Car Write Off

jton

I crashed my car recently and was just after some advice. I took out finance on the vehicle with Santander consumer finance with the bank holiday I haven’t contacted them to let them know yet.

i was wondering if anyone has had any experience as I think there will roughly a 4K shortfall in what my insurance offer me for the car and what I owe. 

For some reason I was never offered gap insurance when I took out the policy and I am unable to pay £4K in one go would they let me pay it monthly over the course of year or 18months 

thanks in advance 

Scrapit

You should have got gap insurance. Not being offered it is not a barrier to you getting it.

DrEskimo

jton said:

I crashed my car recently and was just after some advice. I took out finance on the vehicle with Santander consumer finance with the bank holiday I haven’t contacted them to let them know yet.

i was wondering if anyone has had any experience as I think there will roughly a 4K shortfall in what my insurance offer me for the car and what I owe. 

For some reason I was never offered gap insurance when I took out the policy and I am unable to pay £4K in one go would they let me pay it monthly over the course of year or 18months 

thanks in advance 

Santander do not offer GAP policies, so that is why you were not offered it. People are usually offered it from a dealer as they offer them (at a considerable mark-up) along with car finance products through a third party.

I strongly suspect you will be able to come up with some sort of payment plan for the shortfall.
Just make sure you get a fair valuation from the insurance company. Be prepared to evidence what you think the fair value was just before the time of the accident.

[Deleted User]

Scrapit said:

You should have got gap insurance. Not being offered it is not a barrier to you getting it.

So incredibly unhelpful, thanks for wasting everyone's time with that. I think the OP is aware of what they should have done.

Anyway, to the OP, you can only ask. They may be willing to accept it as they really don't have much prospect of recovering the money in other ways if you don't have it. It's in their interests to make payment realistically possible for you. I suggest you have details of your finances available, i.e. income and outgoings so you can make the case for what you can afford to pay.

AdrianC

[DELETED USER] said:

Scrapit said:

You should have got gap insurance. Not being offered it is not a barrier to you getting it.

So incredibly unhelpful, thanks for wasting everyone's time with that. I think the OP is aware of what they should have done.

I certainly read the section in the OP about "not being offered gap" as an implicit "...so can I complain and get it covered?" - Scrapit simply clarified the situation.

Scrapit

[DELETED USER] said:

Scrapit said:

You should have got gap insurance. Not being offered it is not a barrier to you getting it.

So incredibly unhelpful, thanks for wasting everyone's time with that. I think the OP is aware of what they should have done.

Anyway, to the OP, you can only ask. They may be willing to accept it as they really don't have much prospect of recovering the money in other ways if you don't have it. It's in their interests to make payment realistically possible for you. I suggest you have details of your finances available, i.e. income and outgoings so you can make the case for what you can afford to pay.

Its curt and straightforward but no less correct. This is eaxactly what the gap insurance is for. Not being offered it by 1 vendor is not a good reason not to have it. The OP has a clear need for this product and they should have realised that, I suspect they are now.

eamon

Now is the time to research the selling/asking price for similar cars and use that knowledge to argue your point if needed. Santander probably won't care so long as they get repaid as per your agreement.