Maple Manor parking (Birmingham) wrote off my 1 year old Audi TT. Thank God I had Gap insurance as there was a nine thousand Gap to what the insurance company paid and I owed. I would have had no deposit for a new car. I was very let down with the inital GAP service, where I had to keep ringing for updates as there policy was to not contact me?? The Gap was bought with the car, but they did pay out in the end.
I'm currently looking for GAP independently and much cheaper.

I'm currently in the process of sorting out a Contract Lease for 2 years. The lease company sent an email detailing how much they could do it for. Have shopped around and can get it cheaper. The problem is, I don't know whether I need it or not! Is it essential? I'm swaying towards getting some cover but also don't want to be ripped off for anything unnecessary!!

It'll very much depend on the lease agreement itself. Consider I wrote a leased car off in December 2014 and there was a circa £3,800 shortfall between what my motor insurer paid out and the balance that my lease company (Volvo Car Finance - ultimately LEX) wanted in settlement... normally this would come out of your own pocket or, be covered by a Contract Hire GAP insurance policy except, the terms of my lease agreement were such that I wasn't liable for any of it (the agreement basically said that they'd take my motor insurance payout as full settlement, come what may).

My current lease with VWFS though, is pretty clear in so much that in the same circumstances I'd be liable for the whole £3800.

As general rule, if a leased car is written off, the finance company will arrive at a settlement figure which is usually a combination of what they think the car was worth immediately before the incident that led to it being written off plus, the sum of payments that have not yet been paid plus, the sum of any payments in arrears (if any) plus, any excess mileage charges they deem to be relevant less (possibly) a discount/rebate for settling early.

If your motor insurance payout is less than that figure, you might be held liable for ALL of that shortfall, or just SOME of that shortfall or, like me with my Volvo, NONE of that shortfall.

In short, read your lease agreement and find out what you're liable for in the event of a Total Loss - E.g. how would they calculate your settlement figure and, what are you liable for if your motor insurance payout is lower. Only then will you know whether you need GAP insurance or not.

Don't rely on the fact that the lease company has offered you GAP insurance as being in any way evidence that you need GAP insurance... You may or may not be surprised to hear that car dealers/brokers have a reputation for advising on and recommending add-ons that aren't needed.

I have just taken car finance for a car on hire purchase for my daughter as she could not get finance, the car is secondhand. Now, i will never drive the car but my daughter wants GAP insurance, i also won't be insured to drive the vehicle as i have my own car.
What would be my easiest option for GAP insurance with the finance being in my name or is there an alternative to GAP insurance?
I live in Scotland in case that is relevant. Thanks

Some GAP insurance providers require that you are also the main insured driver of the vehicle. Others require that you are the registered keeper of the vehicle (e.g. named on the V5 registration document). Some require both.

There's likely to be others but GapInsurance.co.uk only require that the GAP insurance policyholder is named on the invoice from the Motor Dealer from where the vehicle was purchased. At least on face value, this would appear to suit your circumstances.

Hello,

I think you will find the sales person you have spoke with regarding "by law" he need's to speak you through these products is infact correct as this falls under the FCA rule "treating customer fairly"(why should one customer be made aware of the products yet another isnt)

Leading on to your second point regarding you are not able to buy a car for two days, i think you will find that you have put your own twist on this, the customer is allowed to purchase a car on whatever day you would like but this can not include Gap Insurance, you are also not allowed to take delivery of your new/used car until the 2 cleared days have passed this is to give you sufficient time to make an informed decision regarding the regulated products on offer, If you wanted to opt out of the Stage one and Stage two of the FCA regulations then you can do this by providing the dealership with a letter which mean's you can then take delivery of your car at your own freeweill.

This simply isn't true. It is however a popular misconception (read "lie" - whether intentional or otherwise) often told by car salespeople.

If it was true, then it would be compulsory for every motor dealer in the country to sell (let alone GAP Insurance) every type of automotive related insurance product there is! However not every motor dealer in the country sells GAP insurance. It isn't compulsory, for them to sell it, therefore it isn't compulsory for them to mention it.

The only "law" which exists for the promotion of GAP insurance (and indeed any other add-on products) by Motor Dealers is the company's own rules on what their staff need to try to sell at the point of sale.

Nothing more, nothing less.

To be clear, the dealer can't hold on to your car until you've decided whether you want their GAP insurance policy or not... you can take delivery of your car whenever you want after you've committed to purchasing it (so long as the dealer can have it ready in time etc) - the 4-day rule applies only to GAP insurance, nothing else.

E.g. if you want to collect your car with GAP insurance bought from the motor dealer in force, the dealership will have had to have first mentioned the GAP insurance policy to you at least 2-clear days prior to you taking delivery of the vehicle.

If however they only mentioned it to you on the day of you collecting the vehicle, the soonest you could buy their GAP insurance policy would be the day after (by way of you opting out of the 4-day rule), whilst the soonest they could raise the topic of GAP insurance with you again, would be 3-days after.

E.g. if they mention GAP insurance to you on a Monday, so long as they don't initiate the conversation about GAP insurance again, you could opt out of the 4-day rule and purchase their policy on the Tuesday or the Wednesday but, the first time they could initiate a conversation about GAP insurance with you again would be the Thursday.

However in practice, most dealerships (and therefore their customers) haven't been affected by the 4-day rule by anything like the intended result and dealerships are still continuing to rip off the UK consumer for GAP insurance - which is why the FCA have just recently re-started their investigation in to the selling of GAP insurance by Motor Dealers.

E.g. if they mention GAP insurance to you (and supply you with the specific prescribed information) when you place the order for the car, and then you take delivery 7-days later, they can talk to you freely about the GAP insurance at the point of delivery and sell you their policy on the same day that you take delivery of the vehicle because this would then be in excess of 2-clear days from when they first mentioned it - what are the chances that in the excitement of ordering your next car, you remembered to research GAP insurance from an alternative provider?

It gets a bit woolly if there's a long lead-time between ordering the car (and the dealer raising the topic of GAP insurance with you) and then the delivery of the vehicle, because the 4-day rule has to start again if more than a reasonable amount of time has passed but, crucially, it's the motor dealer who has to determine what a "reasonable" amount of time is .

HTH

I'm still no wiser which gap insurance company to chose!

The MSE article on gap insurance has a special offer:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/gap-insurance

Except that "special offer" isn't particularly "special" as it only seems to reduce the price to roughly inline with what other providers are offering anyway:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=73246548&postcount=37

Last week when enquiring about the new Nissan Leaf, the salesman (at an official Nissan dealership) added on £469 for three years GAP cover. This is for a car costing £27k! Is this a record?

Just purchasing a new car and looking at GAP insurance. I!!!8217;ve just asked my insurance company if they replace my car for a new one within the first 12 months like many insurers and they said they do unless it!!!8217;s subject to any form of finance agreement. So under my PCP deal they will only pay out market value at the time of loss.....gap insurance needed then!

Even if they were competitively priced, the promotional code can't be used on the ALA webiste anyway - computer says Promotional code not available in big red text for both the invoice plus and the vehicle replacement plus options.

I had the same problem and so gave them a call, they applied it straight away.

They also gave me some really good advice before I picked up the car - make sure all options are listed on the invoice documentation so that in the event of a loss you are covered for like for like.

I got a great price on GAP from motoreasy.com - way less than the dealer

£126 for 3 years cover thank you very much !!!128077;

Don't know if EasyGap and GapInsurance123 have gone bust, but when you try to get a quote from them, they both suggest other websites...

Just bought a new car and have been offered GAP insurance for over £400 for 4yrs by the dealer. Thanks to this article I got 3yrs for £124 from ALA. Wish I'd thought to check when I bought my last car, could have saved myself a couple of hundred pounds. Live and learn.

Very positive sign up experience with ALA, customer service top notch and got 1 year cover for just £57.00 from them with code MSE25.