Cheers Phil, I think a belt and braces approach is probably wise too in this case.
For the cost of gap its worth having. I've had to claim in the past and had return to invoice which worked out well in the end.
If GAP is worth while having is always going to be a risk based decision... a lot of people here are pointing out that the more expensive your car the more its worth having however at the same time the less chance your car is a write off and so the less chance you'll have to claim. Those forced to use subprime finance probably have most to gain but may also be those that find the extra cost hardest to pay etc.
The one thing to do however is certainly shop around. I've not looked in a while but historically there were some very poor quality policies out there, for example some used to pay the GAP between their valuation of your car and the finance settlement figure exc any late payments etc and needless to say their valuation was significantly higher than your Motor insurers were
Hi, and welcome to the forums!
I can’t believe we need insurance for insurance, as it were. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
It’s a shame isn’t it.
In this case you don't... traditional GAP insurance is about paying the difference between the value of your 18 month old car and what your outstanding finance. Whilst today's car finance may be 0% APR or low single figures it wasnt that long ago (ie in my life time) where prime interest rates were 20% plus even in the prime space and so many would be in negative equity if their car was written off if they'd bought on finance.
More modern takes like Replacement Vehicle is about saying that if your 4 year old car is written off you dont want just the money to buy another 4 year old car but the money to buy another brand new car.
Now you could say that maybe mainstream motor insurance should offer the option of standard "market value" or "brand new car"... I knew a company that tried to offer this but it added a large lump to the premium, which if you added up for X years cost significantly more than the cost of an X year standalone GAP policy. Given people are willing to switch insurers to save £1, how many are going to pay £75 more to have "new for old"? Getting it advertised will be a pain as unless you're a big boy you wont have the power to make the Confused.coms etc change their results to filter on new for old or not and you wont be at the top of the list if you're adding that amount on to your base premium.
We did know, as we know who you are and you kept banging on about insurance before you were suspended (the first time)