Insurance - do most people specify eg an engagement ring on their buildings insurance?

[mrszimmerman]

I'm a bit cynical about insurance, wonder if they ever pay up!
mil says my engagement ring (gift from the inlaws) was worth about 2 and a half grand about 5 years ago.
I think it would cost me about £4 a month to add on to the insurance.
I wear it ALL the time never take it off unless for a medical situation!
So I can't decide if I'd be mad to insure it or mad not to!
Any advice appreciated.

Get it valued and see if it's still over the threshold for identifiable items on your policy. They'll pay up if you provide them with the valuation when you insure it.

My engagement ring is on our insurance policy. I had to have it independently valued and have kept that safe . It is an import so I know they won't pay out the total value but hopefully they will pay out enough to replace it if ever needed.

You may find the value has gone up in the last 5 years. The price of metals has rocketed, as have diamonds. Mine was valued almost 20% higher than when I got it 6 years ago.

It's gold with quite a good solitaire diamond in it apparently.

Is it easy to get it valued? Is it expensive?
Thanks, I know nothing about the subject. If I have the original valuation is that of use if it were lost?
Thanks.
I wonder if people have a rule about objects to insure, like naming anything worth over £500 say or £1000? I'd really like to know how other people decide these things.

contents not buildings but yes
Ours says you have to name any items over a certain amount - so my engagement ring and DH's watch

thanks, I'll check with my insurance bod who sounds about seven.

The rule is really just what your policy says - it will be in the fine print somewhere!

Valuation costs really vary from jeweller to jeweller; one quoted me as a percentage of valuation which would have been several hundred ££s, and another a fixed fee of £35.

The expensive one promised a glossy file to go with it, but all you need for insurance is a signed sheet so I went with the cheaper fee (obviously!).

Thats the thing isn't it, the valuation itself is an actual cost which has to be forked out for every few years otherwise the insurance company may not pay out.

You have to then balance out how much additionally it might cost you over a lifetime of additional premiums plus a valuation every few years.

In lots of cases its not worth insuring the risk in my opinion.

I am an insurance broker - check your policy (and it would be the Contents Insurer not the buildings - these may be different depending on whether you have your buildings insurance with your mortgage provider)

Every policy has different limits but what is essential is that you have cover for personal effects away from the home. This is normally an extension and not automatically included. many people forget about this.
In essence, you could have a limit for valuables including jewellery of say 15% of your contents sum insured but this only applies in the house. There may be a single article limit - they vary so you need to check. Typically £2,500 to £5,000 depending on the quality of your policy.

so - a break in and your ring is stolen - ring is insured.
You lose the ring out of the house - not covered.

Even if you always wear it you could lose the stone - this would be covered under an all risks extension.

With regard to Insurers not paying out - a little harsh I think
I'd be out of a job!
HTH

sorry lala! (extreme apology emoticon)
I'm just poleaxed by the cost of moving and feel like a massive eejit for doing it at all!

Having just had my engagement ring stolen (along with a lot of other stuff) and experienced the almost breavement like feeling it gave me. The only tiny glimmer of light in this awful situation is that it and everything was adequately insured and we had written up to date valuations for everything. So the only fight we are having that we do not want vouchers at goldsmiths thank very much that is not my taste, but the same lodged with our independent jeweller (we do know of the FSA ruling on this so just need to run through the motions). However, when it is all settled DH and I will be able to choose a new ring to attempt to fill the whole in my life this has created.
If it had not been insured I can not bear to think how awful I would feel. Please check your policy and see whether it needs to be individually listed at todays prices. I have to say £4 per month seems very high though, we had £20,000 of valuables plus £15,000 of individually listed items on our policy and it increased the policy by about £50 per year with a major insurer.

our policy says you have to name any individual item costing over £1000

When I worked at a jewellers, as well as doing a full valuation service we also did insurance valuations, basically if someone was claiming for an item but had no valuation on it we would be instructed by insurance company to do a claim valuation on it. Problem with this is the insurance companies often only allowed the claim if there was good photos of the item for us to work from, and we had to base claims on an average quality diamond so if you feel the stone is particularly nice then get a valuation done, even once the value on there is out of date, you have a written record of the colour and clarity of the diamond to ensure you get back what the claim is really worth. I would personally get a valuation done, they can also tell you how secure the setting is as obviously gold is a soft metal so the setting can wear thin over time, meaning there is more chance of losing the diamond.

MY engagement ring is listed on our insurance policy. I need to check with DH that all jewellery he has bought me since is on there too.

I have separate insurance for my rings. You do need a good valuation with photos too, definitely. Prices have gone up a lot so you might be surprised how much it us worth now.

i dont have mine insured although was £3.5K new. My reasoning being, there is an excess to pay in any case, and what is the likelihood of it being lost or stolen given that I wear it all the time and never take it off. Also, i did enquire how much it would be to insure on our policy and it was a lot. I figured out it was not worth paying for as i would have paid the value of the ring within a few years. So weigh up if you think it is worth the risk.

Mine has to have separate insurance as house policy won't cover it. It is insured with T H March, the valuation at the jewellers was over £200 I think and insurance is £90 odd a year, so it is pretty expensive but worth it for peace of mind I guess.

you are paying £90 a year to insiure a ring worth £200 that is a major rip off

most auction houses also do valuations for insurance purposes

yeah that's why I dont insure mine. In the unlikely event of it being lost or stolen I'd just buy a new one and save on the insurance money!