurance and Click4GAP.
These offer cheaper GAP Insurance, invariably much cheaper than a dealer quotation.
It’s a highly competitive area and as such the providers offer very slick, easy to use websites to assist you in getting a quote and then buying a policy.
They try and be open about their pricing and ALA for example have a comparison page and guarantee that you won’t pay more for your cover if you buy from them.
They will also provide advice and support if you need it, for example Sure & Protect offer live online support.
3. Cooling Off Period
If having bought your policy, you are are unhappy with it, remember with most policies you are protected with a 14 day cooling off period.