Ok, moving on from surfboards et. all. to more serious topics.
This morning I got a lovely letter from First National Motor Finance offering me shortfall insurance protection for the knock-down price of �4590 per year.
WHAT THE EFFING HELL IS THAT ALL ABOUT???
My car insurance is less than a grand! There’s no way I’m taking it (surprise, surprise … even though they offered me interest free credit and payment over 10 months - how ‘nice’ of them), so what I really want to know is, what would be my exposure if the worst happened? What do insurance companies think the book price for an Exige is?
I have what they call GAP protection, where you get paid the difference between what the insurers think the car is worth and what you actually paid for it. Only if you write your car off, up to �10k diff. I took this out when I bought the Exige, it lasts 3 years and cost �295.
I spoke with First National and basically this is Gap insurance.
What got me was the price �4590 per year!!! That’s why I asked the question, how big is the difference likely to be if an insurance company decides (and they’re the people who make the decision) to write-off a crashed/stolen-recovered Exige?
Your number (�295 / 3 years) seems remarkable reasonable … mine is just plain stupid! What kind of area are you based in Dan, mine is central London. Surely it’s not going to make THAT much difference?
Shortfall insurance otherwise known as Guaranted Asset Protection or Vehicle Replacement Insurance is a good product in most cases but should cost 250 and 800 depending on the invoice price of the car and the max payout. It is however a great form of income for dealerships as the product only costs them between 80 and 200. A 400 3 year policy will net about 300 in profit ! Like everything else, buy it but haggle over the price.
Richard, I think in your case the decimal point was in the wrong place ! 459 sounds about right and most GAPs are available on interest free.
Sorry if this duplicates what has already been said but there are tow types of shortfall or gap insurance.
The first type amnd usually the cheapest is one which guarantees to clear any gap between what you owe on the finance agreement and what an insurance company would pay you in teh evnt of a write off - whether this is value or not depends on how much deposit you have put down, the term of the finance garement and whether there is a balloon or residual value on the hp agreement.
The secodn and more costly type normally runs for the length of the agreement and guarantees to pay you the difference between what an insurance company will pay you in the evnt of a write and the roginal invoice price of your car - this again can be of value but you have to weigh it up the basis of the premium - hope this helps
Im in Hertfordshire. I got the policy through HR Owen. Insurers will give you the trade in price if you write the car off (or thereabouts). My cover does not include fire or theft. This policy will then pay the difference between the insurers payout fig and original sum paid for the car. Not to do with finance owed. I was not offered that.