You are currently viewing Covering Your Community Episode 4: What is GAP Insurance?
  • Post last modified:October 5, 2020
  • Post category:gap insurance

Every month at Paradiso Insurance, we make sure to deliver helpful content to our customers, friends, and community to educate them about our insurance products or address any common questions we hear through our podcast – Covering Your Community.

In this episode, Chris Paradiso, owner of Paradiso Insurance, and Hillary Palmberg, Vice President of Personal Lines at Paradiso Insurance, sit down to discuss what GAP Insurance is, and why you may need additional coverage to your regular automobile insurance.

They also talk about fun, local events happening in the Stafford Springs, CT area this month, as well as our insurance agency’s involvement with the Kindness Revolution.

 

Chris: Welcome!

 

Hillary: Hello!

 

Chris: Podcast number 4, episode number 4, uh covering your- our community. We are here with once again the great, Hillary Palmberg. She is the personal lines manager here at Paradiso Insurance.

And why we call it covering our community is because we basically ask the community, uh for a a couple of things, first and foremost, to reach out to us any questions you might have about insurance, and secondly, anything you would like us to announce when it comes to any community events.

Uh, we would love to hear from you in our community, let us know and we’re absolutely willing to post it, and put it out there. So, today’s question, Hillary, uh is a very hot topic and it’s called GAP Insurance.

 

Hillary: Yes.

 

Chris: I guess the first question is can you define what is GAP Insurance?

 

Hillary: Yes.

It’s a little bit of insurance. That provides a lot of coverage, if you have an accident with a car and you have a loan, and you uh, maybe have a lot of money into the loan still that you owe and your collision loss doesn’t cover all of that loan balance- this insurance covers that difference.

That way you’re not going into another loan upside down.

 

Chris: Really quick, maybe we could give them a quick example.

For example, uh, you bought a 2018 Ford Mustang. Uh, here we’ve had a cold and, let’s just say, an enormous amount of snow and all of a sudden you can’t afford two cars, so what ends up happening- you just bought the car 6 months ago, and now you’re gonna buy let’s just say, a Ford Focus, uh, quite a bit less expensive.

So, what ends up happening is because you purchased the 2018, and you’re getting rid of it within the first 6 to 8 months, you’re going to lose some money. So, you go and trade it in. What ends up happening is- that’s what’s being called is being upside down on your vehicle, you’re upside down because you traded in a car that lost a bunch of value, and then bought a less expensive car, so there was a gap.

Uh, and that’s where we get GAP Insurance and GAP Coverage. So, with that being said um, the next step of that question is- who actually needs GAP Insurance?

 

Hillary: I like to think of it as more of a personal question.

Do I wanna pay a little bit for gap coverage to make sure that I’m financially sound on the long run?

 

Chris: What would you say- you said a little bit, give the audience, uh when you say a little bit, a little bit uh, 100 dollars a month, 5 dollars a month, 25, what’s a little bit?

 

Hillary: I would say a little bit, depending on the carrier, because we have a lot of different carriers that we look at. Um, I’d say, a little bit probably, like 20 dollars a month. Um, and that can change. It can go up or it can go down.

 

Chris: Sure, I would imagine, based on the car-

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: it also plays a roll. So, um, that’s who actually needs GAP Insurance, and uh, the last came, which was dealing with GAP Coverage is what can happen uh, if you get into an auto accident, you don’t have GAP Coverage and you are upside down? Um-

 

Hillary: Yes.

 

Chris: Maybe you could fill um, fill the people in with what happens if you-

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: don’t have it.

 

Hillary: We had a client recently that had gotten into an accident that had a loan on her vehicle um, The actual value of the car at the time of the loss was not as much as, the loan remaining was. So, she ended up having to pay for that out of pocket.

But, anytime we have a loan or a lease, we always do ask- would you like GAP Coverage?

 

Chris: The other thing is, is if you feel more comfortable uh, dealing with the dealership, a lot of dealerships also offer GAP Coverage.

 

Hillary: Yes.

 

Chris: So, it’s not just here um, buying it from the insurance company um, you can absolutely purchase it from the dealership. I would highly recommend at least exploring the option, understanding your option, and figuring out whether you’re gonna actually need it or not.

Some cases you really don’t need it-

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: in some cases, you really do need it. And it’s uh, something that’s never talked about. You see all these ads about cheap, cheap, cheap insurance. 15 is gonna save you 15 percent. But, nobody ever talks about the actual coverage. And that is the coverage that we find uh, that people aren’t aware of, and it’s just very important that we make you aware of it. We’re not gonna push you-

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: uh, to purchase it, but if it makes sense in your situation uh, for a small amount of money, we would highly recommend it because we have had clients uh, declining and then end up paying out of pocket, having an accident, and being upside down on their vehicle, so um, that’s covering our community.

What we’d like to move into now is talk a little about some community events. Hillary, wanna talk about the first one?

 

Hillary: Yes, it is a Comedy Hypnosis Fundraiser Show at Stafford High School, MArch 22nd, 7 o’clock to 8:30, it’s gonna be a ton of fun! Tickers can be purchased at the main office uh, proceeds benefit the Stafford High School Music Department.

So, it’s gonna be a blast. This comedian is so funny! You guys are gonna love him.

 

Chris: We’re gonna be there.

 

Hillary: Yeah, it’s gonna be great!

 

Chris: Uh, secondly, we’d like to talk about the creative patriotic art content for high schoolers- this is for all high schoolers. Students can submit their artwork online, on the V-F-X-A-U-X-I-L-A-R-Y website for a chance to win a scholarship worth 21,000 dollars. Deadline is March 31st.

 

Hillary: Yes!

 

Chris: If you want an opportunity to win 21,000 dollars, um I highly recommend that you make sure you submit your artwork before March 31st.

Last but not least, the one and only, it started last year or started back up last year, was the Easter egg hunt. Um, we had an amazing time last year-

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: hundreds and and hundreds of kids, so many kids that we actually moved it from uh, the park up the road to actually the Stafford Middle School, March 24th from 1 to 3 at the Middle School in Stafford. There will be bounce houses, there will be cotton candy, and anybody who didn’t show up last year will realize every kid had cotton candy, and every parent had cotton candy in their hair because it was windy.

Um yes, awesome time we hope that you can join us uh, once again, March 22nd the comedy, um we’re talking March 31st is the deadline for the art contest and, last but not least, March 24th the Easter egg hunt, and it’s at Stafford Middle School.

We would like to also talk about a new program that we have started and been involved in here at Paradiso Insurance. It’s called it’s Cool to Be Kind, it’s the Kindness Revolution, if you wanna look it up.

We hope that you go to our Facebook page which is the Kindness Revolution, um Stafford, Connecticut, it’s uh, partnered with Paradiso Insurance and we would love for anybody, and everybody who would like a bracelet, um to stop down, ask us to mail you them.

 

Hillary: Yeah.

 

Chris: I don’t care where you are in the country. We will mail them anywhere. Um, we are trying to start um, this Kindness Revolution and push this hardcore. Um, because it does matter. We are meeting the local schools, because once again we do feel it’s important to get the kids um, thinking about how cool it is to be kind, and it is cool to be kind.

Uh, the other thing we would love- for our Local Police Department, Fire Department, and our men and women serving this country, um there are special bans, that says “thank you for your service”.

We thank our local police officers. We thank our local volunteer Fire Department who um, if you don’t know, they put in hundreds and hundreds of hours, and save taxpayers an awful lot of money and it’s all on their own time and they’re not getting paid.

Um, we thank every single one of you uh, for your service. And last but not lease, any Veterans or anybody serving- if you have kids service, please reach out to us. We will mail them. We will mail them anywhere and everywhere.

Uh, we wanna make sure these get out, and uh please don’t hesitate, you can call us at 860-684-5270.

You can stop in. We are open Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 5:30. We are open Saturday from 9 to 1, uh or email us at cparadiso@paradisoinsurance.com.

Uh or else, always remember when you walk in the door, you’re gonna see the smiling Hillary Palmberg, and please check with our Marketing Department- Aleesha or Joe. We have hundreds of these that we would love to get on our community, and our people in our community’s wrists.

Um, help us spread the word- kindness does matter. So, until next episode, we hope that we’ve defined what is GAP Insurance, and we hope that uh, we are covering our community.

Thank you, and until next week.

 

If you enjoyed this episode of Covering Your Community, you can also watch all of our older episodes on YouTube or listen in on SoundCloud.

 

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