Promoted: Free 30-day GAP policy for PHers with ALA

[ALA Insurance]

Hi BlueWheels

Thank you for the lovely feedback, I've passed your post on to Charlotte you've made her day with a mention on the PH forum!

Glad we could help!

Thanks again and take care,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi TdiDealer

Thanks for your message.

I'm pleased to say that we don't charge any admin fees for changing the policy when you get your private plate put on the car - even if its is more than 14 days down the line

Hope that helps and if you have any other questions please let me know.

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi Liamst

Thanks for your message

As a company we don't compare ourselves directly to other online suppliers but there are a few bits of information that might help

We are 5 Star Rated by Defaqto - this is an independent rating and means we have the best products available for our customers. We also have numerous recommendations by expert motoring websites like PistonHeads (among others).

We have a reputation for providing excellent customer services, backed up by our Trustpilot rating of 4.9 out of 5 (all verified customer reviews).

Where our policies are more expensive we do offer a price match but this would need to be a Defaqto 5 Star Rated policy. The ones from Total Loss aren't rated which unfortunately means we are unable to match them specifically.

I am more than happy to look at a price match for you if this works out better than the 12% discount available to PH customers (PISTON12) and please feel free to email me directly ([e-mail]) or call us on 01653 916280.

Thanks again,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi everyone

Just a quick message to let you know about our increased discount for PH customers.

For February only, click the link below to go through to our quote page and use PH20 to get a fab 20% off

Any questions please get in touch

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi smallredball!

Thanks for getting in touch.

There are a few options with this one, which I'll run through to hopefully help you and other PHers in a similar situation!

Here we go...

The first option is to purchase the GAP insurance to run alongside your motor insurance i.e. purchase from day one. If your car is a write off in the first 12 months and you motor insurer gives you a brand new like-for-like car, we would re-start your policy on your replacement car at no extra cost. If for any reason they don't pay out the full replacement cost and only give you market value, the ALA GAP policy would cover the difference.

As you might imagine there might be instances where a motor insurer won't or can't replace your car due to their T&Cs and will then revert to a market value payment. If they do this, it could leave you with a shortfall so it's always worth checking if there are any exceptions/exclusions to the "new for old" cover.

Your other option is to purchase cover at the end of the first year. This applies to Back to Invoice + cover only; Vehicle Replacement + must be purchased within 90 days of delivery. The cut off point for BTI+ is 365 days after taking delivery of your car, as long as it is less than 12 months old on the policy start date. This often causes confusion; it isn't the car's "first birthday", but is actually the day before. For example if you bought your car on 1st March 2021 (and it was registered brand new that day) you would have up to 29th February 2022 to purchase a policy.

I hope this helps but if you have any other questions at all please get back in touch.

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

No problem at all.

I'm sorry, I had completely missed where you had mentioned it was a lease

Hopefully that info will still help people reading who have PCP/HP finance or where they pay cash for the car!

With a lease you do still have the option to purchase cover anywhere between day 1 and day 365, so that's the same as before. It would just be Contract Hire + rather than Back to Invoice +

It's worth mentioning that some motor insurer's will only offer "new car replacement" cover for cars where you're the registered keeper and that normally isn't the case with a lease car, so they may only offer market value. Motor insurers don't always understand the intricacies of lease vs purchase so as you've mentioned checking the small print is much better. The is in the detail as always...

I hope this makes sense but if you'd like any clarification please get back in touch or email me on [e-mail].

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi BensZ4MC

Thanks for getting in touch - we do indeed!

Please use the PH20 code and you'll receive 20% off our GAP policies

We've left the higher discount in place for March as well and please enter it on our quote page rather than right at the end when making payment.

Any other queries, please let me know!

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi vanman1936

Thanks for getting in touch.

If you change your vehicle early we daily pro rata the original policy premium and use that as a credit against a new policy for your replacement vehicle.

If you prefer not to take a new policy or the replacement car isn't eligible for cover we can provide a pro rata refund but in some cases this is subject to a £35.00 underwriters cancellation fee.

I hope this helps but if you do have any further questions please let me know!

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Thanks, vodkamartini 1 - hopefully that will come in handy for all the lovely PHers

Just for full disclosure, it is 25% rather than a 30% discount - sadly we can't go that high! If you're using the code please enter it on the quote page itself and any queries please let me know

Many thanks!

Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Morning Prisoner 24601!

No problem at all - the amount you need to enter for a GAP quote is the cash price of the car itself rather than the total amount payable i.e. £25,000.

If your car is written off, your motor insurer will pay the market value of your car at that time. GAP insurance-wise. whether you purchase a Back to Invoice + or a Vehicle Replacement + policy we will pay the difference between the insurer's settlement and the outstanding finance balance, if that is the higher amount at the time.

If the finance is lower, we will pay up to the invoice price of the car or the replacement cost, depending upon which policy you've purchased.

This means your finance for the car is always cleared between us and the insurer

I hope this helps and if you have any further questions, please let me know!

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi mistermatty

Thanks for getting in touch and thanks to liner33 for the quote link

Just to give a bit of help on those questions...

For a lease car (where there's no guaranteed option to buy the car) we would be able to offer the Contract Hire + policy. With the Piston12 discount the quote would be £121.44 - although this will increase if you want to add in Initial Rental Cover or other policies.

With the Scratch and Dent policy, all repairs are SMART repairs and are done by ChipsAway. They are a well-established and reputable company and the standard of the repairs they do is excellent. We would always suggest checking with the lease company to see if they specify which repairers you have to use just for peace of mind.

I hope this helps and if you have any other questions please get in touch - [e-mail] or 01653 916304.

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi Super_G

Thank you for getting in touch about the RAC warranty.

With regards to the discount first of all, please use the code WTY5 and this will deduct our maximum warranty discount of 5%.

The cover we can offer depends upon the age/mileage of your car, and to be eligible the car must have been serviced in the last 12 months. If you pop the details into our website for a quote you’ll be able to view the full policy to see if it’s right for you. If you do this and have any questions, please feel free to email me [e-mail]

I’m not aware on a comparison of warranty products at the moment - it would be useful to have an at-a-glance resource like Defaqto for example but they haven't done this for warranty as yet.
We can’t comment on other companies' policies, however ALA offer a fully insured policy; not all warranties are actual insurance products which can mean that payment for a claim is discretionary. With ours being insured, it means that we have to abide by FCA rules on selling, you have redress through the Ombudsman (FOS) if you are unhappy with anything, and also the protection of the Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

As you rightly say the labour rate is limited on our policy to £100 +VAT - if you take the car to a garage that charges mor than this you would need to cover the difference in the labour cost.

I hope this helps as a starting point and if you have any questions please let me know!

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi Muck Dodge

Thanks for your message.

The Back to Invoice cover is strictly time limited unfortunately, so once you've had the car more than 365 days, we can only offer Agreed Value GAP cover.

This "fixes" the value of your car as it is at the point you buy the policy i.e. £38,330. If the car is written off, your motor insurer will pay the market value at the time of the claim and we pay the difference up to £38,330. As you rightly say the limit of the GAP pay-out is £25,000.

In normal times, the value of cars would be decreasing and it is this drop in value that the GAP insurance is covering. However, at the moment used car values are high and they may continue to increase further - they will drop again at some point but it's difficult to know when!

I hope this helps and if you have any further questions at all, please let me know. You're more than welcome to get in touch by email - [e-mail].

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi everyone!

If anyone has any questions about our 30 day free GAP (yes, FREE! ) or any of the other cover we offer, as always, please let me know and I'll be happy to help!

You can get in touch on the forum, send me an email ([e-mail]) or call the office to speak with one of the team (01653 916280)

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi JapanRed

Thanks for your message.

That's great - lots of people are in a similar situation and we thought a 30 day free policy might just help to give PHers a better idea of what GAP insurance entails before opting for a full policy.

First things first - there's definitely no catch!

The policy is absolutely free. It runs for 30 days, and if the unthinkable happens and the car is written off during that time, the GAP insurance is there to cover the shortfall between the market value you're paid by the comprehensive insurer and the original cost of the car itself, up to £5,000.

You'll be asked to enter some of your details (things we'd always need for a policy e.g. name, address, contact details, the car information) but you won't be asked to give any payment details AT ALL so there's no auto-renewal. This means that at the end of the 30-day free policy if you don't want to, you don't have to do anything; the cover just ends.

We will be in touch with you during the 30 day free policy period to give you more information about GAP insurance however you can opt out of these communications at any time

The £5,000 claim limit is the maximum set by the underwriters for this free policy - if you decide to buy a full policy the claim limit would be tailored to your specific requirements.

Just to summarise: it's completely free and there's no catch! You can see what you think of the policy - and ALA as a company! - and if it's not for you, no hard feelings

I hope that helps and if you have any other questions at all, please let me know.

Thanks,
Katie

Edited by ALA Insurance on Tuesday 26th October 11:37

[ALA Insurance]

Morning Dannbodge

Thanks for getting in touch.

Absolutely - if you change the car partway through the policy, we give you a pro rata refund of the original premium. This is subject to a £35.00 cancellation fee charged by the underwriters, but if you buy another ALA GAP policy, we cover this fee as a "thank you" for staying with us, where no other discount is used.

I hope that helps!

To arrange a new policy or a refund please call the office on 01653 916280. We're open from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi rigga

Sorry to see you weren't aware of the pro rata transfer - we try to shout about it but appreciate it can get missed in amongst lots of other info!

Would you please pop your details across to me on a separate email and I'll have a look into it and see if there is anything I can do? This might not be possible retrospectively but it's worth a look

My email address is [e-mail] and if you can just confirm your current policy number, name and address for me that would be great!

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi PHers!

Hope you are all looking forward to the Easter weekend


Just to let you know, if you are about to take delivery of a personal lease car (or have taken delivery in the last 90 days) we have just released our most competitively priced policies for Contract Hire GAP yet!

The average policy works out at £123 (based on a 3year term) Please note our PH code won’t work on these policies as they are already so well priced! 😊

A reminder of Contract Hire GAP benefits

• Covers up to 100% of your outstanding rental payments if your car is written off or stolen.
• Covers any shortfall in the market value settlement provided by the insurer.
• Receive back your deposit/initial rental (for an additional premium.)
• Defaqto 5 star rated product.
• Fully protected insurance policy.
• Underwritten by AXA

If you have any questions, I’m more than happy to help!

Please reply here, email [e-mail] or give me a call on: 01653 916304 – the office is closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday but I will get back to you as soon as I’m back in the office.

Thanks,
Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi Brian

Thanks for getting in touch.

I know what you mean - it's a steep learning curve with GAP insurance! It's a case of weighing up the potential risk, the cost of the cover and the benefit you'd get from it if you actually needed the policy. Thankfully not everyone will have their car written off but there are lots of stats/facts out there about potential shortfalls where the insurer doesn't pay "enough" for the car at the time of a claim.

With a new car there is also a potential double whammy of the car you've bought dropping in value and the new replacement costing more to buy because of inflation/manufacturer price increases - our average payout is over £5600 per claim for 2022 up to this point, so it really does provide a benefit to our customers when they need it.

In terms of the quote offered by the dealer, I'd be more than happy to provide you with a comparison, I would just need a few more details if possible. Please feel free to send them directly on an email to me ([e-mail]) and I'll get back to you with a quote and some more information.

If the car is being bough either as a cash purchase or on PCP/HP finance please let me know the cash price of the car itself and how long you would like the policy to last (1-4 years).

I look forward to hearing from you!

Katie

[ALA Insurance]

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update from ALA for September

Some people might have been lucky enough to get their hands on a new car – we thought we’d remind you that you can get GAP insurance absolutely FREE for one month, a completely exclusive offer for all you lovely PHers

To learn more and get your free GAP policy head over to https://www.ala.co.uk/pistonheads/30-day-free-gap , give us a call on 01653 916280 or feel free to ask any questions here on the thread.

If you just want to go ahead and buy a policy with us don't forget to use discount code PISTON12 at check out and get 12% off!

Thanks,
Katie and the ALA Team