Hello,

If you do want to browse some of the different GAP insurance companies, we've just revamped the moneysupermarket.com GAP insurance page. It's not a comparison tool but it can help you get another quote.

The only other thing I would add is to always read the smallprint of any policy you buy, as this kind of specialist cover can really vary from insurer to insurer.

Cheers,

Felicity

I've been reading the posts about the different GAP covers available as I am buying a new car and have been researching the online companies who offer these types of insurances. Reading FastRichards post, is almost like reading an advertisement for Surf & Protect????!!

There appear to be some really good online companies and some that are just price driven - but based on my research so far, you should look at some of the other companies online.

Matt Scott:

Hey there,

Thanks to Funcal03 and FastRichard for the previous post I'm in the same position having bought a new car (the first one in years!) and the dealer is offering me GAP Insurance but it seems really pricey !

I checked online and found two quotes one from surfandprotect and one from ala but not sure which to choose... my motor insurer is giving me new for old so I don't want to pay for the same thing twice ... can i get a 4 year policy starting next year then.... do I buy it now or in a years time ??

So just to clarify if my car lets say got stolen in 3 years time and Churchill (my insurer) pay me 1/2 do i get the money for a brand new car ? .... what if my car (it's a Fiat 500 Lounge ) is more expensive or they don't do that model any more !?

Sorry for all these questions, any help is much appreciated !!

Cheers, Matt

Hey Matt,

So far as I know there is no GAP Insurance provider that will allow you to purchase Replacement GAP Insurance (I assume with a brand new car that's what you're after) if you've already owned the vehicle for a year... well actually I found that matters are confused slightly because some providers have products that they call "Replacement GAP Insurance" (or something very similar) but approach it in the manner that if the vehicle was brand new when you bought it, they'll pay out to the equivalent of replacing the vehicle new-for-old.... but if the vehicle was too old to qualify for the "new-for-old" cover level when you bought the policy, they'll only pay out to what the market value of the vehicle was (sometimes using Parker's Guide "Private Good" value as the yard stick) at the time you bought the policy - if you ask me that's slightly misleading as it didn't always seem particularly obvious when a vehicle would have been deemed to have been too old, but providing you take the time to read the terms of any policy you shouldn't go wrong!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I chose to go with surfandprotect over ala, partly because they permitted me to defer the start date of the GAP Insurance policy so that it kicks in the day after the vehicle is 12 months old and I don't end up paying twice. In your case, you would indeed be able to buy a 4yr policy from surfandprotect that starts when the vehicle is 12 months old... although note if you do this you'll actually have Replacement GAP Insurance cover for years 2, 3, 4 and 5!! A bonus if you want cover for that long (as I don't think anyone else can match it), but unnecessary if you're not going to be keeping the vehicle that long.

Finally, I've checked, double checked and triple checked my Replacement GAP Insurance terms and it clearly states that if my vehicle is written off, they'll pay the difference between my motor insurance payout and the equivalent cost of replacing the vehicle new-for-old at the time of loss.. it goes on to say that if the same vehicle is no longer available, the payout will be calculated based on the nearest equivalent.... I queried this with the guys at surfandprotect and they confirmed that if the vehicle is more expensive than I originally paid for it (either because it's gone up in price or the nearest equivalent is a higher spec (therefore more expensive) version), then providing the claim limit is sufficient, they'll cover the increase in price too.

I hope this helps!

Enjoy the car! When do you pick it up?

Hey there,

Thanks to Funcal03 and FastRichard for the previous post I'm in the same position having bought a new car (the first one in years!) and the dealer is offering me GAP Insurance but it seems really pricey !

I checked online and found two quotes one from surfandprotect and one from ala but not sure which to choose... my motor insurer is giving me new for old so I don't want to pay for the same thing twice ... can i get a 4 year policy starting next year then.... do I buy it now or in a years time ??

So just to clarify if my car lets say got stolen in 3 years time and Churchill (my insurer) pay me 1/2 do i get the money for a brand new car ? .... what if my car (it's a Fiat 500 Lounge ) is more expensive or they don't do that model any more !?

Sorry for all these questions, any help is much appreciated !!

Cheers, Matt

Sorry funchal03 - I just spotted you did mention the vehicle... Mazda 3... that makes it different... I'd have gone for no less than £15k!!!

I am of course joking.... out of interest - what claim limit did you go for?

FR

lardconcepts:Same as most here, I've bought my first ever new car, and don't plan on changing it for a long time - at least ten years. With the sale of two old cars, one used for scrappage, and some rather clever multiple interest-free credit card juggling, we just managed to pool together to buy it outright, without finance. Still £13,000 before scrappage etc, but the car itself if a Seat Ibiza Ecomotive, and apparently they hold their value very well (what with being a VW, £0 tax and 74mpg) and also, Direct Line provide Return To Invoice on any new car under a year old, anyway. So any GAP insurance bought in the usual timeframe (looks like 180 days is max) would waste at least 6 months of our insurance anyway, and with low depreciation, I'm wondering if it's worth it. On the other hand, click4gap are "only" £127, but then on the other other hand, £127 is £127. Where I get confused is that it appears to not make much difference to the quote whether I say the car is over or under 90 days old. Can anyone see a downside to waiting 'til the car is 1 year old, THEN buying the GAP, seeing as my insurer cover it anyway?

Hello... thought I'd jump in and add my thoughts as I've recently been in a similar predicament.

It was quite a challenge to find a GAP Insurance policy that wouldn't be partially wasted as a result of having a motor insurance policy that would replace my car with a new one in the first year anyway... but I did find one!

Up and until I did, as others of you have done, I was also seriously considering ala.co.uk... however when looking further I wasn't comfortable with their underwriter, "Guarantee Protection Insurance Ltd" - they've not been around for long and compared to other suppliers/underwriters of GAP Insurance are not really of any financial scale - that I could find at least!

I eventually settled on a Replacement GAP policy by Surf and Protect Ltd, which is underwritten by Fortis. Frustratingly on their main website you have to register before getting a quote - which is a pain in the proverbial - but they have another site (Gapinsurance.co.uk) which doesn't require any registration in order to get prices... they also deferred the start date of my policy so that my GAP Insurance starts when my car is 12 months old - why the hell they don't make more of a fuss about them having the ability to do this is beyond me... they'd make a killing I'm sure!

Sure I could have got the policy cheaper from ala.co.uk - and for the record they were extremely helpful and patient with my numerous detailed questions, but for me personally, the ability to defer the gap insurance start date and having the security of a huge (by comparison) underwriter was much more valuable!

LardConcepts: It's probably way too late now, but I did check out Click4Gap too and so far as I could tell, the difference in relation to the more/less than 90 days is... if you bought the car more than 90 days ago they will only pay up to what the Private Good Value of the vehicle (according to Parker's Guide) was, at the time you buy the policy... whereas if you bought the vehicle less than 90 days ago they'll provide Invoice gap insurance protecting you to the original purchase price paid.

Funchal03: probably also too late, but with a purchase price of £16,500 I personally wouldn't have gone for anything less than £12,500... I was told all sorts of theories about anticipated depreciation levels... some people quoting up to 70% for some vehicles... ! But I guess it depends on what vehicle you bought and how long you wanted gap insurance for.

Cheers

FR

Thanks for this entry Spidermonkey... I've recently bought a new Mazda 3TD and again the dealers original quote was excessive to say the least! They did agree to match the internet but I decided to stick with ala

Thanks.

Same as most here, I've bought my first ever new car, and don't plan on changing it for a long time - at least ten years.
With the sale of two old cars, one used for scrappage, and some rather clever multiple interest-free credit card juggling, we just managed to pool together to buy it outright, without finance. Still £13,000 before scrappage etc, but the car itself if a Seat Ibiza Ecomotive, and apparently they hold their value very well (what with being a VW, £0 tax and 74mpg) and also, Direct Line provide Return To Invoice on any new car under a year old, anyway.

So any GAP insurance bought in the usual timeframe (looks like 180 days is max) would waste at least 6 months of our insurance anyway, and with low depreciation, I'm wondering if it's worth it. On the other hand, click4gap are "only" £127, but then on the other other hand, £127 is £127.

Where I get confused is that it appears to not make much difference to the quote whether I say the car is over or under 90 days old. Can anyone see a downside to waiting 'til the car is 1 year old, THEN buying the GAP, seeing as my insurer cover it anyway?

Hi brewerdave1 like you I don't get a new car often, so I when for vehicle replacement for 4 year due to it covering any price rise upto there max gap payout which I went for 15000 ( VAT could be at 25% in 4 years lol) but I'll run this car for a long time this new car buying experience is expensive.

Hope this helps

Spidermonkey, I've just bought a new car for the first time in 8 years and ,like you, declined the dealer's GAP insurance cos it was extremely expensive. After reading your comment I went on the site you recommended, put in the details and got a much more reasonable quote. The problem I have, however, is deciding which of the two options is the better choice. Invoice + or Vehicle replacement insurance.Which did you go for??

Anyone else got thoughts on GAP insurance? I presume the higher the invoice price of the new vehicle the more sense it makes to take out.

Ive just taken gap insurance on my new Golf. I was very sceptical at first with the dealer trying to scare me into buying this at a obscene amount of money but after doing a lot of reaserch on the web it made sence to buy it. I found most online brokers very similer my main concern was who is the underwriter which I've since found out the most important thing is that the underwriter needs to be UK based and FSA registered then you'll be covered by the FSA compensation scheme most seem to offer this. The company I ended up buying from was ala due to the main reason they were the cheapest and offered the most additional benefits, there website was also much easier to use. I hope this helps people when buying gap insurance I wasted too much time on this but I'm now very happy my new Golf is fully covered.

I found the best place was www.surfandprotect.com they use a big name underwriter and offered a range of GAP Insurance options. In the end I chose replacement gap insurance because I had a new car and then delayed the start date for a year because I already have new for old cover with my car insurance. Didn't have to pay twice for the same thing !

Has anyone else used them ?

Thanks for the info Peter by the way.

We bought our Gap Insurance from click4gap as recommended on www.moneysupermaket.com by Peter Gerrard (points 9,334).

His post is nearly 2 years old, so I felt comfortable the company was established and safe to buy from. The RTI policy covers all bases in the same way as the dealers, but was nearly a third of the price!!! Staff were very informed and helpful (and in England).

Now to the reason for my post, I've got a four year old BMW (lucky me) and when I renewed the insurance on Monday I found they have "Car Depreciation Insurance" that I can buy for my BMW even though I've owned it for four years!

As I understand it - it pays back to the value of my car today rather than the invoice - but that seems to be the only difference. Has any-one bought one of these policies?

Hi Gareth

I have been looking for GAP insurance for my Audi and came up with a really useful site ALA. They seem to offer most types and I went for a back to invoice policy over 4 years, the price was competitive too. Although you feel you maybe over insured, consider the car being 3 or 4 years old before you claim and how much the insurer would have to pay out to get back to the original invoice price. I found the guy that took the call helped a lot to understand this.

Good luck

David

I think you are missing the point and have not researched very well. I have a Return To Invoice policy which gives me 110% of Glasses Guide value including factory fitted options that Glasses Guide takes into consideration such as air conditioning, leather, automatic etc, plus up to £1500 of dealer fitted extras which is more than enough to cover the replacement if I suffer a write off. You are right, my policy too does not pay road tax or warranties, but in my case I didnt buy an extended warranty - only the warranty that came with the car so my loss can only be the cost of a years road tax. That's thousands of pounds better off than I would be without the cover. Like it or loathe it, without it a write off without Gap insurance could cost you a fortune - you dont need a calculator for that. I chose a UK based Gap insurer and purchased on-line, so if i have a valid claim - i get paid, its as simple as that.