Published:Sunday | March 20, 2016
INSURANCE HELPLINE: This column presents me with many opportunities to learn new things to share with readers. These thingamajigs cover a variety of topics. They are seldom limited to insurance.
Last week was no different. However, I also learnt something new about insurance, specifically, about guaranteed asset protection (GAP) insurance. Before that, I did not have a clue that this coverage existed or, until last Monday, that it was locally available.
Those who read last week?s Sunday Gleaner will know that GAP insurance is associated with the purchase or sale of new vehicles. There are risks linked to this which are not uncommon or, for that matter, imaginary.
A few weeks ago, a consumer who lives in a rural parish, contacted me. His vehicle was stolen at gunpoint. It was insured comprehensively. A well-known institution provided the financing. For reasons that are not too clear, his insurers refused to pay the claim.
The consumer ended up without a vehicle (the collateral for the loan), with no money from his insurers to buy another vehicle and having to find the funds each month to service the loan for another three years.
The lender, on the other hand, was still sitting pretty. It had taken steps, presumably via the loan agreement, to protect itself. Like Shylock ! the relentless and revengeful moneylender in Shakespeare?s Merchant of Venice (to quote my search engine) ! it would still get its pound of flesh!
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