Insuring Jewellery as home contents

thor

What is required when it comes to insuring jewellery under home contents?
Would they normally need to be valued and if so where would you have to go to get this done? I know that most insurers ask you to show proof for items above a certain value but what if you have a lot of lower priced pieces of jewellery. Added together they could still be worth a lot so I would have thought that insurers may need a bit more proof. Perhaps photographic evidence?
Has anyone here had to claim for loss of gold etc?

Horace

I havent had to claim for loss of goods and have told my insurers that I have high value items that are listed separately. I haven't had to show my insurers any valuation certificates nor have I shown them photos of the items because they haven't been asked for. Low value items are part of the general contents.

Good jewellers will offer a valuation service and will charge you a fee.

InsideInsurance

There is no need to get it valued but it can support your argument in the event of a claim if you do have recent valuations.

All insurers will have a maximum unspecified single item limit but this can vary from £1,000 on a basic policy to much higher on something aimed at MNW people (eg Axa if £12,000). Any items over this need to be specified.

With almost all insurers jewellery will be included in the "high risk" or "valuables" category and so the sum of all the unspecified items must be included in here, for most insurers these days you specify the total value for this category but some older policies it is a set percentage of the total contents cover.

The other consideration is how much of it you will ever be taking out of the home in one go and ensuring that your Personal Possessions cover is sufficient to cover that plus handbags, cameras etc.

Insurers vary widely on what "proof" they will require, as even within an insurer it will vary by what you are claiming and your fraud indicators. For example, if you have £150,000 of contents insurance with £50,000 of valuables and been a customer for 20 years and make a claim for a £400 pair of earrings because you have lost one of the pair and still have the other one then they are going to be relatively relaxed about it. If on the other hand you are a brand new customer, you only have a total of £20,000 of cover but have a single item within that insured for £11,000 and after 3 days you call to say you lost it then they are likely to investigate the claim much more in depth.

thor

Thanks for the advice guys.
In all honesty it is the jewellery that we really want the insurance for as the rest of our contents don't add to much since we would be quite happy to replace them cheaply second hand.
I think I'll have a scout round the local jewelers to see how much they charge for valuations so that at least I will have a leg to stand on should the worst happen.

dacouch

Beaware that Insurers often impose an inner limit on what they often term as "Valuables" or "High Risk Items". The definition of these include jewellery along with other things (Varying from Insurer) but typically the type of items attractive to a thieve eg Televisions, Stamp / Coin Collections, Works or Art, Computers etc etc.

The inner limit is can be as low as a total of £5000 for all of your Valuables / High Risk Items or may also be a percentage of the total contents sum insured (Typically circa 30%).

It's important that you check the Insurers level of cover is adequate to replace your entire Valuables / High Risk.

You also need to Insure your contents for the NEW REPLACEMENT value and not their second hand value

ciderboy2009

thor wrote: »

I think I'll have a scout round the local jewelers to see how much they charge for valuations.

A word of advice here - I've always found that the more expesive jewellers work out cheaper when doing insurance valuations.

Most valuation fees are at least partially based on a percentage of the valuation. I've always assumed that the more expensive jewellers charge less as they tend to be dealing with more valuable items.

InsideInsurance

What is best will depend on what you have. Many do charge a fee in relation to the value so if you have a large amount of low value items this is the best route for you. Others charge a fixed fee per item which evidently is best if you only have a couple of high value items.

Personally, Id check if the jewelers actually do it on site or, like most high street chains, send it off. Whilst the store is ultimately liable I am personally not a fan of the idea of the misses engagement ring going through Royal Mail etc

thor

I went into H Samuels to ask if they do valuations. I was told that they do not at the moment but are going to be starting up periodical clinics and will give me a call the next time one pulls into their branch.
I also asked about the fee and the staff member said that she did not know as it depended on the jewellery itself but after enquiring with a more senior colleague I found out that there is a flat fee of £55 which apparantly was a very good deal. I was a bit skeptical at first but after reading some of the later posts above it does seem to be good value as I have a lot of items that need to be priced.