Insurance problems with Engagement Ring

mrsnicey

My engagement ring cost €17k and we are finding that since we got engaged our house insurance had almost tripled because it is a specified item. Spoke with a really sound guy on the phone with a well known insurance company and he suggested that we try find a company that specialises in insuring "precious items" seperatly, has anyone got any experience of this? Thanks in advance! Edited to say we got our insurance renewal yesterday and it was much more expensive than last year and when I called the other well known company today for a quote they were €100 more expensive again

janbaby

€17K.....no recession in your house!

BC

Can't help on "precious items", i've never heard of that before.
My ring is a specified item and there was a hefty enough charge for it. I can't remember the exact figures but it was around 25% extra.

LillyVanilli

You could get seperate contents only insurance, Aon do it for high value items I think. But I doubt 2 policies would work out cheaper than 1. Search the net for High Value single item cover.

mrsnicey

janbaby wrote: »

€17K.....no recession in your house!

I wish janbaby it was a pre recession buy, if we only knew then what we do now!

mrsnicey

Thanks to everyone else who replied, much appreciated and will check out the said options.

D3PO

Im with Allianz and our premium only went up about 20% after adding the ring as a specified item. PLUS they added it for FREE until my renewal was due.


Dont want to state the ring cost on a public forum and it wasnt 17k but if you are to consider what your normal contents value would be tripling the premium is audacious.

I mean logic says if you have house contents are valued of 34k which I would suspect you would have at least then the ring shouldnt put your premium up more than 50% plus a little extra due to it being specified cover.

Tripleing the cost is outrageous though.

Theboinkmaster

janbaby wrote: »

€17K.....no recession in your house!

and the point of your post is.........just default Irish begrudgery?

Theboinkmaster

mrsnicey wrote: »

My engagement ring cost €17k and we are finding that since we got engaged our house insurance had almost tripled because it is a specified item. Spoke with a really sound guy on the phone with a well known insurance company and he suggested that we try find a company that specialises in insuring "precious items" seperatly, has anyone got any experience of this? Thanks in advance! Edited to say we got our insurance renewal yesterday and it was much more expensive than last year and when I called the other well known company today for a quote they were €100 more expensive again

I assume you have a ring valuation that the insurance company require? If not try ESL in powerscourt - they just match the ring to the cert and do it on the spot for a fixed fee.

My home insurance did up significantly with our engagement ring being specified, think it doubled - but i also think it was going up anyway.

seamus

My wife's engagement ring too added a fair chunk onto our home contents cover.

You have to consider that the cover (usually!) includes accidental loss or theft outside the home. When you're wearing a €17k piece of jewellery out in public, that's a relatively large risk for the insurance company. Would it make sense to have a cheap replica made up and store the actual ring in the house for wearing on special occasions?

Maybe then you can get the insurance company to insure it without the accidental loss outside the home cover.

mrsnicey

boinkmaster have all the original certs etc, thanks for your input anyway and also for your witty reply to janbaby Segrudgery is certainly still rife! Seamus thanks you for your reply also but my ring is very important to me, I love to wear it and I know my diamonds well and can spot a fake a mile off so for me, personally, it would not be an option to wear a fake ring, but I certainly see where you are coming from but I reckon the ring would have more of a chance of being robbed when kept at home than it would when I wear it as it is a perfect fit. Sorted out the insurance with FBD in the end thanks all!

Lady Chatterton

mrsnicey wrote: »

boinkmaster have all the original certs etc, thanks for your input anyway and also for your witty reply to janbaby Segrudgery is certainly still rife! Seamus thanks you for your reply also but my ring is very important to me, I love to wear it and I know my diamonds well and can spot a fake a mile off so for me, personally, it would not be an option to wear a fake ring, but I certainly see where you are coming from but I reckon the ring would have more of a chance of being robbed when kept at home than it would when I wear it as it is a perfect fit. Sorted out the insurance with FBD in the end thanks all!

Firstly, congrats Mrs nicey on your engagement! I found myself in the same situation a few years back too, I have an antique engagement ring and some insurance companies refused to insure it because of it's high value and of course it is a high risk for them.

Anyway, I wanted to move from my existing insurer who are one of the large players in the home insurance market in this country because the premium was very high but I found that very few insurance companies wanted to insure the ring and when I examined the terms and conditions of the other insurance companies that would quote, the cover they were offering was not near as good as the company I was already with.

I'm not familiar with the FBD policy but you need to make sure that your ring is covered for ALL RISKS (it is more expensive cover but it worth it)

Check that the ring is covered outside the home because some policies don't cover that and if they do they might only cover it up to a certain value (for example: maybe €7,000)

All risks will also cover accidental cover - (if a diamond is lost because it falls out of the setting etc.)

Finally, it is always good to have the ring setting checked every year or so, as diamonds can loosen from the setting. I know a friend of mine who used to clean her engagement ring with a toothbrush and a cleaning solution (not a great idea as the toothbrush can loosen the stones) anyway, her solitaire diamond ended up falling down the drain and she hadn't even insured it - not good