Car Gap Insurance

Important Notice

The FCA has taken industry-wide action requesting insurers to pause the sale, marketing and distribution of GAP Insurance.

Sales of all new GAP Insurance products have ceased for the present.

We will update the content on this page when policies are available again.

Gap Insurance is a product which allows purchasers to sleep easy in the knowledge that if their car is declared a total loss through accident, theft or vandalism, they will be reimbursed with a sufficient payout to replace their car with similar or better.:

We would highly suggest you get quotes from all four companies to both enable you to check features and prices, in as full detail as possible. There are significant difference between policies but doing this will put you in the best place to make an informed decision.

ALA.co.uk

Click4gap

Insure the Gap

MotorEasy Gap insurance

Normal car insurance is designed to return your situation to the same position as it was the moment before any incident occurred, but many drivers feel that this is unlikely to enable them to continue motoring as they would wish to, so choose to purchase a Gap Insurance policy. Do check your car insurance policy fully though, especially if you are buying new as some insurers like include New Vehicle replacement as standard.

It also protects those who have bought a new or relatively new car on finance. Depreciation is likely to eat into the value of a car significantly in the early days, this would mean any loan taken out to purchase the vehicle is likely to be larger than the insurance payout. In this situation the driver could end up with a residual balance on their loan, and no deposit to buy a new vehicle leaving them with limited options to replace the vehicle.

There are a number of Gap Insurance products, covering different levels of cover, the main ones being:

Return to Invoice (RTI) Cover

If your insurer decides your car to be a "total loss" through theft, vandalism or accident, they will normally only pay the loss value - i.e. the value of your car on the date of loss, not the invoice price (purchase value when you bought the car or policy).

Return to Invoice Gap Insurance will pay the depreciation, meaning the difference between the invoice price (purchase value) and loss value of your car paid out by your insurer, allowing you to either buy a similar car to that you originally purchased or repay any loans and still have a deposit towards a new vehicle.

Return to Value (RTV) Cover

If you bought a car two years ago for £7000 your insurance company will take that into consideration when calculating your 'loss'. If the car that has been a declared a total loss is now four years old they will work from your original purchase price, deduct a sum for depreciation, wear and tear etc and offer you that. That may not be enough to enable you to buy another similar aged car with similar mileage etc, as car prices have risen in the meantime.

This type of Gap Insurance will look at the current market value of the car you had, and recompense you the difference between the amount the insurer has paid you, and the price you would have to pay for a similar vehicle.

Vehicle Replacement Insurance Gap (VRI)

If you bought a new vehicle, this insurance means you will be paid the difference between the amount your car insurer offers you and the cost of a similar new car.

Who offers Gap Insurance?

The four Gap Insurers on our site all have a good reputation.

ALA Gap Insurance

A long established Gap insurance provider now working in conjunction with the RAC. A strong feature of this policy is that you you have the ability to claim up to 120 days after the incident itself, whereas other insurers offer up to 30 days.

ALA Insurance have been selling gap insurance for 16 years and believe that using their products can save up to 75% on the prices charged by car dealerships.

InsuretheGap.com

This is not the first time we have had a product offered by their parent company, Halo Insurance, on our site, as they feature as a competitive supplier of car hire excess insurance through icarhireinsurance, and have done for a number of years. InsuretheGap.com are specialist providers of comprehensive GAP insurance. They offer a range of products to suit your individual circumstances, whether you purchased your vehicle on a finance agreement or paid for it outright.

MotorEasy Gap insurance

The team behind MotorEasy have long experience in providing products designed to protect drivers and save them from potentially large bills relating to their car ownership. The companies MD, Duncan McClure Fisher championed the concept of transparent and independent policies enabling buyers to understand exactly what they they were covered for.

All four companies are well established, fully FCA authorised, and offer remarkable value, especially compared to the deals on offers from Car Dealers themselves - we regularly see saving of 50% - 75% over the Car Dealership quotations. Also to assist with your comparison further, we have included a few ratings from the well respected, Defaqto, who offer an independent review service based on feed back from consumers.

We suggest getting a quotation through all companies and deciding on the options you prefer.

This content was last reviewed on 26/11/2024

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