Customer Service Lines Open Mon-Fri 9am-6pm
Closed Saturday & Sunday & Bank Holidays
September 2014 has brought the new 64 plate registrations, but also a momentous month for GapInsurance123.co.uk. The UK's top ranked Gap Insurance provider is well on course to break our single month sales record, but also we have achieved our 2014 total sales budget already, with half of September, and the all of October, November and December still to go.
This is very good news for consumers, let us tell you why.
Aequitas Automotive Ltd is the company that owns GapInsurance123, alongside other leading Gap Insurance brands Shortfall.co.uk and Easy Gap. This puts us in a different position than many other 'stand alone' Gap Insurance providers in that we use more than one underwriter, and can offer a range of options to our customers. We can only see the benefit of having a number of insurers for our range of brands. By not tying ourselves to an 'exclusive' agreement this provides us with a more fluid position for negotiating terms and features with our insurers. However, the key to this is providing the insurer with enough new business to underwrite.
Aequitas Automotive Ltd are not a 'one trick pony', and provide enough cumulative business to drive the very best relationships with our insurers. We have never claimed to be the oldest company in the online market, but since the launch of our original Easy Gap brand four years ago, we have worked tirelessly in our marketing efforts to ensure our products are easily found on the internet. What may make us quite unique is that we have invested and created jobs within our company, specifically for this task. We are also unique in that we do not have all our eggs in one basket, providing three separate Gap Insurance solutions.
We have also striven to ensure our products are at the forefront of the market in terms. We believe were the first UK Gap Insurance provider to announce our intention to provide 5 year options for Combined Return to Invoice and Combined Vehicle Replacement products in 2011. This has now been adopted by most of the leading online providers. We have always provided options for deferred start dates, and cover for higher risk vehicles such as taxi's and motorbikes. We are also pleased to see that many other providers have followed our lead and now offer a range of options like these.
The other key advance is the general reduction in online premium prices. When Aequitas Automotive entered the market we saw generally much higher premiums being charged by Gap Insurance providers. Also we noted only a few brands in a developing market. As a new name we knew we would have to ensure maximum value to have any effect, and we have always tried to give the very best value premiums to our customers.
Of course we have increased competition by adding three new names to the mix over the last few years, and this has help nurture competition in the market, with the ultimate goal of driving down premiums and increasing the effectiveness of policy features.
Now we cannot claim a monopoly on low premiums or good policy terms. Unlike some who tell you that they offer far better terms than anyone else, we freely admit that there are a number of other good products in the market, and not just ours. Of course there is good reason for this, often providers use exactly the same insurers as we do, and the product terms can be basically identical. This is as a direct consequence of increased competition in the market, and this can only be good for the for the consumer.
However...................
We do get the strong impression that there may be a two tier independent Gap Insurance market developing in the UK. Perhaps the smaller providers who only provide a minimal amount of business to their insurers simply cannot drive the type of commercial terms that enable them to offer the very best value features and prices. Selling Gap Insurance on the internet comes with its costs (despite what motor dealers may try to tell you). To access the best paid positions on the search engines can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. Smaller providers simply cannot afford this, and this means they may settle for a much lower number of product sales at a higher profit margin to them. They simply cannot afford to drop their premium charges if they hope to make any profit at all.
Of course Aequitas Automotive is a business, but we recognise that by driving down the cost of Gap Insurance we gain more sales, referrals, repeat customers and an increasing number of new customers gained from other online providers. We have noted many comments regarding the price difference between ourselves and their former Gap Insurance providers. On many occasions we use exactly the same underwriters, and the claims are handled by exactly the same claims team, yet the policies can be over 50% cheaper with ourselves.
An example we recently had was a Combined Return to Invoice policy for a £7000 vehicle, over three years with a £5000 maximum claim. A recent customer got a quote from their previous provider for £100. The quote from GapInsurance123 (same underwriter and same claims team) was £64, a saving of £36 from their existing provider!!
What we did explain to the customer was that if they took the Gap123 policy, that when they return next time we give them an existing customer discount to get a new policy on the new vehicle. So we can save them this time and even more next time.
Remember your continued business is recognised by GapInsurance123. Our current customers will always come before our desire for new ones. Our continued growth will simply allow us to continue providing better value to those seeking the best Gap Insurance products in the UK, by continuing to hold a strong negoitating stance with insurers by not having our hands tied by an exclusive agreement.
This has provided our customers with the best value in the past, and will continue to do so in the future.