General Gap Insurance

[arorat]

But what happens if, for example I have an accident on Saturday and the car is a write off and I haven't bought the gap insurance?

I am also on that i-deal thing and with Admiral...

Gap insurance covers invoice value or new value, Admiral keep prices low by removing new for old value adds.

you have choices;

1) go to a new policy and get new for old and loose the 2 months with Admiral - you may get enough back to buy an expensive Dominos and Rioja
2) stay with Admiral and get Gap Insurance and then renew with Admiral / elephant again.
3) don't take out Gap

I took out Gap (after bugging the chaps here on advise) and got it before we picked up the TA. We will stay with Admiral for multicar policy.

Answering your question : don't drive the car yet, think if you will stay with Admiral or go with a company offering new for old. If later get the new policy now and enjoy the Pizza with the refund from Admiral otherwise get Gap and stay with Admiral for 2 months and renew.

Important : Littlerachbaby (spl) told me with comparison quotes on Gap you will get the value of the policy compared against !! check this.

 

[306maxi]

Have a look at how much it's going to cost you. I think I got my gap cover through surfandprotect and with my insurance being new for old for the first year I've got 4 years new for old in total. ONe thing I'd suggest would be to call Admiral up and say that you're looking at leaving because they don't do new for old and see what they can do. Most insurance companies are thieving twunts and would rather lose you as a customer than lower the premium. We got a renewal through from Admiral which was actually quite good to be fair, but my NCB wasn't protected on the 500. The insurance renewal for our Subaru was better than anything anyone could do and the 500 was also competitive, called them up and they applied the max discount to both policies and protected my NCB on the 500 and in the process they lowered the premium for the multicar policy by something like 70-100 pounds.

No promises of course, but they might give you new for old just to keep you onboard

 

[arorat]

No promises of course, but they might give you new for old just to keep you onboard

I tried asking a few months back, they do not do new for old - its a dynamic industry, but worth a try.

btw: I don't understand why companies fail on customer retention by not giving the same deals as for new customers. Take Insurance as an example, I would expect a lower premium even a fiver if I don't make a claim. Every flicking year one has to go through confused etc to get a new quote, total waste of time.

 

[306maxi]

And they also have to pay the price comparison site a referral fee. Strangely enough our overall premium didn't go up at all with Admiral this year with the renewal. Weirdly the Subaru went down £100 and the Fiat went up by slightly less than that. Not quite sure why as the Subaru has got a couple of listed modifications and is group 18 I think and the 500 is group 3.....

 

[loveshandbags]

I tried asking a few months back, they do not do new for old - its a dynamic industry, but worth a try.

btw: I don't understand why companies fail on customer retention by not giving the same deals as for new customers. Take Insurance as an example, I would expect a lower premium even a fiver if I don't make a claim. Every flicking year one has to go through confused etc to get a new quote, total waste of time.

Realise that insurance companies are 'different' in different countries but I'm with OneDirect and then have me insured with Hibernian (now called Aviva). I get a loyalty bonus of 10% when the insurance was renewed last January (it's €350 with a step-back protection on the NCB). On a recent car change (had no 500 for the month of March) there was a hidden charge (administrative) on the change of the 'new' 500 - this is something that I had not being charged before with a different insurance company (Axa). My experience has been that with the cheaper insurance quotes there's always a 'catch'.

 

[jrkitching]

But what happens if, for example I have an accident on Saturday and the car is a write off and I haven't bought the gap insurance?

Admiral will pay you the value of the car at the time it's written off. You'll have to make up any shortfall between that payout and the outstanding finance balance on the car out of your own pocket.

If you're relying on the 7 day 'free' insurance provided through your FIAT dealer, check the small print to see exactly what they will pay out if you're unfortunate enough to write off the car. Be aware that you'll also have to pay the excess, which from memory is about £750.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Most insurance policies offer new for old for the first year anyway?

All I've been with have only been for the first 6 months for a new car according to the small print.

 

[FloJo]

OK well I'm going with the gap insurance, I'll stick with admiral until November when my current policy is up - the thinking behind this is in 3 years time when I'm service & MOTing the car I won't have the insurance cost that month too anymore I think I'm going to give ala.co.uk a try but I'm just reading the small print bit of the others first - and make sure I go via topcashback too ofc

P.S. The 7 day thing was only so I didn't have to faff around sending the dealer my insurance certificate, this way he could get the car taxed etc without me having to do anything

 

[arorat]

>>> Might be getting a 500 TA lounge sometime this year

time to change the signature !!

 

[FloJo]

>>> Might be getting a 500 TA lounge sometime this year

time to change the signature !!

Not till I've driven it home and it's sitting on the drive

 

[arorat]

sorry thought you you picked it up

 

[frupi]

Interesting reading through the thread. I too wracked my head umming and aahing over whether I should get GAP for the wife's nearly new 500 (6 month old - paid 7499 pounds, less than a thousand miles on the clock). Not something I had ever bothered with before as I knew a long time ago that dealers were making a mint out of selling it. In fact, when we bought our 500 a couple of weeks back, the salesman, bless his heart, did try to sell us the dealer GAP but I have one of those horrible thousand yard stares and he backed off in less than 20 seconds and didn't mention it again. We just had to sign a form to comply with FSA rules to say he had explained it to us.

So four days went by after purchase during which I spent a lot of time researching the internet and I settled on Return to Invoice (RTI) cover, 5000 pounds claim limit for 4 years at a cost of 124 pounds. If I never get to use it, I'll be glad, for very obvious reasons! Anyway, it works out at 31 quid a year for a bit of piece of mind. It wasn't the cheapest cover, which actually came in at 92 pounds, but being the utter cynic I am, I delved into each of the insurers I looked at, where they were based, if they were brokers etc etc and I even looked into company accounts which they publish yearly and which are freely available to view on the internet. Extreme I know, but I wanted to check because I'm one hellava boring person and I have a lot of time on my hands! I'm not going to name the company I eventually purchased from because anyone could look up the most popular UK based GAP internet only brokers and get the same priced premium as I just paid, without me giving free advertising.

 

[306maxi]

Ummmmm ok, so you did the legwork and found a company you feel to be trustworthy and you're not going to tell people? IMHO that's quite unhelpful.

That's like when I tell people they can save hundreds of pounds on their services, but then not telling them how I did it. Bonkers.

 

[RobW]

Ask yourself how unlucky you are before paying for insurance

 

[306maxi]

Ask yourself how unlucky you are before paying for insurance

or

 

[frupi]

I do apologise, but I'm no financial advisor and definitely not qualified to steer anyone into the field of insurance. I was just relating my experience. Therefore, the decision I made as a result of doing my own donkey work, should it go horribly wrong, is purely down to me. I'm afraid I'm not fully acquainted with Forum rules on advertising, hence no company recommendations!

Concerning how unlucky I feel, well, through choice, I buy buildings and contents insurance every year and I've never had to use it.

 

[306maxi]

I do apologise, but I'm no financial advisor and definitely not qualified to steer anyone into the field of insurance. I was just relating my experience. Therefore, the decision I made as a result of doing my own donkey work, should it go horribly wrong, is purely down to me. I'm afraid I'm not fully acquainted with Forum rules on advertising, hence no company recommendations!

Concerning how unlucky I feel, well, through choice, I buy buildings and contents insurance every year and I've never had to use it.

Thing is there is such a thing as good faith You're not to know how good they're going to be (nor do you really want to find out to be honest!) so you can't be expected to know. If it were a tyre for instance, we'd want you to actually have experience of the brand at the very least before you go recommending a particular tyre to someone.

As long as the company isn't your own then you can give them free advertising all you like in this thread

 

[LittleMax]

Ask yourself how unlucky you are before paying for insurance

Or alternatively ask yourself how you'd feel if the unthinkable happened and you weren't insured

All insurance is based around risk and affordability and each of us makes our own considerations based on our own individual circumstances.

 

[RobW]

Or alternatively ask yourself how you'd feel if the unthinkable happened and you weren't insured

All insurance is based around risk and affordability and each of us makes our own considerations based on our own individual circumstances.

Regular comprehensive insurance is fine thanks
If it is unthinkable why worry about it, It might never happen

 

[LittleMax]

Regular comprehensive insurance is fine thanks
If it is unthinkable why worry about it, It might never happen

You take out comprehensive insurance - why not just third party? Are you feeling a little bit unlucky then?