Well to all of you Guys and Gals who just purchased your Mini and was offered the Gap insurance at your dealer . Dont fall for it You WILL get ripped off. You pay to have this awesome sounding extended warranty insurance , and if you dont have any claims against it they will send you your money back at the end of your term ( sounds good right ) WRONG.........Well im out 1500 bucks that I was depending on... My term was up in june 2010 and you have 30 days to mail in your unused contract for your refund.. What they dont tell you is that they will give you the run around on what you need and who to talk to IF YOU CAN EVEN GET THEM ON THE DAMN PHONE for 35 days. I am willing to bet my Mini on this , they have a office billboard with the names of workers that give the most runaround BS to customers and the winner gets a percentage of your refund when they deny you.....The Dealer sells you this CRAP but says they are not responsible for claims , you have to take it up with another company.....Sounds like a legal scam is getting over on thousands of unsuspecting victims.....Good thing I have a Corporate lawyer in the family or I would really get BURNED. To all of you Mini salesmen If you are knowingly selling this S##T to customers Shame on you ....you dirty little scum buckets. Brian Harris Mini in Baton Rouge took my money for this crap when it was time to claim and get refund I had to deal with the Bunch of MORONS at the Gap insurance headquarters....In my book whoever took MY MONEY owes it to me ......Put it plainly one of those companys WILL give me my money back............DO NOT BUY INTO THIS S##T..........

 

Plus gap insurance can usually be bought from your auto insurance company for 10 to 20 bucks a year.

 

I don't understand how they could refund the cost back to you. If they give you the money back at the end, and pay out if you need it, when do they make their profit. That deal sounded fishy from the beginning.

 

I think they are banking on your using it, and enticing folks to buy into it by offering the "money back if not used by end of term."

I would contact your local Consumer Protection Agency as well Burno, but call them first because when you fill out their form complaint, if you are already represented by council, they will not look at your case. If no luck there, then move onto your lawyer relative

 

Raven you are 100% right they are supposed to refund if not used.. even says so on the contract. but what they dont tell you is the freakin runaround they will give you so they wont have to pay out I think its their policy to do so.......I dont think I have ever been so MAD at anyone or anything in my life untill this happened

 

I'm not familiar with the terms of GAP insurance, but I am familiar with my extended warranty policy, as well as a friend who bought an Acura RSX Type S about six years ago. For my policy, I do not get any money back, even if I never use it. My cost is ~$4K for a 5/60K policy (which begins after the 4/50K factory warranty wears out). My friend's policy was good up to 100K miles on his Acura; I think the cost was $1,200. If he never used it during that time, he would receive a refund minus $50. He does not live near me anymore, and it has been some time since I discussed that with him. I would have to call to find out if he ever had to use the plan, or if he did in fact get his money back.

 

Gap insurance is to cover you financially if your car is totalled and is worth less than what is owed on it. Extended warranty is something completely different. Which is it?

 

+1 it sounds like there is some confusion about what you bought. I'm familiar with extended warranties that will give you back a full refund if you get rid of the vehicle before the original warranty ends and the extended goes into effect, or a pro-rated refund if you get rid of the car before the entire warranty period (net of paid claims in many cases). That's what this sounds like it might be, and perhaps you didn't comply with the exact requirements to get the full refund before the extended warranty actual went into effect, and the process becomes more difficult once the deadline passes (They count on both of these to add profits to their bottom line).

I don't believe this has anything to do with Gap Insurance, which works like any other insurance, in that you don't get a refund, your payment goes to cover the claims they do pay out on (which are generally much higher that what an individual pays in - otherwise who would pay for the insurance?)

 

Usually on GAP policies they don't refund your money if you don't use it. Non-factory (Third-Party) warranties are different, many of them will offer a refund of some of the original cost if you don't use it. A lot of these Third-Party companies are shady to begin with. They aren't affiliated with mini though. They are just something dealers will try and get you for. I always say, don't buy add-ons like Gap or Extended third-party from the dealer.

 

Over the time that they have your money they invest it. Making between 10-14% usually on it... per year if invested correctly.

As a later poster said, they get theirs back -$50 ("admin fee") usually. Some will charge a minimal fee, so if for some reason, their investments don't pan out, they have something to show for it.

 

FWIW, when I traded in my little Toyota Yaris daily driver for the MINI I went to Toyota and let them know that I traded the car in. I handed them the notice from the MINI dealer and in 1.5 weeks I had a check at my door from Toyota for the GAP insurance coverage that I had purchased (up to that date). Sounds like a sham that MINI has going. These dealers have to be able to assist their customers on something like this. If not...that is a real shame.

 

Please tell me where I can get a 10-14% return on my investments (except for Bernie Madoff's company) so I can retire immediately!

 

We financed through MINI/BMW and bought GAP insurance for just a few bucks a month.

 

All the GAP insurance I'm familiar with is for leased vehicles, and was always part of the lease deal. IOW, all the contemporary leases I've ever seen were closed end leases, so the residual value was not the responsbility of the lessee.....I would not sign an open ended lease under any circumstances - ever. Unless I intended to own the car at the end - and then I'd buy it, not lease it. But I digress.....

The only time I can think of buying GAP insurance outside the lease would be in case of an accident, and if you have full coverage, your insurance would cover that if the the car was totalled.

My point is, what is this for exactly?

And why did you buy it in the first place?

If you have a written contract and have complied with all of the provisions in that contract, then your family corporate lawyer should be able to easily help you, if not, then good luck with that.....

Lastly, who's the real dumba$$ here, those who buy products they don't need or understand, or the guy selling them?

If something sounds to good to be true (you get all of your money back if you don't use it???) then it generally is. Buyer, do your homework first......

 

tell me about it....

 

I think the OP got confused about the terminology and he means extended warranty, not gap insurance (which is nowhere near $1500).

 

Sounds like you are talking about the extended warranty...not the gap insurance. They wouldn't refund gap insurance, because it is insuring the fact that if you sell your car and you are upside down in the value of it versus what your insurance company gives you for a totaled vehicle, the gap insurance takes care of the rest of it. To say they would refund it would be similar to saying Progressive will refund my car insurance if I never make a claim.

 

This is my first post so forgive any errors. (I have not figured out how to list the car and its options as part of my signature).
I got a Credit Union loan on Monday on my 2009 MCS they offered me gap insurance and explained that if the car was totaled and the book value was below the remaining loan value the gap insurance would cover the difference. It was nowhere near $1500. I just checked on the extended warranty and it is at least $1500.

 

Some credit unions require that you buy gap coverage. Usually GAP is around $500. Extended warranties are anywhere from 1k-2k. (you can negotiate costs of warranties usually)

 

I had one of these "Extended Warranty's" on a camper I purchased in 2003. I had to hold it for 4 years and had to still own the camper. If there were no claims I would get the $1200 refunded. I knew there was a 30 day window from the beginning and marked my calendar 2 months in advance to begin gathering information which included calling the warranty company to find out everything required to send in and to get a contact person. They were very nice throughout the whole process but they did ask if the selling dealer had notified me about collecting on their promise. The dealer did not and I told them that I had been preparing and had known the expiration date the whole time. They paid the refund without any issues. This was in 2007 before the financial crisis so I'm sure it didn't hurt them as much as it would now.

 

Ill post pics of my policy with the Gap logo everywhere and a closeup of the refund part of the policy soon as the wife gets home she has all papers in question

 

OK, that explains the confusion in this thread. I Googled, and there is a company Gap Corp (http://www.gapcorp.com/index2.htm) that administers extended warranties. There is something else called "gap insurance" which is a specific term in the insurance field. The topic of this thread is an extended warranty policy.

 

hahahha classic mix up

Like i stated above, you auto insurance company probably offers Gap coverage for only a few bucks a year (mine might be $30 or $40). Figure that cost over a five year loan and your looking at about $150 to $200.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_ins...2Flease_payoff

In short if you buy the car new for $25k and totally 3 months later still owing $24.5k on the loan but now the car is only worth $20k gap insurance will cover the difference. W/o the gap insurance you would be liable to the bank for the amount the auto policy doesn't cover.

 

Simply cancel the contract - the fine print always says you have 30 days to cancel. The amount will come off your loan.