Does Safeco offer gap insurance?

Gap insurance covers the difference between your auto loan and the car's depreciated value. In other words, gap insurance helps you pay off your auto loan or lease if you're no longer able to drive your car due to it being totaled or stolen.

It’s important to note that gap insurance only pays when your car is totaled or stolen, so you cannot file a gap claim if you simply can’t make your loan or lease payments. Additionally, most gap insurance policies will not pay your … read full answercollision or comprehensive deductible, if applicable.

Loan/Lease Payoff Insurance: Gap Insurance Alternative

Not all insurance companies offer gap insurance, but some offer loan/lease payoff insurance as an alternative. Loan/lease coverage is similar to gap insurance, except that it usually only pays up to 25% of the vehicle’s actual cash value toward the policyholder’s loan or lease balance, which might not be enough to cover the full amount owed.

If you’re curious about gap insurance or loan/lease coverage, you should check with your insurance company to see if they offer either.

To learn more, check out WalletHub’s guide to gap insurance.

To find out if you have gap insurance, you should check both your existing car insurance policy and the terms of your loan or lease. Drivers can get gap insurance through their insurance company as an add-on or separately through their auto lender, so it’s important for drivers to check both places.… read full answer

How To Know If You Have Gap Insurance

1. Check with your car insurance company.

You can look through records such as your recent bills, or you can log in to your account on the company’s website. If this fails, you should call to ask about your coverage.

2. Check with your auto lender.

If you didn’t buy gap insurance from your normal insurance company, you could have purchased it from the dealership, bank, or credit union that supplied you with a loan or lease. It can be easy to overlook gap insurance from one of these sources since it’s sometimes included in your contract automatically.

3. Check your financial documents.

If you do not have gap insurance through your dealership, lender, or car insurance company, you probably are not covered. But as a last resort, you can look through your financial records – such as your online bills, credit card statements, and checkbook – to try to find some clues.

Gap insurance, which covers the difference between your loan balance and the car’s actual value, can come from a dealership, bank, credit union, or car insurance company. It’s unlikely that you bought a stand-alone gap insurance policy without realizing it, so your first step should be to check with the obvious candidates.

Finally, if you realize you don’t have coverage, check out WalletHub’s recommendations on when gap insurance is worth it and where to buy gap insurance.

Gap insurance takes 5-45 days to pay the policyholder after a claim is filed. For drivers to receive a gap insurance payout, the car first needs to be declared a total loss, and the insurance company needs to accept the claim.

State laws also dictate how long an insurance company has to pay for a claim. For example, insurers in Texas must pay within five days after accepting a claim. Some other states, like Massachusetts, do not have a specific limit, saying only that an insurer must pay within a “reasonable” amount of time.… read full answer

Factors That Affect How Long it Takes for Gap Insurance to Pay

Insurance companies will generally declare a car a total loss within 30 days of the initial claim being filed. However, more complicated situations take longer to settle, such as:

• Accidents involving multiple drivers
• Medical bills
• Unclear fault determination

Once the car has been officially established as a total loss and the insurer agrees to pay for gap coverage, the company will begin to process the gap payment. Since gap insurance pays for the difference between a car’s actual cash value (ACV) and the balance on its loan or lease, gap insurance payments are usually sent straight to the lessor or lender.

How To Speed Up Gap Insurance Payout

To get the fastest possible gap insurance payout, be sure to check your policy details and follow any instructions from your insurance company. For example, some insurers require you to keep making payments to your lender or lessor while the claim is being investigated.

Also make sure to send the insurance company any necessary documents, like a copy of the police report, and promptly sign and return all paperwork. And if needed, check your state’s laws to see if there’s a specific window during which your gap insurer is required to pay.