David@GAPInsurance

The key word is indeed "should" - hence me highlighting it. However the days of motor insurers considerably low-balling their initial offer (e.g. as you refer to having experienced in 1976) are well behind us and with the advent of FSA > FCA regulation and Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) insurers have to be really quite careful in what they do and don't do these days (of course I'm not for one second suggesting that it's all now a perfect world, but is considerably better than it has been in the past). In handling your claim the motor insurer has to be able to justify their position and have it stand up to scrutiny should it ever escalate to a complaint involving the ombudsman. My own experience is quite different to yours. In December 2014 I wrote my then leased car car off in an accident. I phoned my motor insurer whilst sat in the ambulance (the police asked me to contact the insurer to arrange for the removal of the vehicle from the highway as it wasn't in any fit state to be driven) and the claim administrator I spoke with, during that initial phone call, checked Autotrader to see what similar age, spec' and mileage, versions of the same vehicle were selling for. He told me that there was an almost identical one (very slightly higher mileage) on sale for £14,900 (I later verified this myself) and that that would likely be the amount that they paid out. From that day until a few weeks later when the claim was settled, the amount never changed nor was it ever questioned and after the deduction of my £100 excess, they paid out £14,800 to the finance company. It really couldn't have been any smoother. That's not the case. GAP insurance isn't about covering the difference between your motor insurance payout and the market value that they should have paid according to any given valuation. It's much more than that. In very simple terms... Finance / Contract Hire GAP insurance - is about paying the difference between your motor insurance payout and the amount required to clear any outstanding finance at the time of claim. Invoice GAP insurance - is about paying the difference between your motor insurance payout and the original invoice price that you paid for your car. Replacement GAP insurance - is about paying the difference between your motor insurance payout an what it would cost at the time of claim to replace your vehicle with one of the same (or nearest equivalent) make, model, specification, age and mileage as was relevant to your original vehicle at the time you first bought it (e.g. if your original vehicle was purchased brand new, the replacement vehicle price at the time of claim would be the price of a brand new vehicle again). Granted, from some providers, GAP insurance policies can then incorporate "Market Value" clauses and these come in two forms: The purchase price you paid for the vehicle - The GAP insurance policy will not cover any amount that you paid for the vehicle which was higher than what Glass' Guide (or any alternative that they may be using) said the retail value of the vehicle was at the time you bought it. The payout from the motor insurer - The GAP insurance policy will not cover any amount by which the motor insurer pays out lower than what Glass' Guide (or any alternative that they may be using) said the the retail value was at the time of claim. GAP insurance policies with either Market Value clause should ideally be avoided. GAP insurance policies with both of the above Market Value clauses should be avoided at all costs. To be clear, for a vehicle purchased from a motor dealer, we have neither Market Value clause (though we do have the first clause above if you bought the original vehicle from a private seller which would mean there'd be no VAT receipt/invoice etc from which we could evidence the price paid originally) HTH David

Generally speaking the GAP insurer doesn't really mind which motor insurer is paying you a Total Loss payout for your car (e.g. the third party insurer if a third party was at fault or your own insurer if you were at fault). Their concern is really just that you are receiving *a* Total Loss payout. However the usual process if your car is written off with a third party at fault is that you'd claim on your own motor insurance policy for the Total Loss of your vehicle (and then on the GAP insurance for any applicable shortfall) relevant to the policy type) and your motor insurer would pursue the third party's insurer for reimbursement of the amount they paid out to you. This is a common misconception but, it isn't actually the case that you're covering the motor insurer "not paying out the full amount"... short of a new-for-old claim in the first year of owning & insuring a brand new vehicle or a claim on an Agreed Value type of Motor Insurance policy, the motor insurer is only obliged to return you to the position that you were in immediately before the incident that led to the vehicle being declared a Total Loss. Thus the motor insurer would (should?) be paying out the "full amount" that they're obligated to pay. The GAP insurance is then an entirely separate "risk" that you either choose to insure against, or not.

Sorry... I could have been clearer. I meant that you need Contract Hire GAP insurance rather than the Invoice GAP insurance discussed earlier in this thread - e.g. you can’t have Invoice GAP insurance for a leased vehicle. I did not mean that it is in anyway compulsory - as I fear you may have interpreted. That said, if you have a lease with VWFS and you don’t have GAP insurance then you’re technically at risk of potentially having to dip in to your own funds should your vehicle be written off. If your vehicle is written off, roughly speaking, VWFS will calculate the settlement figure as the combined sum of: * what they think your car is worth, plus * the sum of all rentals not yet paid, plus * any arrears, excess mileage fees etc, plus * admin fee for wrapping the agreement up, less * a discount (I think it’s 4% per annum) for settling early (If I remember correctly this is discussed in section 8.2 of the VWFS lease agreement - I was looking at this part of my own lease agreement with them last week) Separately, your motor insurer will calculate what THEY think your car is worth and that amount will be paid to VWFS. If your motor insurance payout falls short of the VWFS settlement figure, VWFS will hold you liable for the whole shortfall (some other companies hold you liable for a portion of it. Other companies hold you liable for none of it). If being at such risk is of concern, therein lies a “need” and Contract Hire GAP insurance can see to that for you (although it wouldn’t cover costs for arrears or excess mileage etc) If being at such risk is not of concern (e.g. you could comfortably pay any shortfall yourself) then clearly you wouldn’t “need” GAP insurance but you might well still consider the risk/reward of buying it in order to avoid a large and unexpected financial outlay whilst also needing to budget for a new car to replace the one written off. Sorry for the confusion. I hope I’ve now cleared that up.

As an aside... the considerable majority of lease agreements that I’ve ever seen (I’ve been selling GAP insurance since 2004 and prior to that sold car finance/lease agreements for circa 4 years and sold cars for 2 years prior to that) so I’ve seen many... have been for 3yr durations.

If you’ve leased the vehicle with VWFS then you need* Contract Hire GAP insurance which, in the event of write off, will aim to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the amount required to settle the remaining balance of the contract hire agreement (Albeit usually excluding maintenance, excess mileage charges and arrears etc). You can also pay a small additional premium to ensure that in the event of a total loss claim, the GAP insurance will refund you the initial payment that you put down, for you to then use against the cost of replacing your car. However you have understood the cover correctly. Your liability to the finance company on a lease agreement, decreases over time as you pay your monthly rentals, therefore the potential payout from a Contract Hire GAP insurance decreases over time too. This is the opposite of what happenes with an Invoice or Replacement GAP insurance policy on a vehicle that you’re buying, because with those the gap (and therefore potential payout) increases over time. Check us out at www.gapinsurance.co.uk or give us a call on 01484 490095. BRISKODA members get 10% off all of our products (e.g. Scratch & Dent, Tyre and Alloy Wheel Insurance too) using discount code “BRISKODA10”. * = Some lease agreements from some finance companies don’t require GAP insurance at all. If you’re unsure please get in touch.

SAVE: Use discount code "BRISKODA10" to save 10% off our GAP insurance, Tyre & Alloy and Scratch & Dent insurance policies. GAP insurance covers you in the event that your vehicle is written off through accident, fire, theft or flood. Your motor insurer will only pay you what they think your car is worth at the time of loss, whilst GAP insurance will then step in to pay you an additional sum of money which varies subject to the type of GAP insurance policy you purchase. On average our Skoda GAP insurance policies have paid out ~£7,312 per claim. The largest claim we've paid to date on a Skoda was £10,275! You can see more Skoda GAP insurance details and statistics at: https://www.gapinsurance.co.uk/brands/skoda-gap-insurance.asp Invoice GAP insurance: Aims to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the greater of either: The amount outstanding on finance at the time of claim, or The original invoice price that you paid for your vehicle originally (after discount). See here for more details: www.gapinsurance.co.uk/invoicegap Replacement GAP insurance: Aims to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the greater of either: The amount outstanding on finance at the time of claim, or The original invoice price that you paid for your vehicle originally (after discount), or What it would cost at the time of claim to replace your vehicle with a vehicle of the same (or nearest equivalent) make, model, specification, age and mileage as was relevant to your vehicle at the time you first bought it (e.g. if you bought a brand new vehicle originally, it'd be looking at the cost of a brand new equivalent at the time of claim). See here for more details: www.gapinsurance.co.uk/replacementgap Contract Hire GAP insurance Aims to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the amount required to settle the remaining balance of your Contract Hire agreement. You can even pay a small additional payment to ensure that if your leased vehicle is written off, you'll be reimbursed the initial payment you put down. See here for more details: www.gapinsurance.co.uk/contracthiregap (Though please note that not all Contract Hire GAP agreements require GAP insurance - Contact us for more details.) Clearly terms and conditions apply, so please visit the links above for full details or, get in touch with us on either 01484 490095 or [email protected] to discuss your circumstances further.

Thank you for your custom and feedback DBT85. The "33500" won't cause you any issues but, should you wish, you can always log in to the customer area of the site and correct it :-) Best wishes David

You're not wrong there! I spoke with someone yesterday who'd been quoted ~£1200 for a 3yr Invoice GAP insurance policy by their dealer. Our 5yr Replacement GAP insurance (superior to invoice gap insurance) with a higher claim limit and more favourable policy terms was a touch over £300. Some motor dealer prices really are incredible. I do wonder what's going to happen though. The FCA have recently reopened their 2013-2015 investigation in to motor dealers mis-selling GAP insurance... given what's happening in the US and OZ recently (large insurers being forced to refund £Millions back to policyholders who were mis-sold policies by their motor dealer) it's going to be incredibly interesting to see what develops here in the UK.

amwphotos - I'm really sorry but I wasn't notified of you having posted this question so I missed it and have just stumbled across it. You may well have already established an answer to your question but if you haven't and/or for the benefit of anyone else reading this... If (by the time of buying the GAP insurance policy) you had already taken delivery of the vehicle, the GAP insurance policy start date will be the day you buy the GAP insurance policy*. If however you were organising the GAP insurance policy prior to taking delivery of the vehicle the start date of the GAP Insurance policy will be the date that you take ownership of the vehicle*. * - The main exception to either of these rules is that if the vehicle is brand new and you are the first registered keeper... if you are covered in the first 12 months on a new-for-old basis by your motor insurance, if you're sorting the GAP insurance whilst the vehicle is still less than 12 months old, you can elect to defer the start date of the GAP insurance policy so that it starts on any date up to the anniversary of the 1st registration date. I hope this helps and I apologise once again for the delay. David

I've just accidentally stumbled across this post of yours Hough1981 - I've had no prior notification of it whatsoever hence, my lack of reply - I'll have to check why I've not been notified and see if I can correct that. If you have Invoice (RTI) GAP insurance from us for a vehicle that was originally financed and have since cleared that finance, it just means that at the time of any claim, you'd receive all of the funds rather than (potentially) some or all of the funds needing to be paid to a finance company. I hope this helps and I'm sorry for the delay. If I can be of any further assistance please don't hesitate to ask though, to ensure your enquiry is dealt with as efficiently as possible please email [email protected] Best wishes David

You're welcome - thank you for your custom :-)

I don't have any personal experience of such repairs and therefore have no real expertise on which to form a qualified opinion. My personal opinion however is that although there is a disclaimer that aftermarket repairs may remain slightly visibile, if the repaired area is as visible as this photo appears to suggest, I'd be arguing that it's stretching the boundaries of being "slightly" visible - to say the least. You need an expert to look at this for you. All repairs under these policies are carried out by Revive-UK. Their repairs are backed by a "Lifetime Ownership Guarantee" (See: https://revive-uk.com/why-revive/lifetime-ownership-guarantee/) therefore in your position I'd be calling upon this. I'm not entirely sure how this works as this is the first time we've had someone potentially have the need to call upon it. I *think* your first point of call should be to speak to our Claim Administrator (given that they will have instructed Revive to carry out the repair). You can reach them on 0191 258 8118 - explain that you're calling about a previously authorised repair over which you have concerns about the standard and quality. Please let me know how you get on. David

Sorry... I missed this reply from you. Glad you got sorted but... I'm curious if there's any particular reason you didn't buy from us (or any other online provider for that matter)? For example, based on a vehicle purchased for £11,995 our 3yr Invoice GAP insurance policy with say, a £10,000 Claim Limit (you don't need £15k of cover to potentially get you back to the original invoice price unless you spent somewhat more than £15k on the car) would have been £72.22 at full price but after your BRISKODA forum discount would have come down to £65.00. Even if you'd have stepped it up to the superior Replacement GAP insurance, it would have cost you £92.66 after discount. £169 that you've paid the dealer is clearly better than the £329 that they originally quoted you but, it seems to me that you've still paid over the odds. I'm just curious to understand your decision process Best wishes David

Did you get sorted?

Your friendly forum sponsors are normally cheaper than ALA for a better policy from the same underwriter and, we have our own discount code for forum members too! #justsayin'

Sorry for the delay - I've been away. The policy you have with us is a combined Finance & Invoice GAP insurance policy. E.g. in the event of a Total Loss (write off) the policy will aim pay the difference between your Motor Insurance payout and the greater of either: 1. The original invoice price that you paid for your vehicle, OR 2. The amount outstanding on finance at the time of claim. If you've now settled the finance that was originally secured on the vehicle at the time you purchased it, it simply means that the policy becomes a "classic" Invoice GAP insurance policy which, in the event of a Total Loss will aim to pay the difference between your Motor Insurance payout and the original invoice price that you paid for your vehicle. In simple terms... yes, you're still covered though not specifically for the amount outstanding on finance at this time but, assuming the amount you've borrowed is no greater than the original invoice price that you paid for the vehicle it's likely that the amount on finance is really just a side-issue. E.g. if a claim were to happen now or in the future (before your GAP policy expires), the theory is that your Motor Insurer would pay out what they thought the car was worth at the time of loss, we'd top it up to the amount of the original invoice price you paid, then you'd settle what (if anything) is outstanding on finance and then be left with the surplus funds to put towards the cost of your next car from wherever you wish to source it (assuming of course you want to buy another car). I hope this helps. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask. David

Hi. If this is a Contract Hire agreement whereby you don't have any contractual option to purchase the vehicle at the end of the agreement then... If the car is written off before the lease term has finished and you hand the car back, your motor insurer will pay only what they think the car to be worth. The finance company (in this case VWFS) will calculate your settlement figure of the lease agreement. You should check the terms of your lease to be sure but this is likely to be a combination of what they think the car to be worth PLUS some or all of the outstanding rentals that have not yet fallen due. They may well also apply an administration fee for settling early too. Your motor insurance payout will either be sufficient to clear the settlement figure of the lease agreement or it will fall short. If it falls short VWFS may ask you to fund the shortfall and this is where GAP insurance steps in to pay the difference between the amount paid out by your Motor Insurer and the settlement figure required by VWFS. In addition, when you take out GAP insurance, you can also pay a small additional premium to cover some or all (up to a maximum of £3,000) of the initial rental that you paid when the lease began (a sum you'd normally have to walk away from). In short... should you decide it's worthwhile, you'll need something called "Contract Hire GAP insurance" with or without Initial Payment Cover. You can find out more at www.gapinsurance.co.uk and as you're a BRISKODA member you can get a 10% discount by using code "BRISKODA10" when prompted. Of course, if you have any further questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to ask.

Sorry- I missed this. Assuming you're happy with the level of cover provided by your Motor Insurer in terms of "new car replacement" during the first year then yes, you could buy a 3-year policybut defer the start date by up to one year from when the vehicle was first registered. This way we'd be covering just years 2, 3 and 4. Revised prices below: Invoice GAP insurance: £20,000 Claim Limit = £142.61 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £128.35 £25,000 Claim Limit = £160.52 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £144.47 £30,700 Claim Limit = £165.69 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £149.12 Replacement GAP insurance £20,000 Claim Limit = £178.36 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £160.52 £25,000 Claim Limit = £189.05 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £170.14 £30,700 Claim Limit = £194.21 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £174.49 (Prices based on a vehicle invoice price of £30,700, 36 month policy duration (can be cancelled early (e.g. if you're handing the car back or selling it on etc) and a pro-rata rebate claimed) and are valid as of 01/03/17) However, before you commit to NOT having GAP insurance in the first year, you should read this which will assist you in determining whether the new-car-replacement cover provided by your Motor Insurer is any good or not

There was no scientific reasoning behind my thoughts that the GFMV seemed low... it was just a feeling... we obviously have people giving us their PCP figures day in and day out and based on the types of figures people have been giving us recently for similarly priced vehicles over similar durations, it just seemed a tad low. There could be a whole host of reasoning behind this though but it's almost certainly due to the the fact that your annual mileage of 15k is a little higher than average hence why I asked and consequently the finance company's expected depreciation of this vehicle will be higher than others. In terms of how GAP insurance works for a PCP agreement... I apologise in advance... this is going to be a long post! Grab a coffee. Firstly, you need to consider that the GFMV of £10,900 is basically the finance company's attempt at predicting what your vehicle is going to be worth at the end of the PCP term (in reality there's a number of things that can affect this so it's not strictly the case, but humour me for while). In an ideal world they'd be bang on and under normal circumstances neither you nor they "lose" out. Of course, under the terms of the PCP if you get to the end and actually find that it's worth less than this figure, you can (subject to certain conditions) hand it back and walk away with nothing else to pay but, if you found it was actually worth more then you'd be able to either buy it outright at the "bargain" price of £10,900 OR (as the dealer will hope) part exchange it in and use the equity as (or towards) a deposit on your next car. Whether the PCP theory above is likely to work is a whole other debate. Bringing it back to the subject of GAP insurance, lets assume that the vehicle is written off say, a week before you're due to either hand it back to the finance company or pay that £10,900 and keep it. Let's further assume (only for the sake of a nice simple example) that the finance company were bang on with their prediction of the future value of the vehicle and your Motor Insurer is paying out £10,900. Further, let's assume that the replacement price of a brand new equivalent vehicle by that time has for whatever reason (facelifted, better spec, economic influences etc) now increased to £34,000. In THIS example... Without GAP insurance: Your Motor Insurance payout goes directly to settle the remaining balance of the finance agreement. You have £0 funds (other than whatever is in your own "pocket") to put towards your next car. With Invoice GAP insurance: Your Motor Insurance payout goes directly to settle the remaining balance of the finance agreement. The GAP insurance policy pays the £19,800 difference between your £10,900 Motor Insurance payout and the £30,700 original invoice price. You have £19,800 to put towards your next car You're still £3,300 short of the replacement price of buying a brand new equivalent of the same vehicle again though (assuming you wanted to) so you'd either have to fund the difference yourself, negotiate a deal, or buy something else. With Replacement GAP insurance: Your Motor Insurance payout goes directly to settle the remaining balance of the finance agreement. The GAP insurance policy pays the £23,100 difference between your £10,900 Motor Insurance payout and the (now increased) £34,000 replacement price of replacing the vehicle with a new equivalent. You have £23,100 to put towards your next car. Logic: Clearly, if your vehicle is written off earlier, your car won't have depreciated by as much, the new equivalent vehicle replacement price may not have increased and the settlement figure on your finance agreement is going to be higher. But, the principal remains the same. The trick with GAP insurance (assuming you want to use it as either policy is intended) is to try to configure the policy so that it's prepared for the worst case scenario. In which case, we need to look at the maximum possible "gap" that could possibly occur which, is for a write off to occur towards the end of the policy duration when your car has depreciated most and (in the case of Replacement GAP insurance) when the replacement price of a new equivalent is likely to be at it's highest over that time period. Obviously, your car *could* perform much better than the finance company has predicted in terms of depreciation but equally, it *could* also perform worse. The problem, is that you won't know until you "get there" and you're reviewing the offer of payout from your Motor Insurer and that point it is of course too late. So... coming back to the issue of what Claim Limit is appropriate, with Invoice GAP insurance it's pretty straight forward in that we take the price you've bought the car for (that's a figure that won't change) and we deduct from that the GFMV of £10,900. That gives us a figure of £19,800 so my advice would be that £20,000 should be the minimum limit (because the next option down is £17,500 and it's never a good idea to bet against the finance company) BUT (because the GFMV of £10,900 is a figure that is very much subject to change (positive or negative)) it's worth noting that this leaves only £200 flexibility/room for your car to have depreciated by more than the finance company have predicted in the event of a late claim so, it may well be prudent to step the claim limit up further and it just so happens that the next option up is £25,000. In relation to Replacement GAP insurance, we take today's list price of £32,600 and deduct the £10,900 which leaves us with figure of £21,700. This tells us that a £20,000 Claim Limit is *potentially* not going to be entirely sufficient in the event of a late claim PLUS there's the *potential* for the replacement vehicle price to have increased by the time of claim AND the *potential* for your vehicle to have depreciated to a value lower than predicted which could increase the gap further. So, £25,000 in this case would IMO be the logical minimum Claim Limit. In short (and I know I've been all around the houses explaining this but I think the logic is important), it's not that I expect you'll ever need a whole £25,000 to faciliate covering the "gap" with either policy (actually, this might be unlikely, but it's not entirely impossible), it's that there's a reasonable potential that you *could* (in the event of a late claim) require more than £20,000 and it's simply a case that there's no option to choose between £20,000 and £25,000. Alternative logic Another school of thought is that the average vehicle will depreciate by between 50% and 70% over a three year period. Based on an original list price of £32,600 this gives a range of between £16,300 (50%) and £22,820 (70%). Now, you'd be particularly unfortunate to suffer 70% depreciation in this vehicle over 3-years even given your higher than average mileage BUT, you're looking here at a duration of over 3 years AND you're doing higher than average mileage so depreciation approaching 70% over the 42 months is not entirely out of the question... at a future value of £10,900 the finance company are predicting the car to lose 66.5% of it's value which kind of fits with this logic too. To sum up... If you choose a Claim Limit lower than £25,000 on either policy I think there's a pretty decent chance you'd regret it if you were unfortunate enough to suffer a late claim. Although, if you stuck with say £20,000 as a Claim Limit and the gap at the time of claim was in excess of that figure, you'd still be paid up to £20,000 towards that gap which'd probably be of some assistance regardless... however perhaps the most important thing to note is that the difference in cost between the Claim Limit options at this level, is really quite insignificant: Invoice GAP insurance: £20,000 Claim Limit = £194.00 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £174.60 £25,000 Claim Limit = £201.70 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £181.53 £30,700 Claim Limit = £206.87 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £186.18 Replacement GAP insurance £20,000 Claim Limit = £222.73 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £200.46 £25,000 Claim Limit = £243.87 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £219.49 £30,700 Claim Limit = £249.04 less 10% BRISKODA discount = £224.13 (Prices based on a vehicle invoice price of £30,700, 48 month policy duration (can be cancelled early (e.g. at 42 months if you're handing the car back or selling it on etc) and a pro-rata rebate claimed) and are valid as of 23/02/17) Does that help clarify matters? David

Yes, using the same logic I'd arrive at £25,000 too. That balloon seems low... out of interest, what annual mileage is that based on?

Indeed. Replacement GAP insurance would be the superior of the two because in the event of a claim it'll be focused on the list price of a new equivalent vehicle at the time of the claim which is already (and likely to remain) higher than the invoice price you're paying this time around. In terms of cover level (Claim Limit)... there's a number of schools of thought on this but the easiest way we find to approach it is to take today's list price (£32,600) and deduct from that, the sum of the the final/balloon repayment due at the end of the PCP term. We then recommend a Claim Limit to cover at least that amount. For example, if the balloon repayment was say, £17,000. The difference between that and £32,600 would be £15,600. In which case we'd recommend an absolute minimum Claim Limit of £17,500 because the next option down would be £15,000 which is lower than this calculated figure. However... with Replacement GAP insurance you also need to consider the potential for the list price of the new equivalent vehicle to increase over time so, I'd suggest that it'd be prudent (in this example) to step the claim limit up to at least £20,000 (the next option up) to attempt to allow for such pricing fluctuation in the list price and/or further depreciation of your own vehicle value. The next level up from £20,000 jumps to £25,000 which I'd suggest, based on a vehicle bought for £32,600) would possibly be well in to the realms of overkill but something to keep in mind is that the cost difference in increasing the Claim Limit at the time of purchasing the policy could well be small fry compared to the financial difference it'd make if at the time of claim you didn't have enough of a Claim Limit. Thus having what might appear at first glance a very high Claim Limit is not necessarily a bad thing. Obviously I don't yet know what your final/balloon repayment is under your PCP agreement but if you do the sums and follow my logic above you should be able to arrive at a suitable Claim Limit. Of course I'm more than happy to assist in this regard if you want me to. Best wishes David

Thank you for your custom and feedback penguin17 - much appreciated! I've passed your comments on to Nicola too :-) Best wishes David

Assuming you're buying the vehicle, at their most basic level the easiest comparison is to consider that at the very least the Replacement GAP insurance policy will provide exactly the same level of cover as an Invoice GAP insurance policy would... though it's primary aim is to provide you with a higher level of cover. E.g. you can't lose out other than by the difference in cost between the two of them but... the only way that would happen would be if the replacement vehicle price at the time of claim had fallen to an amount lower than the price you originally paid for your vehicle, in which case the Replacement GAP insurance effectively reverts to Invoice GAP insurance. If you need any assistance whatsoever in selecting appropriate cover for your needs, please just ask. David

If you're buying a '17 plate car or have bought a car within the last 12 months, have you considered GAP insurance? We offer both Invoice and the superior Replacement GAP insurance at prices up to 85% lower than your Motor Dealer might charge you and using discount code "BRISKODA10" you can save a further 10%! In the event of your vehicle being declared a Total Loss ("written off") by your Motor Insurer through accident, fire, theft or flood, the policies work as follows: Invoice GAP insurance: Aims to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the greater of either: The finance agreement settlement figure at the time of claim (if applicable), or The original invoice price that you paid to put the vehicle on the road. Replacement GAP insurance: Aims to pay the difference between your motor insurance payout and the greater of either: The finance agreement settlement figure at the time of claim (if applicable), or The original invoice price that you paid to put the vehicle on the road, or What it would cost at the time of claim to replace your vehicle with one of the same (or nearest equivalent) make, model, specification, age and mileage as was relevant to your original vehicle at the time you first bought it. Cover Features: Available for cars purchased for up to £150k Available for cars purchased up to 365 days ago Available for cars up to 10 years old Claim Limits of up to £100k available (subject to vehicle value) Cash payouts in the event of a claim (we don't tell you what vehicle you need to buy next or from whom) Daily pro-rata rebates if you end your policy early. NO - Cancellation or Admin Fees NO - Market Value clauses NO - Mileage limitations FREE - Policy amendments FREE - Transfer of unused premium to a new policy on a new vehicle Durations of up to 5 years available Pays up to £250 towards your Motor Insurance excess FREE - Ability to defer the start date by up to a year from first registration if your Motor Insurance covers you on a new-for-old basis in the first year. 30 day Cooling Off period. See www.gapinsurance.co.uk or contact us on either [email protected] or 01943 850999 for more details.

Did you know that getting GAP insurance FREE of charge from your Motor Dealer might actually cost you money? We regularly come across people who have had their supplying dealer offer to throw in GAP insurance free of charge (or heavily discounted) to clinch the deal. In fact we often see posts on forums such as this, by users recommending that one should try to negotiate with the dealer to get them to include GAP insurance within the deal - often motivated by an only too common misconception that the dealer's policy will somehow be superior to a policy you can get from a specialist provider such as ourselves (it almost certainly won't be). What most people don't realise, is that discounted or free GAP insurance from a Motor Dealer will in many cases, actually cost you money should you ever need to claim on the policy. We've prepared a blog article discussing this... it's lengthy, but well worth the read. Especially considering that one customer (detailed within the article) was charged £824 for "free" GAP insurance and after we got involved has ended up with superior, longer, GAP insurance cover and £426 back in HER pocket (it'd have been more if she'd contacted us sooner)! Read the blog article here What's your experience? Did you get (or have you been offered) FREE (or discounted) GAP insurance from your Motor Dealer? Could you be affected by the same? If you're contemplating GAP insurance for your next car purchase, or for a car you've bought within the last 12 months, see www.gapinsurance.co.uk or contact us on either [email protected] or 01943 850999 for more details.