Car2cover - Online Gap Insurance

Which Gap Insurance Guide

The downloadable guide contains everything you need to know including expert buying tips and a useful checklist to help save you money.

This guide is designed to help you make informed decisions on your potential Gap Insurance requirement. We hope you find it useful. Before you buy Gap Insurance, we think you should know a little more about;

• What it does,
• What your Gap Insurance choices are,
• How it can benefit you,
• and more importantly what to look for and consider

What does Gap Insurance do?

Gap Insurance is an optional supplementary insurance which provides various protections against risks not covered by a normal 'fully comprehensive' motor insurance policy.

Gap Insurance can benefit motorists who use cash, finance, or a leasing facility. If fully comprehensive motor insurance was truly 'fully comprehensive' there would be no place for Gap Insurance, but regrettably fully comprehensive motor insurance allows insurers to reduce their risk and your cover annually by applying depreciation whilst potentially increasing your premium each year.

This is unlike any other asset protecting insurance we buy. For example, most home contents insurance will replace insured items on a new for old – like for like basis for the period of the policy and throughout year on year renewals. It's called 'betterment' in the insurance industry. It means that you benefit when making a claim, eg a 3 year old computer would be replaced with a new one.

To illustrate this further, if you damaged a three year old television beyond economical repair, your insurer would supply or pay for a brand new replacement - you will receive 'betterment'. If home contents insurance behaved in the same way as motor insurance – they would send you or buy you a three year old replacement TV ! That simply wouldn't be acceptable would it?

Many well respected motoring publications will confirm that vehicles lose anywhere between 34% - 90% of their value in three years and on average 65%. When those percentages are converted to £'s in real situations, vehicle owners lose out substantially.

For those and many other reasons Gap Insurance is no longer viewed with the apathy it was some 10 years ago. Today many thousands of motorists insist on the additional protection Gap Insurance provides and that protection comes in three distinct forms.

What are your Gap Insurance choices?

• Finance Gap Insurance
• Return To Invoice Gap Insurance
• Vehicle Replacement Insurance
• Private Buyers Gap Insurance

Before buying Gap Insurance it is crucially important to know what to look for and what to consider. These notes are provided to highlight the major considerations. If you think you have a need or requirement for some form of Gap Insurance you need to understand one more thing before you buy.

Read the full Gap Guide to see some examples and more detailed explanations.

Beware, not all Gap insurers or policies are the same...

Brokers and insurers agree different terms within their policies to drive their product down to an optically attractive price. There are a few technical differences that you need to be aware of;

Here are some helpful tips on 'what to look for' when choosing Gap Insurance.

• Does the policiy cover all factory fitted options and up to £1,500 of dealer fitted accessories, paint & upholstery treatments, insurance premiums and non transferable warranty charges, *2
• Is the purchase price you are protecting not capped or limited to a 'Glass's Guide' value ?
• Can you opt for a FREE 12 month deferred start option for new vehicles or motorcycles! - eg, buy 3 years gap and get 4 years cover !
• Will the policy cover theft of vehicle with use of keys, a common form of theft now, 
• All gap insurances end when a claim is made, but will the provider offer a new policy FREE for the remaining period !
• Will your policy will pay the finance settlement figure even if it exceeds the original vehicle purchase price !, *1
• Does the policy cover up to £250 of your motor insurance policy excess,
• Can the policy be transferred, so no need to buy gap again if you change your vehicle, **
• Does the Gap policy cover new and used cars, light vans, motorcycles and motorhomes,
• Will all named drivers on motor insurance policy be covered, including those on provisional licences?
• Are modified vehicles excluded from cover - providing fully comprehensive insurer has agreed the modification,
• Is there a written commitment within terms and conditions to settle claims within 14 days of insurers payment,
• Can you transfer cover upon death,
• Is Accident Management service included,
• Is there a choice of cover levels ie £5,000, £10,000, £15,000, £20,000, £25,000, £50,000 and....
• Can you buy a  No Claim Limit option to make buying gap insurance entirely customer risk free. 
• Do you benefit from a 'Full Term' feature (usually not offered anywhere else - even dealers!)

Having given you some useful hints and tips to help you choose a good Gap Insurance policy, please bear in mind at car2cover we have heeded our own advice and have developed what we believe to be the best Gap Insurance products on the market which meet the standards we suggest you look for.

Remember a big name insurer does not mean best product. So shop carefully – we do when we choose our insurers !

Quote Me Online Now For Gap Insurance

 Download Our Full FREE Gap Insurance Guide Here  

We hope you have found this guide helpful and informative. If you have any questions please feel free to email us at enquiries@car2cover.co.uk. We would welcome any suggestions you may have to make this guide even more helpful.

car2cover is an on-line trading name of click2protect. Click2protect are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA register number is 462408. You can check this on the FSA web site at www.fsa.gov.uk.

Customers of click2protect / car2cover are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Financial Ombudsman Service