Just bought a new car? What if an accident occurred soon after taking
your
brand new ride off the lot? You have full coverage insurance, right? So,
you're
covered... or maybe not.
When you drive your new car off the lot the value of your vehicle
plummets,
sometimes as much as 20%-30%. Say for instance you pay $25,000 for your
new
vehicle and have an accident a month later. You probably have only made
at the
most one payment and if you did not put any money down your loan amount
is still
close to the $25,000 purchase price. Unfortunately, even with full
coverage,
which includes comprehensive and collision, you will only receive the
market
value of your vehicle which could be as much as 20%-30% lower than the
purchase
price. That means you may be stuck paying that 20%-30%. On a $25,000
car, just a
20% depreciation would be $5,000! That amount could be more if you
financed your
taxes and license into your loan.
GAP stands for Guaranteed Auto Protection. Most people just use the
term GAP to represent the gap in coverage between how much one owes on a
car and
how much the car is worth. GAP insurance is necessary in almost all
cases and is
relatively low cost. GAP insurance is a must if you are buying or
leasing a new
vehicle and should not be something that you decided to skip to cut
costs.
Fortunately, you may already have GAP insurance with your current
insurer,
which would insure you for the difference between your loan amount on
the car
and the actual market value of the car. But, not all insurance companies
offer
GAP insurance.
In some cases GAP insurance is not available from your insurance
company. So,
what do you do? Of course the dealership will probably be able to offer
you GAP
insurance. If GAP insurance is not available from the dealership then
you can
purchase it from an online GAP insurance company. Just do an online
search for
GAP insurance and you will find many companies available.