Hi guys I'm looking to sort my own gap insurance out for my new vrs estate. Please could anyone recommend a policy for VRI cover?

I have looked at ALA and been quoted £152 for 3 years on vehicle replacement policy. Is this a good quote? Are they a reputable company?

Your help would be greatly appreciated

Google "Gap Insurance" and see what comes up & then enter a company's name and see what the review sites say, is probably the easiest way to do it.

£50 / year seems very reasonable... if the policy is all there.

 

It's quite a murky world - I would check with your normal insurer and also your financier (is that the right term?) first to see if they do a deal.  I have seen claims take ~6 months to settle - and during that 6 months you are still paying off the loan, and you will not normally get that back! - so you could be out of pocket 2k anyway which ever way you turn...if it's all under one roof the buck tends to stop.

 

We're still quite lucky in skoda land that the cars are cheap and depreciate quite well.  But the thought of bad asset protection on things like BMW's, Jags and Range Rovers scares the bejesus out of me.

All insurance works on the basis that you are much more likely to lose money than they are. I only ever buy that which I an legally required to. I do however only deal with reputable companies, rather than buying the absolute cheapest.

 

Sorry if this is not very useful, but it is my opinion.

@Orville (incase you weren't aware)

GAP insurance  covers you for the bit between what you owe on a car and what the insurers deem it is worth.

You buy a shiny new VRS for 25K and drive it 30 miles home.  That night it's stolen and burnt out.  You would be lucky to get £22k from your insurance.  Nothing to do with reputable - once you drive that car is will lose value - probably over %30 in the first 12 months.... but you are always paying for the 25k gleaming glory.

I just tried the Ala website put in my (Skoda vRS) cars value for a quote and with money to cover the claim excess & RTI value, it came out at a very reasonable £155. 

When I have ever been lucky enough to buy a new car and the salesperson says do you want GAP? I reply "I don't, but if it helps your GAP sales figures. I'll take it at half price". I have always been given GAP at either half or very near half, price That has worked from Skoda through to Mercedes (chronologically speaking of course)

I've taken gap out. It very much depends what you want from it I think. I've got 5 yr warranty with my car so also wanted 5 yr gap ins. Not many companies do 5 years most are 3 or 4. I also financed privately so wanted replacement car rather than back to invoice or like for like replacement. So if in 5 years time my vrs with extras is totalled, my gap insurance will pay whatever is required on top of my car insurance to buy me a brand new vrs with extras. If Skoda no longer produce the vrs 3 then I will get the vrs 4 or vrs 5 or whatever matches it the nearest. I pay more for it (that type and length of policy) but its what I wanted.

Also remember some insurers will in first year do replacement cars!

That night it's stolen and burnt out.  

 

And statistically how often did this happen to the 2 million new cars sold in 2012?  Maybe a Fiesta from the 80s (easy to break into and get going) but a brand new VRS?  You can over insure yourself in life and this is just a money making scheme for the industry - play on the fears of the motoring public.

@Orville (incase you weren't aware)

GAP insurance covers you for the bit between what you owe on a car and what the insurers deem it is worth.

You buy a shiny new VRS for 25K and drive it 30 miles home. That night it's stolen and burnt out. You would be lucky to get £22k from your insurance. Nothing to do with reputable - once you drive that car is will lose value - probably over %30 in the first 12 months.... but you are always paying for the 25k gleaming glory.

Within the first 12 months insurers will payout for a brand new replacement.

And statistically how often did this happen to the 2 million new cars sold in 2012?  Maybe a Fiesta from the 80s (easy to break into and get going) but a brand new VRS?  You can over insure yourself in life and this is just a money making scheme for the industry - play on the fears of the motoring public.

 

I'm with BA Baracus on this. If I had taken out the insurance everytime a salesman claimed I needed it on whatever I was buying I would be well out of pocket. 

The dealer did his best to sell me GAP insurance & when I declined he tried the "fear" trick - what if this happens. He tried for his commission but in my case failed.

The choice is yours and all down to piece of mind in the end. Could you afford to take the hit if your new(ish) car is written off or would you prefer to pay a little extra for financial piece of mind if the worst happened.

 

I am with Saga who offer a 2 year new car replacement if totaled but still went for a 5 year GAP insurance covering up to £20k on my new Golf which I also took with the optional 5 year VW warranty. This cost me £269 for the 5 years £20k cover but does offer a much higher level of cover them some GAP insurers offer, I went with Shortfall.co.uk

I work in the insurance industry, yet I've always avoided purchasing GAP cover.  I'm not suggesting you do the same, but my rationale behind this is if I purchase a vehicle for £25k, a written off vehicle in the first year will often involve the insurer replacing your car with new-for-old, thus GAP cover would not be required.

 

During the ensuing years, with a higher value vehicle, if I was to write the car off in an accident it is unlikely that my primary concern would be financial given the likely state of my injuries. Additionally, after year 2, it is often the case that you are in positive equity (i.e.: there is no "gap" to insure).

 

This leaves me exposed to the risk of theft/fire, which is something that I am willing to accept, given the premiums involved for this type of cover.

Edited 30 October, 201312 yr by fiisch

10% discount code with ALA

Alumni

I know it my first post a looks a bit like spam

I'm looking for a vrs estate tsi dsg for next year so have been reading the forum to see if they're any good

Currently have a Audi a1 2.0 tdi

I've always used ALA.co.uk, 5 vehicles now. I've never had the misfortune of having to actually use the policy so I can't comment on service etc. Prices are always competitive and reviews are good.

Don't forget 12% quidco too.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Choice is good and I respect others for the decisions they make.

In my eyes home/car/life/travel insurance are all essentials and I wouldn't gamble with this. Extras over and above this are questionable value for money as far as I am concerned - and this is coming from somebody who is naturally cautious.

If there wasn't big bucks to be made by the GAP industry then they wouldnt be doing it and do not rely on a salesman to give you objective independent advice.

A faint wiff of mis-selling going on her if you ask me when motorists already have motor insurance. What is the difference between this and banks selling payment protection to people who couldnt qualify in the event of a claim?

Cheers.

@Orville (incase you weren't aware)

GAP insurance  covers you for the bit between what you owe on a car and what the insurers deem it is worth.

You buy a shiny new VRS for 25K and drive it 30 miles home.  That night it's stolen and burnt out.  You would be lucky to get £22k from your insurance.  Nothing to do with reputable - once you drive that car is will lose value - probably over %30 in the first 12 months.... but you are always paying for the 25k gleaming glory.

I fully understand what Gap Insurance is. I also fully understand that all insurers work on the basis that the insured parties are statistically much more likely to lose money than they are.

 

Most reputable insurers will replace almost new cars with new, or provide funds sufficient to replace like for like. You can request this within your normal policy.

 

Gap insurance only provides cover for the "Gap". Say for instance that your £20,000 brand new 1-week old car is trashed/stolen, and that you have an unreasonable main policy insurer who refuses to replace it. Let's say they make you a final offer of £17,000. The Gap insurance will cover the £3,000 difference only. Some people may be willing to pay ~£200 for this (or much higher from a VAG dealer), but they will be paying ~7% of the potential MAXIMUM liability cost for something which has an extremely small chance (probably significantly less than 1%) of occurring. Most times Gap-Insurers will NOT have tp pay out anyway because owners will be covered under their existing main policy. You may well be paying for the same cover twice.

 

It's a rip-off, like washing machine, dishwasher, tv and any other type of non-essential insurance. Fortunately for the insurers many of us are either too risk-averse or ignorant (I do not mean this in a rude way) and happily pay for it anyway. It's like the reverse of buying a raffle ticket.

 

edited: to add that it is only a minority of people who have a car stolen, or who write-off a car within their lifetimes. Most stolen cars are actually recovered undamaged or can be repaired, and most written-off vehicles are older models which are less financially viable to repair. An insurance company will happily pay £5,000 to repair a new VRS but they will not do the same for a 5 year old Fiesta. Also newer cars are MUCH less likely to be stolen due to modern anti-theft devices.

Edited 30 October, 201312 yr by Orville

It's worth highlighting that the vast majority of insurers will replace any written-off/stolen vehicle for a brand new like-for-like vehicle in the first year of ownership.  Check policy wordings for clarification on this, however I am aware that Admiral Insurance notably exclude this common policy benefit.

I certainly wouldn't pay full dealer prices for GAP and to be honest when I was selling cars I never truly believed in the product as most insurance companies do a new car replacement for the first year of a cars life.

 

However, nowadays I drive to a lot of dodgy places (for work.....mainly) and my car is often left from 10:00 till midnight unattended. It at least gives me some peace of mind to think I have GAP in the second and third years of my cars life.

The choice is yours and all down to piece of mind in the end. Could you afford to take the hit if your new(ish) car is written off or would you prefer to pay a little extra for financial piece of mind if the worst happened.

 

I am with Saga who offer a 2 year new car replacement if totaled but still went for a 5 year GAP insurance covering up to £20k on my new Golf which I also took with the optional 5 year VW warranty. This cost me £269 for the 5 years £20k cover but does offer a much higher level of cover them some GAP insurers offer, I went with Shortfall.co.uk

 

There are several different types of GAP insurance.  The one I buy is 'Return to Invoice' which pays out the difference between any insurance payout and the full price I paid for the car and since I purchased cover for 5 years that could be a lot of money - hence the £20k limit when most GAP is sold for 3 years and may only cover £5k.

 

Some people are obviously talking about GAP Finance Insurance which only pays of any outstanding finance balance once your insurance company has paid out which could indeed be a much smaller amount and should cost a lot less on line

If you or anyone who's going to drive the car has a poor accident history that resulted in either severe damage or write offs or you live in an area where car theft is a problen then IMO it could be worth it. If you want it for peace of mind then fair enough, it's your decision after all. Hope you never need to claim though.

Many thanks for all your input on here. You've really made me think about this. It's those 2nd and 3rd years of risk that are nagging at me. I get it that in the first year my insurer will probably pay out for a like for like replacement (I would need to confirm this though).

Food for thought.

Thanks again.

Sure there's a page on the which site about GAP

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/guides/gap-insurance/

Sorry about link. On phone.