How Do Our GAP insurance Policies Compare?

If you've had the supplying dealer fit any accessories/options to your vehicle, you might be surprised to learn that the cost of those accessories/options may not actually be covered by a GAP insurance policy purchased from another provider.

Some policies entirely exclude cover for dealer-fitted accessories/options altogether. Some other policies entirely exclude cover for third-party accessories/options (E.g. those that are not genuine manufacturer accessories/options).

Our GAP insurance policies will cover the cost of any/all factory-fitted accessories/options along with up to £1,500 of dealer-fitted accessories/options appearing on your vehicle sales invoice.

All that we ask is that when you're declaring the invoice price of the vehicle to us, you declare the invoice price inclusive of the costs for all accessories/options that were fitted to the vehicle. So for example, if you bought a vehicle for £10,000 plus £1,000 of dealer-fitted accessories/options, we ask that you input the invoice price of the vehicle as £11,000.

This is arguably the most important comparison point. Failing to comprehend what this actually means and buying a policy that has such a clause within it, could literally mean the difference of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of pounds at the time of claim.

If your car is declared a Total Loss (written off) as a result of accident, fire or theft, your motor insurance policy provider will pay you what they believe the car to be worth at the time of that claim. If your GAP insurance policy has a Market Value clause in relation to the motor insurance pay-out (E.g. if it says, "...will pay the difference between the Market Value of the vehicle at the time of loss and..." then seperately defines "Market Value" as a value given by one of the industry valuation guides (such as Glass' or CAP Guide), the GAP Insurance provider actually reserves the right to NOT cover any amount by which your Motor Insurer pays out less than the figure quoted by their chosen guide.

Of course, you have barely any influence over how much your Motor Insurer will pay out for your car and you certainly have no influence whatsoever over what any of the guides might state your vehicle is worth!

It doesn't stop there though, because the worst GAP insurance policies also reserve the right to revalue your vehicle at the time you bought it. What this means is that they'll look back at the price you paid for your vehicle originally and compare that to the value that their chosen guide was stating your vehicle was worth at the time you bought it. If they find that the price you paid was more than the value stated in the guide, they'll NOT cover the amount that the figure you paid exceeded the value in the guide.

Of course, there could be a whole host of reasons as to why you paid more than the guide said your vehicle was worth. Not least that perhaps there was more demand for that particular vehicle at the time you bought it than the guide was giving credit for - it is afterall just a "guide" figure and of course the dealer on-the-front-line (so to speak) would naturally want to maximise his sale potential.

Whatever the reason, is it fair that you should suffer financially if your Motor Insurer pays out less than a "guide" expects, and/or if you originally paid a little more for your car than a "guide" thinks you should - particularly when you consider that you have barely any influence over the amount paid out by the Motor Insurer and certainly no influence at all over the figures published in any industry guide?

We don't think it's fair at all. Which is why our policies have neither of these horrid "Market Value" clauses.

To clarify though, if your Motor Insurer at the time of any claim does pay out less than the likes of Glass' Guide suggest they should have done, we do reserve the right to pursue your Motor Insurer for reimbursement, but that wouldn't affect our GAP insurance policy payout to you!

Imagine... your car has been involved in an incident, you may well have been injured in the process. You've got to deal with the fallout from the incident, notifying your insurer, being without your car and so on. It's going to be a pretty hectic and possibly one of the most stressful times and 30-days will fly by in the blink of an eye... will you remember to inform the GAP Insurance company?

Whilst many policies from other providers require you to notify them of a potential claim within just 30-days of incident, our policies permit you to make a claim up to 90-days from the date of incident.

With our policies, if you replace your originally covered vehicle within the policy term, we'll cancel the policy, calculate a daily pro-rata rebate and allow you to transfer that rebate forward in full against the cost of a new policy on your new vehicle - no cancellation, transfer or admin fee will apply.

Some companies will charge you a transfer fee of up to an astounding £50 for the same, whilst others don't permit any kind of transfer in the event that it occurs more than 90-days after you purchase the policy.

You've bought your car, fended off the salesperson's GAP Insurance advances because they were absurdly expensive compared to those prices you found online for better cover. Well done! But then not wanting to spend a great deal of time sat infront of a computer trying to work out which is the best GAP Insurance policy to go for - afterall you could be enjoying your shiny new motor instead - you think you've worked out the best policy and go for it.

Some time later, you finally get chance to analyse the policy in detail and it turns out that it's not quite as good as you first thought it was. You realise that you could have got a better policy from elsewhere so now wish to cancel your existing policy.

Can you do so?

Well, not if more than 21 days has passed since you bought it from some providers!

If after buying a policy from us, you decide that it's not for you, simply let us know within the first 30-days. We'll cancel it and give you every penny of your money back.

This is pretty standard now, but in the event that your car is declared a Total Loss (written off) and you have an excess to pay as part of your valid motor insurance claim, our GAP insurance policy will cover up to £250 of that excess.

Since 2016 five off-shore underwriters of budget-priced GAP insurance policies have gone to the wall.

Whilst there's something to be said for budget-priced policies (we all like to save money, don't we?) there's clearly an element of risk that come with them. Sure, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the fall-back that protects you as a consumer from at least some of the financial loss you may suffer in the event that an insurer isn't able to meet their obligations to you. But is it wise to gamble with the stress and great inconvenience of a considerably delayed claim process during which you'd be without the funds to replace your written off car with?

We don't even attempt to be a provider of budget GAP insurance policies. We source the right policies and we aim to sell them at the right price. This includes dealing only with A-Rated insurers with the best rated financial stability, in order to ensure that they're around at the time that you will need them most. In some cases this may attract a premium compared to policies sold by a competitor dealing with an unrated insurer and the uncertainty which comes with that - in our view, the additional premium is a small price to pay.

Our GAP insurance policies are underwritten at Lloyd's by Arch Managing Agency Limited

Under normal circumstances your motor insurance policy will only provide you with a courtesy car for you to use UNTIL they decide that your vehicle is a "Total Loss" (aka, they "write it off"). Once they've declared your vehicle a Total Loss, their courtesy car would then normally be withdrawn. Build in Total Loss Courtesy Car cover (TLCc) to your GAP insurance policy with us, and if your car is declared a Total Loss it'll provide you with a courtesy car for you to use for up to 28-days. See Total Loss Courtesy Car for more details.

"Pre-approval" is where you HAVE to speak with the GAP insurance provider BEFORE you accept an offer of settlement from your Motor Insurer. With some other GAP insurance policies out there, failing to do so (and let's face it, if you've just had your vehicle written off it's possibly going to be a stressful time and might well involve your Motor Insurer pressing you (or your own personal circumstances needing you) to accept their offer as quickly as possible) may well resut in the GAP insurance policy payout being reduced as a result. E.g. if you accepted an offer that the GAP insurance provider believed was too low they might not cover the amount of "underpayment".

Clearly, we'd like the opportunity to be involved in the negotiation of settlement with your Motor Insurer. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the more your Motor Insurer pays out, the less we have to. So we do ask that you notify us of the incident/claim and get us involved as early as possible (it's much easier negotiating at the time rather than at some point in the future). But we accept that things might go awry and for any number of reasons (in the past we've had people simply forget that they've had GAP insurance) that may not happen.

In the worst case, policies from other providers may state that they won't pay out at all if you accept your motor insurer's offer without at first seeking their approval. Others may simply not pay any amount by which they view your motor insurer to have underpaid... we have no such penalty clauses within our policies!

With few exceptions, if the purchase of your car incorporates Negative Equity being carried forward from a previous vehicle, most other GAP insurance policies will entirely exclude that Negative Equity from cover.

With us, for a small additional fee, you can extend the policy to incorporate cover for up to £2,000 of negative equity (Invoice & Replacement GAP insurance only).

As above, with our policies if you cancel your GAP insurance policy within the first 30-days, so long as no claim has been made or is pending you'll receive all of your money back. After 30-days if you cancel your policy, so long as no claim has been made or is pending, we'll cancel your policy and calculate a daily pro-rata rebate of unused premium that you can either have refunded or carry forward against the cost of a new policy on a new vehicle.

If you carry the balance of the unused premium forward against the cost of a new policy on a new vehicle, no cancellation, transfer of admin fees will apply.

If you need to make changes to your policy (e.g. if you've moved house, changed your name or put private plate on the vehicle), or even if you just need to re-print your policy documentation, you can view, update and/or print your policy online at any time via our website. You can also update your policy over the phone with us too. Either way, such changes etc are all entirely free of charge.

We've seen various competitor approaches to the policy pay out in our time.

From Replacement GAP insurance policies that only pay out on an Invoice GAP insurance basis in the event that you do not permit the GAP insurance Claim Administrator to organise the supply of your next vehicle, to the payout being made in the form of a credit to a Motor Dealer of the GAP insurance Claim Administrator's choice (or maybe even the to dealer who originally supplied your vehicle) - all of which would be carried out for pretty obvious reasons in favour of the GAP insurance provider (but would limit your ability to source your next car).

We prefer the rather simple approach of simply paying you the money.

So for example, if you bought your vehicle cash-outright originally and that vehicle has now been written off, your Motor Insurer will pay YOU whatever they think the vehicle is worth and we'll top that up to either the original invoice price (Invoice GAP insurance) or the replacment vehicle price (Replacement GAP insurance) by paying the money directly to you.

In the event that you financed your vehicle and there being finance outstanding at the time of claim which hasn't been cleared by your motor insurance pay-out, we'd be obliged to pay the finance company the amount they're due first, but then any excess funds would then be paid directly to you.

You would then be free to use those funds against the cost of sourcing your next vehicle (whatever that may be) from any dealership of your choice. Or not... ultimately, the money is yours, so you'd be free to dispose of it as you saw fit!

We think this is the most convenient and flexible approach for you.

Replacement GAP insurance can be purchased within 30-days of taking delivery of the vehicle so long as the invoice price paid for the vehicle was less than £35k. Invoice GAP insurance can be purchased up to 3-months after taking delivery of the vehicle. Contract Hire GAP insurance can be purchased any time after taking delivery of the vehicle so long as there's more than 12 months remaining on the lease. Our Top-Up GAP insurance policy can be purchased at any time up and until the vehicle reaches 10 years old.