When it comes to purchasing GAP insurance for brand-new cars, many customers ask us whether it’s necessary, when their motor insurance policy provides new-for-old cover during the first year of ownership.
This is understandable when some leading money-saving websites tell you that you don’t need GAP insurance if you have new-for-old cover – but it’s simply bad advice.
Time and again, new-for-old cover has failed to live up to expectations, with policyholders left significantly out-of-pocket. Sadly, there are numerous reasons why such policies might let you down – these include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Your finance company may not agree to permit your motor insurer to physically replace the vehicle, insisting instead on a cash settlement of the original finance agreement (this is especially true of PCP contracts, in an attempt to prevent you from profiting from the replacement vehicle’s increased value by the end of the finance term).
- The cost of repairing damage to your vehicle may not be substantial enough to qualify you for a new-for-old replacement claim.
- A physical replacement vehicle may not be available for delivery within the time constraints specified by your motor insurer – this is particularly relevant in the present marketplace, where waiting lists for brand-new cars can often stretch to many months, or even years.
- Your motor insurer may decide there’s no direct-equivalent vehicle available at the time of claim – in some case for trivial reasons.
Under these circumstances, when the new-for-old benefit of your motor insurance policy is not invoked, with few exceptions most motor insurers will revert to a ‘market value’ cash settlement instead, in which case a claim on a GAP insurance policy may be very necessary.
OUR NEW-FOR-OLD PROMISE
Thankfully, with GAPinsurance.co.uk you can avoid all the above pitfalls by purchasing GAP insurance from the outset.
Importantly, if during the first 12 months your motor insurer *does* replace your car with a new one, we promise to issue you with a whole new GAP insurance policy for the full original duration of cover that you purchased, at no additional cost to you.
For example:
- You buy a 3-year Invoice GAP insurance policy for your brand-new car.
- Your vehicle is written off and replaced, new-for-old, by your motor insurer after 10 months.
- We issue you with a whole new 3-year GAP insurance policy on your new car.
Please note that our New-For-Old promise applies to all policies purchased on or since April 25th 2023
Thank you for reading and, if you’d like more information, you can review the Ts & Cs of our policies here, or generate a quote here. If you wish, you may also call us on 01484 490095 or, email us at: support@gapinsurance.co.uk
David Burns-Keane
Director
GAPinsurance.co.uk
Who am I?
I founded the UK’s very first independent online provider of GAP insurance back in March 2004 and this has evolved into the GAPinsurance.co.uk that you see today. Over those years I’ve been the champion of the UK car-buying consumer, doing my best to help them avoid being overcharged by and/or mis-sold to by motor dealers charging vastly inflated prices for what are often sub-standard GAP insurance policies. In the face of increasing competition from companies offering budget policies (via insurers who have ultimately gone bust), I’ve led the way with market-defining policy refinements and at all times stuck with large A-rated insurers with the financial clout to ensure they’ll still be around if/when the need to claim arises. I don’t, and never will, offer budget policies. I sell the right policies, at the right price.
