Extortionate GAP Insurance

chairmanofthebored

Hi

I am looking to buy a new car (brand new) and the finance quote from the dealership includes GAP insurance at a whopping £399.

Having shopped around, it looks like I can get the same thing online for under £150.

Is there any tangible benefit to purchasing this from the dealer other than contributing to the salesman's new boat fund?

If not then is there any recommended company I should go with? There's plenty of people out there selling it but I've never heard of any of them and don't know who I should and should not trust.

Many Thanks.

flashg67

Got mine from EasyGap - thankfully can't tell you how good/bad they are as I've not claimed! It wasn't quite the cheapest but they did 0% interest over 12 months at the time.

It's just another profit opportunity for the dealer IMO - a few years ago, a friend who was in the trade told me a (then) £200 (selling price) policy cost them about £36.....

Do some research though because there are different types of cover and your needs may vary depending on if you have finance on the car etc. If the car is brand new, it may be worth deferring gap cover because your insurance will usually replace the car with a new one under a year old. On the other hand, if your finance with interest is more than the car is worth, may be better to stump up now.

adamc260

There is no benefit to buying it from the dealership, they just make a boat load on a product that can be sourced elsewhere.

They are presumably targeted on selling it and earn a commission/bonus.

daveyjp

If you are considering GAP to cover finance shortfalls you are either borrowing too much or not paying the loan off quickly enough.

Far better to reconsider the finance and avoid negative equity altogether.

dacouch

If you buy it from the garage, as well as being over priced, they will normally add it to your finance so you pay interest on it for the entire period of your finance.

The policy also often insist a replacement car is bought from the same garage which some people don't want

BJV

This is the age old question. When you look on line and see the price differences you would automatically think that there must be some difference in levels of cover.

When you look in fact you will see that as the on line suppliers have to be competitive they tend to have lots of extra bits thrown in.

Which have done a review on dealership vs online.

Instead it all boils down to differences in rates of insurance premium tax, and supplier prices.