Engagement ring money advice, please!

drew2k9

sharpy2010 wrote: »

P.s., to all those people saying "it shouldn't matter to her if she gets an expensive ring or not...", the OP has never said that it does matter. He is suggesting that HE would like to give her a nice ring, not that she has asked for one...

Just something to keep in mind :-)

yeah come to think of it, my situation is similar, i personally wanted to spend the amount i did on the ring as i wanted her to have something of good quality, not because it would mean more to her.

babyfruitella

Ernest Jones also do an interest fee card, but its only interest free for 6 months. This is where we got our wedding rings from. I believe Beaverbrooks do something similar (thats where my engagement ring is from). Lots of stores have sales after Christmas. Why not take a look & try to find one then instead for much less than £5k.

AbbieCadabra

definitely no need to spend that amount of money! i can recommend The Jewellery Channel tjc.co.uk/sky channel 650, their Iliana range is 18k gold & good quality diamonds (grade SI1/colour G-H i think) - i've just switched on & it's their 11am special, a yellow gold 14k marquise shaped 1ct diamond solitaire for £1299.

i've got a beautiful 18k white gold wedding band with 0.75ct of princess cut diamonds, it cost £349 a few years ago. anything similar that i've seen has been at least double in price.

they had a few CS issues when they started about 3 years ago, but i haven't heard much moaning about them of late.

BackOnTrack

AbbieCadabra wrote: »

definitely no need to spend that amount of money!

yes there is no need to spend that but I know when I bought my wifes engagement ring I wasn't thinking about what I needed to spend but rather what I wanted to buy her. The ring to me was something to say I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Therefore I spent more than I needed to and I could probably have got something very similar to what I did buyfor a lot less and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference without a professional jeweller and a microscope.

Would she have been happy with a cheapr ring? Yes
Would she have said yes to a cheaper ring? Yes
Could she have told the difference between her ring and a cheaper ring? Probably not
Am I still glad I spent the extra? Yes

The OP should just make sure he is entirely happy with whatever he does decide to buy at whatever price.

bouncydog1

I'm afraid I'm with the "£5K on a ring:eek:" brigade here. If you were earning £50k+ then that might be manageable providing you had saved for a while. But just think how long it is going to take you to pay back the money. Personally I think it is foolhardy to take on a debt like that for a ring.

What happens if things don't work out and you are still paying for it - would you expect the ring back?

Far better IMO to buy a cheaper ring that you have saved and paid for (you have time to do this). You can always buy a more expensive ring or other item of jewellery to mark a special anniversary at some point in the future.

Clive_Woody

The cost of the ring will depend on various factors, the metal used to make the band (gold, white gold, platinum), the quality of the diamond (size, cut, clarity, colour) and whether the ring is bespoke or off the shelf.

Unless you wife to be is a jewellery buff then you may 'get away' with a cheaper ring around the £1500 mark, she never needs to know how much you spent on it (make sure you arrange the insurance and retain the valuation certificate).

5 years is a long time to run the debt for, in that time you are likely to find an awful lot of other things you want to spend money on (wedding, honeymoon, car, kids, holidays, house, boys toys, eating out, etc...).

My best advice would be to save up, then get something like an Amex Platinum (you may not qualify as you don't earn enough, but there are other cards) to buy the ring and get 5% cash back, then pay the card off in full (very important that last bit).

Tammer

Hi,

A key benefit of saving for the ring is that you then take the cash in your pocket and walk into a jewellers and say:

"I'm interested in that ring, what is your best price for cash right now?"

If you cannot get £1000 knocked off a £4000 ring then walk away and try the next place. Jewellery is notoriously overpriced.

Also try this towards the end of the month and towards the end of a week as they will be under pressure to meet their targets.

triticale

Dig shiny (but otherwise useless) stuff out of rocks, polish it, convince people its valuable and required, sell it for thousands.

Human beings really are strange creatures!

KingElvis

triticale wrote: »

Dig shiny (but otherwise useless) stuff out of rocks, polish it, convince people its valuable and required, sell it for thousands.

Human beings really are strange creatures!

Not strictly true, diamonds and other precious stones and metals have various and important uses in industry :rotfl:

brians_daughter

Speaking from the other side of the coin here... my oh wanted to buy me the biggest, sparkliest, most fab ring you could buy... what a great guy..only thing was

1. I didnt want him to go inspending so much on it as i loved him too much and wanted us to build a future together, not squander what we had or go into debt

2. I would be so scared of walking round with that amount of money on my finger

3. the insurance premiums on insuring a 5k ring were also quite high

AND he WASNT going into debt for it, he had saved £100 a month for almost 5 years to buy it me, bless him (took us 9 years to get engaged lol)

If you wanna spend all your days together then you need to be straight from the start.. does she want you going into debt for a ring?

Your thought is wonderful, but you can get a lovely 0.6 carat ring for less than £1500 if you shop about... the jewellrey quarter (birmingham i think) is good.

Failing that if you insist in spending that kind of money that you clearly havent got (or you wouldnt need to borrow) most jewellers will do 0% for upto 4 years - so better than a loan as interest free.

That sounds a bit 'preachey' wasnt meant to, what i mean is if she loves you a £10 ring from argos will mean as much as a 5k one... promise