GAP insurance bought through your auto insurer runs $60–$120 in the calculator's default case, while the dealer add-on costs $300–$700 as a lump sum that also accrues loan interest. Where you buy it drives the price more than anything else, and the insurer route saves about $410.
Getting a dealer add-on fixed later is hard. Of 5,104 CFPB complaints about add-on products sold with a car loan (GAP, service contracts), only 8.4% ended with relief for the borrower, even though 97.9% got a timely company response.
What borrowers reported to the CFPB about add-on products sold with a car loan (GAP, service contracts)
Lenders named most (25)
| Lender | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Wells Fargo & Company | 364 | 7% |
| Ally Financial Inc. | 349 | 7% |
| Westlake Services, LLC | 328 | 6% |
| Credit Acceptance Corporation | 324 | 6% |
| Toyota Motor Credit Corporation | 291 | 6% |
| Santander Holdings USA, Inc. | 238 | 5% |
| Capital One Financial Corporation | 233 | 5% |
| Hyundai Capital America | 195 | 4% |
| Bridgecrest Acceptance Corporation | 150 | 3% |
| American Honda Finance Corp | 146 | 3% |
| Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. | 118 | 2% |
| General Motors Financial Company, Inc. | 112 | 2% |
| Nissan Motor Acceptance Company LLC | 110 | 2% |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 101 | 2% |
| Carvana Group, LLC | 94 | 2% |
| Navy Federal Credit Union | 88 | 2% |
| Mercedes Benz Financial Services | 86 | 2% |
| Exeter Finance, LLC | 69 | 1% |
| Truist Financial Corporation | 69 | 1% |
| Ford Motor Credit Co. | 61 | 1% |
| American Credit Acceptance, LLC | 57 | 1% |
| Global Lending Services LLC | 56 | 1% |
| TD Bank US Holding Company | 50 | 1% |
| World Omni Financial Corp. | 49 | 1% |
| Carmax, Inc. | 48 | 1% |
Full dataset: complaints by year and by state
Complaints by year received
Complaints by state
| State | Complaints |
|---|---|
| FL | 594 |
| CA | 585 |
| TX | 529 |
| GA | 316 |
| NY | 236 |
| NJ | 180 |
| NC | 174 |
| IL | 165 |
| PA | 165 |
| VA | 152 |
| OH | 146 |
| MD | 142 |
| AZ | 127 |
| MI | 116 |
| TN | 102 |
Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (full file), product "Vehicle loan or lease", data through 2026-09-24. Complaints are not a random sample and are not adjusted for each lender's size; a complaint count is not a measure of how a lender treats most customers.
What banks charge for a new-car loan: Federal Reserve rates since 2015
Worked example: this calculator's default: $30,000 financed with nothing down, 60-month term
| This page's loan | At 5.05% (2021) vs 7.14% (2026) |
|---|---|
| Monthly payment on $30,000 over 60 months | $567 vs $596 $29 more a month |
| Total interest over the loan | $4,009 vs $5,761 $1,752 more over the loan |
Other loan terms the Fed publishes (latest vs five years earlier)
| Series | Latest | Five years earlier |
|---|---|---|
| New-car loan rate, 48 months, commercial banks | 7.47% (2026-05-31) | 5.28% (2021-05-31) |
| New-car loan rate, 72 months, commercial banks | 6.97% (2026-05-31) | 4.77% (2021-05-31) |
| New-car loan rate, finance companies | 6.31% (2026-06-30) | 4.86% (2021-06-30) |
| Average maturity, new-car loans, finance companies | 66.8 mo (2026-06-30) | 67.4 mo (2021-06-30) |
| Average amount financed, new-car loans, finance companies | $41,705 (2026-06-30) | $33,915 (2021-06-30) |
Source: Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit, Terms of Credit (data download), not seasonally adjusted, retrieved 2026-09-26. Payments are our calculation with the standard amortization formula, payment = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)^−n), r = rate ÷ 12. Bank averages are not a quote; your rate depends on credit score, lender and the car.
Only 186 of 5,104 GAP add-on complaints ended in money back
Borrowers reported problems with GAP and other add-ons to the CFPB 5,104 times. Most of those complaints, 4,578, were closed with explanation, meaning the lender answered but did not refund or change anything.
Only 186 were closed with monetary relief, and 243 more got non-monetary relief. Taken together, 8.4% of borrowers got some kind of relief.
What this means for you: a complaint filed after the fact rarely gets GAP money back. Your leverage is before you sign, when you can take the dealer's GAP line off the contract and buy GAP from your insurer instead.
Carmakers' own lenders draw a large share of GAP add-on complaints
Several of the lenders borrowers named are finance arms owned by carmakers, which means the loan was set up at the dealership: Toyota Motor Credit (291 complaints), Hyundai Capital America (195), American Honda Finance (146), GM Financial (112), Nissan Motor Acceptance (110), Mercedes-Benz Financial (86) and Ford Motor Credit (61).
If you are financing a new car through the brand's own lender, the GAP offer usually comes up in the finance office in the same paperwork.
Subprime auto lenders appear repeatedly in GAP add-on complaints
Westlake Services (328 complaints) and Credit Acceptance (324) are each close to the counts for Wells Fargo (364) and Ally (349). Bridgecrest (150), Exeter Finance (69), American Credit Acceptance (57) and Global Lending Services (56) also show up.
These counts are not adjusted for how many loans each lender makes, so they do not show which lender is worse.
Florida, California and Texas borrowers file the most GAP add-on complaints
Borrowers in Florida (594), California (585) and Texas (529) filed the most complaints about GAP and other add-ons. Georgia (316) is a distant fourth.
These totals reflect state population and auto-loan volume as well as add-on practices. They do show where borrowers most often took this problem to a federal regulator.
GAP from your insurer costs $60–$120 and avoids interest on the premium
For the default $30K car on a 60-month loan, the calculator estimates $60–$120 for GAP bought from your auto insurer, at $20–$40 a year.
If you are sitting in the finance office, run the calculator with your own car price and loan term before you accept the add-on.
Frequently asked questions
Is gap insurance a one time payment?
Of 5,104 CFPB add-on complaints, 4,578 were closed with explanation only, without a refund or change.
Sources
Data shown on this page
Terms: US government data, public domain.
Modeled: our estimate, not a quote.
What is our own estimate
The price range comes from our calculator's formula. Its parts prices, labor hours per job and shop-rate tiers are CalcScrape estimates, not a published price dataset. Checked against 2 established price guides on 2026-10-06: our default's midpoint is 45% below the middle of the median of 2 published guides. Methodology