What is return to invoice gap insurance?
Return-to-invoice Gap insurance tops up the payout you receive from your car insurer to the amount you paid for the vehicle.
For example, if you bought a Fiat Punto for £9,537, but a year later had an accident and received only £5,000 from your car insurer, your return-to-invoice Gap insurance policy would pay the difference. Only a contribution will be made towards the excess, though.
In most cases, Finance Gap insurance is also part of the package - meaning that outstanding payments on a loan used to pay for the car are covered in full.
Return-to-invoice Gap insurance review
When you buy a car - either in cash or using finance - the car dealer will probably recommend buying their Gap product along with it. However, Gap insurance bought through dealerships is often heavily overpriced, and shopping around could potentially save you hundreds.
The table below shows the cost of return-to-invoice Gap insurance for three different cars bought brand new, and the features of the different third-party (online) gap insurance policies. These include:
- Excess - how much your Gap policy will pay towards your car insurance excess
- Maximum level of cover - how much cover you can take out
- Cover availability - how long you can take out the Gap insurance for
- Age of vehicle - the age limit of the vehicle that each Gap insurer will cover
- Maximum value of vehicle that each gap insurer will cover
- Finance - whether the Gap insurance will cover your outstanding payments for your car if you bought it on finance
| Cost of Gap Insurance for 3 years (The car's value is in brackets) | ||||||||||
| Provider | Vauxhall Corsa(£11,700) | Ford Fiesta(£17,942) | Mercedes Benz A-Class(£26,435) | BMW 3 Series(£30,400) | Amount towards your insurance excess | Maximum level cover | Cover available for (years) | Maximum age of vehicle(years) | Maximum value of vehicle | Covers finance on car |
| ALA | £166.00 | £175.00 | £181.00 | £200.00 | £250 | £50,000 | 1 to 4 | 10* | £150,000 | Yes |
| Click4Gap | £150.00 | £152.40 | £191.00 | £287.00 | £250 | £25,000 | 2 to 4 | 7* | £50,000 | Yes |
| Direct Gap | £129.00 | £149.00 | £189.00 | £199.00 | £250 | £25,000 | 1 to 5 | 7* | £75,000 | Yes |
| Gapinsurance.co.uk | £138.90 | £154.51 | £175.12 | £175.12 | £250 | £50,000 | 1 to 4 | 8* | £200,000 | Yes |
| InsureandGo | £309.99
More info InsureandGo offers "Car Gap insurance" for up to 3yrs in Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum packages. Data is for the Platinum package. | £309.99 | £309.99 | £309.99 | £100 | £25,000 | 1 to 5 | 8* | £75,000 | Yes |
| MotorEasy | £118.63 | £139.47 | £217.01 | £240.93 | £250 | Value of vehicle | 2 to 4 | 10* | £75,000 | Yes |
| Shortfall | £99.99 | £113.67 | £155.98 | £156.94 | £750 | £50,000 | 1 to 4 | ns* | £150,000 | Yes |
| Total Loss Gap | £127.48 | £149.21 | £189.21 | £189.21 | £250 | no upper limit | 2 to 5 | 8* | £50,000 | Yes |
| Gap Cover Insurance | £171.67 | £208.34 | £347.42 | £392.79 | £500 | £50,000 | 1 to 4 | 10* | £125,000 | Yes |
*mileage restrictions may also apply so please check with the GAP insurer.
