Thoughts on 'SMART' chip and dent insurance?

[martin998877]

I was offered this by my VW dealer when changing my GTi.  About £450 from VW, cheaper online, it covers you for small dents and chips, £250 max per incident, £3k max per policy.

As I've had a few dings and scrapes in car parks (other people doing it, not me) it seems a reasonable idea, I had to pay £80 for a cheapo job rear arch respray and £250 for a quarter panel respray in the last year.

Buying the policy online is obviously cheaper than from VW, and is about £150 for a year, or £200 for two years cover. There are several companies that offer it.

Has anyone had this insurance, and any good or bad experiences with any companies when claiming?

I know there's an insurance forum, but the last post there was in march, it isn't very interesting for people to look at!

[watchdog]

I would be interested in any good recommendations for online insurance providers re paint/wheels etc.

[sjw]

I have this, and I haven't been overly impressed.

They can't refurb diamond cut wheels at the roadside, naturally, so you have to take your car somewhere, and they just give you money towards the refurb, not cover the cost as I was led to believe.

I had some paint chips done in my work car park, which was convenient, and when the guy arrived I told him I had spotted some other ones, and he was happy to add them on.

When he finished up and left, I went out to check the work and he'd used plain white paint on my white silver car. Thankfully, they were so tiny that you really have to look for them, but really, the company chosen by VW can't get the colour right? Just made me think it wasn't worth the hassle.

Luckily, mine was chucked in for "free"

Oh, and they can't do stone chips on "large flat areas" such as the bonnet

[SRGTD]

I don’t think I’d bother - unless it was thrown in for free.

As @sjw has found, these dent, ding, scratch and alloy wheel damage products have restrictions and exclusions - its an insurance product so restrictions and exclusions are normal, and not all types of minor damage is covered fully - or at all.

For anyone considering buying this type of product, it might be worth considering putting aside the money you’d have spent buying it and use that pot of money to pay for minor scratches, dings and alloy wheel damage. You’d also be free to choose your own repairer whereas with with a chip and ding product, you probably don’t get that choice. Three years cover for chips, dings, and alloy wheels costs £478 (£159 per year) from Direct Gap, and that would go some way towards paying to get those types of damage repaired. I may have been lucky, but in the last five years I’ve paid around £150 in total to get minor dings repaired (no other repairs) so self funding these repairs has worked for me - I accept it might not work for everyone, and some may prefer to have the  protection (with restrictions) of an insurance product to cover these minor annoyances.

[Philip]

Tub of Chipex is around £40.00 and if you're careful applying it will fill most stone chips and scuffs to the point where you can't see the repair.  For more substantial damage ChipsAway or similar will run to around £150.00 but the quality of the work is very dependent on the franchise operators ability.

The insurance for wheels and dings I was offered by VW for my Oryx white TCR specifically excluded pearlescent paint and diamond cut or fully painted wheels... the financial products salesperson failed to see why that could be an issue but did offer a substantial discount which I politely declined 

[fredgroves]

The other biggie with any of those dealer offered things is that they all exclude business use. If for any reason your car insurance has business usage on it (and not sd&p) then it's null and void.

[SRGTD]

Tub of Chipex is around £40.00 and if you're careful applying it will fill most stone chips and scuffs to the point where you can't see the repair.  For more substantial damage ChipsAway or similar will run to around £150.00 but the quality of the work is very dependent on the franchise operators ability.

The insurance for wheels and dings I was offered by VW for my Oryx white TCR specifically excluded pearlescent paint and diamond cut or fully painted wheels... the financial products salesperson failed to see why that could be an issue but did offer a substantial discount which I politely declined 

+1 for Chipex. I’ve used it on my previous two cars and if you take your time you can get good results. The beauty of the Chipex kit is that if you’re not happy with your efforts, then it’s easy to remove the paint you’ve applied with the supplied blending solution and just start again.

Doctor Colourchip is another very similar - if not identical - paint chip repair product.

[Watts]

The insurance for wheels and dings I was offered by VW for my Oryx white TCR specifically excluded pearlescent paint and diamond cut or fully painted wheels... the financial products salesperson failed to see why that could be an issue but did offer a substantial discount which I politely declined 

  What is wrong with these people?

I'm going for the 'don't wash it and you won't see them' approach to chips..

[Lordie]

I think I'd agree with what others have said. You be better off just putting a bit of money aside here and there and paying for the things yourself, would likely work out cheaper. Plus diamond cut wheels can only be recut once. Tiny stone chips you can do yourself (Chipex was recommended above). Any minor dents, you'd be better off going to someone that specialises in Paintless Dent Removal rather than a fix and respray (they can only do minor ones tho)

[MKgti]

I generally agree these add ons are not really worth the money.  I didn't take the offer for chips and dent repair.
However I got the wheel ins for £199 for 3 yrs cover and have used it 4 times each time covering a refurb @£110.
So paid for itself.
I've had one of my diamond cut brescia's refurb 3 times now, admittedly the 3rd time was a push but the wheel company are very good. I think it depends how much they skim off each time.