Jewellery Insurance Claim

dingledurks

Hi

I'm new to this and after some advice please....

I recently lost my engagement, wedding and eternity rings. I've made a claim on my household insurance, but i'm only covered up to £2000, the rings cost in total £3200.

The insurance company have agreed to settle at £2000 and i have to purchase the rings through a company called LMG Jewellery. I've had a look on various high street jewellers for potential replacements, but can't find anything that i like within the budget i've been given.

Am i entitled to a cash settlement instead? If so how do i go about this? I've read through my policy wording and it says

Thanks

Here's the wording from my policy.....

How we settle claims

•

We may repair, reinstate or replace the lost or damaged property. If we cannot replace or repair the

property

we may pay for the loss or damage in cash. Where we can offer repair or replacement

through a preferred supplier, but we agree to pay a cash settlement, then payment will not exceed the

amount we would have paid the preferred supplier. If no equivalent replacement is available then we

will pay the full replacement cost of the item with no discount applied.

•

We will not pay more than the sum insured for a claim. The amount we pay will also depend on any

limit shown in the

Policy or schedule. Your cover limits will not be reduced by any claim.

•

Where an excess applies, this will be taken off the amount of your claim.

•

We will not pay for loss of value to any item or Buildings resulting from repair or replacement

following a claim.

With

your agreement we may appoint an approved supplier to act on our behalf to validate your claim.

They are authorised to arrange a quotation, a repair or a replacement.

*Scarlett

What do you mean when you say you are covered for 2K?

Is this the max amount the insurer will pay for high risk items? If the jewellery is worth £3.2k have you underinsured?

What is the single item limit on the policy - many allow £1 -3k without having to specify the item.

Have you lost the items away from home? If so many policies have a limit on the amount that you can claim unless you have specified otherwise. If your policy states £2k the that's what they will allow you. Any cash settlement will probably be less than this.

TSx

Speak to the insurance company...

They will generally look to see if a similar replacement for the rings are available - was there anything particularly unique about the rings?

If they can provide a similar replacement, the cash settlement should be worked out as follows

Cost to replace - insurer discount - excess, and then apply the limit

So for example, if the insurer gets a 35% discount (common, they may get more), and your excess is £100, you would get

£3,200 - £1,120 (35%) - £100 = £1,980.

If they cannot be replaced with similar rings, then you would be entitled to a cash settlement at £2,000.

The other thing you could try asking for is if they can increase the value of the card to reflect the benefit of their discount - the wording says they will pay no more than the sum insured - so if they give you a gift card at £2,000 and get a discount of 35%, their invoice is actually only for £1,300 and you could argue that they are not paying out up to the sum insured.

The FOS guide to this is in issue 92 of their ombudsman news publication.

edit: I made a slight mistake in this - if the £2,000 is your sum insured for personal possessions, then the excess comes after applying the sum insured, so if you're excess is £100 then you would get £1,900 in the examples above.

hugoshavez

TSx wrote: »

Speak to the insurance company...

They will generally look to see if a similar replacement for the rings are available - was there anything particularly unique about the rings?

If they can provide a similar replacement, the cash settlement should be worked out as follows

Cost to replace - insurer discount - excess, and then apply the limit

So for example, if the insurer gets a 35% discount (common, they may get more), and your excess is £100, you would get

£3,200 - £1,120 (35%) - £100 = £1,980.

If they cannot be replaced with similar rings, then you would be entitled to a cash settlement at £2,000.

The other thing you could try asking for is if they can increase the value of the card to reflect the benefit of their discount - the wording says they will pay no more than the sum insured - so if they give you a gift card at £2,000 and get a discount of 35%, their invoice is actually only for £1,300 and you could argue that they are not paying out up to the sum insured.

The FOS guide to this is in issue 92 of their ombudsman news publication.

Good post^^^^

Also, you're better to have a detailed conversation with LMG about what they can offer, rather than speaking to the insurers direct, or looking at random high street jewellers.

They (LMG) tend to be among the most flexible in what they can offer.

dingledurks

Hi and thank you for your responses.

Yes i have underinsured which is completely my own fault, i thought the maximum was per item and not per claim.

The insurance have agreed to settle at £2,000 without deducting any excess.

I think what i'm trying to say is, I obviously can't buy 3 things that will be of the same standard as the 3 rings i had. Therefore would i be entitiled to a cash settlement instead?

Thanks

LEJC

you will need to speak to your insurance company and they should be able to give or offer a cash settlement figure...however dont expect it to be the same figure they have already quoted you!

I recently had to make a similar claim and was offered a replacement product which the insurance company felt was of the same specification as my item i was claiming on...researching the replacement led me to think it was not the same so i asked about the cash value and was then given a figure of approx 20% lees than the cost of the item they offered in replacement.

When i queried this the explanation i was given was that sometimes they can get better deals on offering certin products or vouchers than they can in offering the cash settlement therefore sometimes the cash settlement is lees than for example the amount offered to you in voucher settlement that can only be exchanged in certain shops

Good luck with you claim

dingledurks

Thank you.

vaio

TSx wrote: »

...........The other thing you could try asking for is if they can increase the value of the card to reflect the benefit of their discount - the wording says they will pay no more than the sum insured - so if they give you a gift card at £2,000 and get a discount of 35%, their invoice is actually only for £1,300 and you could argue that they are not paying out up to the sum insured.........

Nice bit of thinking......