Your thoughts on....Gap insurance

Will

Will

Will

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Any thoughts, advice or opinions on gap insurance?

I am pondering this for my next car (approx £9k, fn2 civic type r, purchased outright if it makes a diference on your opinions on whether it is worth it - Im thinking of a 'return to invoice' policy). I know the basics behind it in terms of what it is there for. I also know its not something to generally buy from the dealer given its possible to buy it for less from a third party.

Just curious as to who has used it - best providers, any experiences of having to claim from it and so on.
 
It makes little to no sense on a cash buy - if you binned the car you'd expect an insurance payout to enable you to buy an equivalent car of whatever age it was at the time. Outstanding finance payments etc wouldn't come into it
 
I used Ala.co.uk on my XF and went for the replacement car policy. Went through Quidco as well and got that paid very quickly.

They sell 3 types of GAP insurance

Finance Gap - Clears any outstanding finance after the insurance pay out.
Return to Invoice - Pays an amount to bring you back to the value you originally paid for the car
Vehicle Replacement - Pays an amount required to buy the equivalent car today, including options, even if thats more than the original invoice. Effectively a new for old policy.
 
It's only worth it if you're buying a brand new car as it would cover the depreciation you suffer the moment you drive it away. On a second hand car insurance should cover the market value which (hopefully :p) is what you paid for it.
 
Blue160 said:
It's only worth it if you're buying a brand new car as it would cover the depreciation you suffer the moment you drive it away. On a second hand car insurance should cover the market value which (hopefully :p) is what you paid for it.
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Not quite it covers the market value of what it'd be worth now, not what it was worth when you bought it.
 
J1nxy said:
Not quite it covers the market value of what it'd be worth now, not what it was worth when you bought it.
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I know that, but gap insurance is for if you write off the car soon after buying it. With a second hand car that should be pretty much what you paid unless you were over charged, whereas with a new car there would be a large discrepancy due to the initial deprecation.
 
I stand corrected. It must have been explained badly by all the dealers who've tried to get me to buy it over the years :)
 
Thats more like finance gap than the other options. But even that is valid for a number of years and covers any shortfall or negative equity
 
All of which is pretty pointless when the car is bought and paid for.

All that's being talked about here is essentially insuring depreciation over and above comprehensive motor insurance so that if the OP stacks the car in 2 years time he will be reimbursed the extra over from insurance payout to invoiced purchase price today.

Waste of money for me, if it was financed then it's worth considering (though i've never taken it as i've always put a bit of money in when financing)
 
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My thoughts on Gap Insurance:

If you can get reimbursed several years down the line to what you initially paid for the car, why the hell isn't everyone just buying £25k cars that depreciate horrendously and then instead of selling it, just have an 'accident' with it and get £25k back instead of £10k a few years later? :p
 
because a that would insurance fraud and b how big an accident would you need to guarantee a write off and would you want to be in that accident?
 
rodenal said:
All of which is pretty pointless when the car is bought and paid for.

All that's being talked about here is essentially insuring depreciation over and above comprehensive motor insurance so that if the OP stacks the car in 2 years time he will be reimbursed the extra over from insurance payout to invoiced purchase price today.

Waste of money for me, if it was financed then it's worth considering (though i've never taken it as i've always put a bit of money in when financing)
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Depends on value etc and how much the GAP insurance costs. For a 7.5K payout limit covered for 3 years its under £100. Chances are it won't be used but for that sort of money i.e under £2 a month is it not worth it?
 
It's just insuring risk though - you will find insurance for almost any risk (motoring and otherwise), most of it not costing a fortune but it all adds up. All you're doing is hedging your bets on whether you'll have an accident or not.
 
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