Can you claim on gap insurance even if you are not short?

Answer 1

The purpose of gap insurance on an automobile loan is to pay off the portion of the loan that wasn't paid by your auto insurance company. If you the insurance company pays off the entire loan, there isn't a trigger to activate the gap policy and there isn't an amount to pay since it only pays the difference.

Example: You buy a brand new car for $20,000. You drive off the lot and now the car is worth $17,000. If you have a covered loss and it is determined that the auto is totaled, the insurance company pays to the loss payee (loan company/lien holder) $17,000 because that is what the car is worth now. The gap policy would pay the additional $3,000 and pay off the loan. If you didn't have gap insurance, you would stay have to pay off the $3,000 even if the car was totaled out.