Insuring an engagement ring

McKneff

I have recently proposed to my girlfriend, and gave her a platinum diamond engagement ring. The "replacement cost" valuation of the ring is £2825 (not sure why, because I actually only paid £1500 for it).

This would cause a bit of confusion if you ever had to make a claim, because the insurance company would ask you how much you paid for it.

They would wonder about the difference as well as you.

Roppo

It doesn't matter what you paid for it. If it was an heirloom that has been passed down the family, you (personally) technically paid nothing for it. The insurer will go by the certified valuation.

I've been advised to have it insured half way between what I paid and what it's worth (i.e. it's independent valuation), thus keeping the premiums down but making sure you're more than covered if something happens to it.

As for an insurer... I'm not sure about this yet... morg_monster, I did the same thing... Took the ring away to France, un-insured, it was a risk but it paid off I'd like to put it under home insurance with personal possession cover BUT I don't know the costs yet. Will let you know what I find...

Roppo

Just noticed this on T.H. March:

"Claims will generally be settled by repair or replacement with a reasonably identical article."

meh

InsideInsurance

I would guess, though it was a long time ago, that the poster that mentioned they bought it for one price and received with it a valuation certificate for another bought the item from Blue Nile online.

The retailer makes a big thing about how cheap they are because they are a diamond wholesaler and so basically claim you get the B2B rates rather than the B2C and so include a retail certificate to "prove" the saving you've made.

Unfortunately Blue Nile is well known for doing this trick by insurers and the certificate is worth next to nothing. Actually having "blue nile" inside the ring can effectively devalue it - I spoke to a professional jewellery valuer recently (not an insurance person) and they said for anything with that in the ring they simply go to the Blue Nile site, make a ring with the closest available stone and basically use that for the basis.

Asked what would be the effect of having the blue nile stamp polished out, it would increase the valuation notably.

You do want to be very careful about insuring it for less than what the evidence you have for it states. Many insurance policies have an averaging clause and so if you under valued it by 10% then the insurer is entitled to reduce settlement by the percent under insured.

So....
Valuation: £10,000
Sum insured: £9,000
Excess: £100

Insurer find out under insured

Maximum payout = (£9,000 x 90%) - £100 xs = £8,000

Little point knowingly paying for £9k insurance knowing your under insured so your max payout is £8k

lisyloo

but most don't appear to include damage cover

Exactly what are you expecting to happen to a diamond (hardest substance know to man) ?????
:-)

InsideInsurance

Diamonds can still chip or crack.

The misses was talking about getting a very thin full eternity ring with channel set baguette diamonds made and the jeweler refused as he said he had done two before and the stones kept snapping in half

lisyloo

Diamonds can still chip or crack.

it would take quite a lot for one to get damged.
It's a lot harder than a finger.

he said he had done two before and the stones kept snapping in half

I am pretty certain an insurer would not consider a design flaw to be "damage".
If the jeweler won't even make it then that's not damage.

I am not saying rings can'tbe damaged, but it's pretty unlikely if it spend most of it's time on your finger and the rest on the bedside table.

My mum did have to have a ring sawn off once when she had a bee sting, so it's possible but pretty unlikely.

silvercar

lisyloo wrote: »

Exactly what are you expecting to happen to a diamond (hardest substance know to man) ?????
:-)

Most likely is that some part of the setting fails and you lose the diamond.

pinkteapot

Always worth checking with your home insurer first. We're with Hiscox and only items worth more than £15,000 need to be specified individually with them. My ring is a similar value to yours and they said it was covered already.

For damage cover, you need Accidental Damage cover on your contents (and check it includes valuables if your particular insurer classes it as a valuable). Generally you can only add this to the whole policy - have all your contents covered for AD, not just one item.

If you don't have AD cover already, then it's likely that separate ring insurance will be cheaper.

InsideInsurance

Plus add Personal Possessions cover for anything that you take out of the home