Insurance on a new car

Guanajuato

We're going to be taking delivery of a new car in the near future. Our current insurance expires at the beginning of May, so its quite likely that the new car will arrive about the same time.
I've tried a few insurance comparison sites, and the difference in quotes between either the old or new car are about the same, give or take £10. So its probably a matter of looking based on the new car but taking it out on the old car if we still have it, or transferring the existing policy for the last few weeks or days.

One thing I'm not too sure about: We're buying on finance (yes, not a great idea, but I'm lucky enough to be in one of the more recession-proof industries) - I will be the first registered keeper, but should I be identifying the finance company as the OWNER of the car? I don't want to take the chance of being uninsured on a technicality like that.

Also, we're thinking of taking out RTI GAP insurance (through ALA or gapinsuranceonline - both mentioned in positive posts on other threads and around £100 rather than £375 from the dealer). Are these insurances really a bit of a con? Been driving nearly 20 years (Am I REALLY that old already? :shocked:) and had only one slight prang, so I think that a write-off is unlikely. However, is it really worth taking the chance???:huh:

Thanks for any advice!

mcjordi

take the GAP mate, it will pay any difference in price from the insurance payout to what is owed on finance
most dealers give 7 comp insurance free when you buy a new car from them
it would be worthwhile enquiring about this

dacouch

The RTI Gap cover they are refering to is actually "Return to Invoice" cover it not only clears the finance it pays the difference between what they receive from the car insurer and what the price of the original car was on the invoice. In theory you would have enough to clear the finance and look at replacing the car.

If you ever need to claim on it you could find GAP cover and absolute godsend.

mcjordi

ah i never saw the RTI bit cheers dacouch

Hintza

Just a word on GAP in the first year most insurance companies will replace with new in the event of total loss.

The second point is if the car is registered to ypu then you insure as your vehicle, the only time you might not do this is if the car is leased and the finance company is on the V5c.

dacouch

Thats a very good point Hintza.

I have just been helping someone out who had a just taken a policy with Swift (Poor bloke) and 2 weeks after he bought the car new it was written off. Swift would not do the new car replacement as their wording says the repairs have to be 70% or over of the manufacturers list price. He had got a discount from the dealer and it mean the repair costs were circa 60% of the manufacturers list price. Incidently the majority of Insurers give the new car replacement in the first year if the repair costs are 60% or over of the current list price.

As a result Swift wrote the car off (Eventually) and paid him the current market value which was about £2000 less than he had just paid for it. To make things worse he had taken a £500 excess so was quite out of pocket.

So there is a small chance that in the first year of ownership even with the new car replacement cover that GAP cover can be of help.

GT60

Try googling "click for gap" for a quote quite cheap

gilbert_and_sullivan

Could be worth getting a quote from NFU, for the first 2 years your car would be replaced with a new identical model in the event of write off or theft.

Guanajuato

Thanks for all the help - very useful. I'll have a look into the NFU insurance - sounds good.

We'd already tried Click4Gap and whilst competitive, they were slightly higher than ALA and GapInsuranceOnline. Between the three I think the variation was about £20/20%

Incidentally, I checked with my current insurer (Bell) whether in the first year it was replacement, as the policy documents had nothing about that. They must be one of the few that doesn't do replacement, just 'Market Value'.

Its due for renewal at the beginning of May anyway, so guess who's not getting MY renewal. :rolleyes: Though for the couple of weeks/few days, I'll just transfer over rather than get hit with a cancellation charge.
Got hit with that when we disposed of my wife's Metro. On the phone they implied that the outstanding month of insurance would be refunded & more than make up for the cancellation charge - Did it 'eckers like! But the small print does say there's a cancellation charge, so I was ripped off (only for a tenner, but its the principle!).