Lease cars written off.

[Confused]

After seeing Studlys crash. glad u survived well apart from whiplash. Hopw u recover well..

What is is the situation with Citroen and Lease writes off?

E.g. What happends if the car is written off after 2 months of ur 3 year lease from citroen? Do citroen replace the car for you and give them the settlement?

does anyone know what could/does happen..


Thanks All

[Faxo]

If the crash is your fault, then your insurance pay out market value, and its nothing to do with Citroen. If the payout is less than the settlement, you have to pay out your own pocket

Thats why they push GAP insurance, if your write it off and your insurance pay you £12000 say, and you originally paid £16000 on the car, the GAP pays the other £4000 so you can pay off the finance and your back to square one as if you never had it

Unsure what happens if your the 3rd party though, presume you'd have to fight the other insurance company so you're not out of pocket

[Confused]

Thanks very much, Does that work the same with the leases as well as the finance?

[Bigfeet]

As far as I'm believe what will happen is that your insurance company will settle you claim in the usual fashion, they will take the settle figure from your lease and any shortfall you will have to made up from yourself if you didn't have any GAP policy in place. Otherwise you will keep the difference if the settlement is less then your insurance payout.

For example, your insurance pays out £10,000 and your lease settlement is £9,000 then after everything is cleared you walk away with a £1,000. Or in scenario two your insurance company pays out £10,000 but your lease settlement is £12,000 you will have to pay the outstanding £2,000 yourself.

Hope that makes sense.

[Confused]

Thanks,,,,Lol Im getting there.... So in theory i have an elect 3 on a thp 150....


Total price is 17,500
Finance Due is 15,000
GFV is 7,200


If the insruance Pay out 12,000....... The fiannce due is 15,000 i would owe them 3,000? Unless i got the Gap insurance? ... how much does that usually cost?

Thanks

[Bigfeet]

Thats the idea, you won't be able to buy a GAP policy now though.

If you have your agreement number I can PM you the settlement figure of your finance if you like.

[callum]

Get the GAP insurance and you will have nothing to worry about.

I just got it added onto my monthly car payments at like £8 a month, considering the insurance for my TV costs that it isn't much to give you the safety net.

[Confused]

Ive not got my details to hand, sure there somewhere ill have a look...


So once uve ordered the car.. u cant add the Gap insurance too it? Is it just citreon that offer the insurance? or for instance if i went with AA or admirial do they offer that service?

Thanks again for ur quikc replies

[callum]

I got them to add it to my monthly payments when I was ordering the car, I am not sure if you can add it after ordering, you should be able to even as a one off payment. Citroens GAP is £299 for 3 years

Iv heard that is quite alot compared to 3rd party offers but it has the added advantage of being Citroens own GAP, so if I did have a problem and had to replace my car I would just say to Citroen you sort it, im paying you for the GAP, no fiddling about with me being the middle man bewteen Citroen and a 3rd party insurance company.

[Bigfeet]

*Doh*

Trust me to mis-read the OP! Sorry I thought you have written your car off, my mistake. If your within 30 from collecting your car you will able to take out Citroen's new FSI policy which to be honest is pretty good. Otherwise there are other insurance companies that offer a GAP shortfall insurance, my advice would be to go for one that is a 'return to invoice' policy rather than just a 'finance shortfall' one.

Another point to note is don't go for the cheapest one! Always look at the policy and make sure you check out all the small print and that the payout more then covers the value for you finance TAP figure, there are plenty of these policy take only payout a small shortfall figure - my advice is get at least £15,000.

[CliveP]

I understand why people are attracted to gap insurance (now a legal obligation I believe for garages to explain and offer it?), but personally I find it very expensive for what it is - I hasten to add I am not knocking anyone for taking it, and I appreciate depending on your circumstances it might be your best bet if 'piece of mind' is what you want (personal attitude to risk has a lot to do with it, etc)

Of course, like all insurance it is designed/guaranteed to make the insurance provider some profit (and the dealer in the form of commission for the sale). The insurance companies know, based on the stats of the chances of paying out, they'll make money overall. For example 100 cars with gap insurance they'll likely pay out in a very very small number of cases...

So I might lose my car, theft or write-off and if I had it, gap insurance would pay the difference between the purchase price (not finance if I had it) and the insurance company pay out. It is another 'insurance on insurance in my view'...

Here's my logic on it's value - say a house is worth £300K - and buildings insurance is about £200 a year - so £200 insures a £300K asset....but gap insurance is say £100 per year and insures £3k! Wow, I'll take the chance thanks - ok, if it gets written off I'll cry (in fact chances are I'll be more thankful for being alive), so finding £3K to make up for getting a new car (and it will be a new one, perhaps just before I intended getting a new one) will seem a smile - ok, I hasten to add, I'm lucky, £3k will simply be an annoyance....nothing will be really 'lost' for me.....and in 28 years driving the most I've had happen is a couple of minor bumps......

But hopefully you get my point.

Remember as well dealers should not push the product (this is NOT aimed at you Mr Bigfeet, you are a good man!), if they do they are advising, which they are not supposed to do, simply just tell you about it and not state an opinion (opinions are akin to advice)...and then leave you to decide with no persuasion whatsover....

Ok, just my two penneth worth..
Regards,
Clive.

[x6411]

I'm not sure if dealers actually make a lot from gap insurance, commission wise.. I know my dealer just gave me a leaflet about it as a 'You might wanna have a look at this' kinda thing.

[callum]

Your point is well noted clive but look at it from a different perspective such as mine, 20 years old full time education, if something did happen to my car I could see myself with 5000+ to pay if the insurance were to only cover the value of the car. What might be an inconvenience to you is life changing for others, especially when I rely on a part time weekend job when I'm in uni 5 days a week.

The extra 8 quid a month to ensure that won't happen is absolutely fine for me.

[jaspabt]

Your point is well noted clive but look at it from a different perspective such as mine, 20 years old full time education, if something did happen to my car I could see myself with 5000+ to pay if the insurance were to only cover the value of the car. What might be an inconvenience to you is life changing for others, especially when I rely on a part time weekend job when I'm in uni 5 days a week.

The extra 8 quid a month to ensure that won't happen is absolutely fine for me.

+1 to the above. It would screw my life up big time if I had to find 2, 3, 4k etc. People have more free flowing cash than others so it possibly wouldn't affect them. I pay £108 for mine which covers me for the full 3 years as a return to invoice cover. On the flip side, if in year 3 the car is written off don't I get a nice hefty sum of money? Seems a win win situation to me. Even if i dont, £35-£36 a year for piece of mind is very much worth it.

[studly]

I've always been on the side of taking risks with not having ppi on loans etc and not bothering taking gap has also been one of them. Fair enough I've had my car written off through no fault of my own which is annoying and there is a potential loss if things change and the 3rd party insist on dealing with the settlement instead of my own insurance. I don't have a lot of disposable income etc so it would be a hit to me but it's the risk i took, now would i take the risk again in the future?....maybe.... maybe not.
It's a personal thing at the end of the day..... your either comfortable in taking a risk ....if you want peace of mind get gap.......straight and simple in my mind