1. Diamonds are forever - or so they would have you believe!
For many, purchasing an engagement ring is one of the most important items they will ever buy. It is one of the vital ingredients to a successful proposal!
But once the ring is on the finger and that bottle of champagne has been well and truly drained, one of the more practical matters that now faces you, is whether to insure that glittering emblem of love.
Here are a few points to consider if you’re thinking about insuring an engagement ring.
2. How much do people spend on engagement rings these days?
While wedding traditions have become more and more laissez-faire, the engagement ring cost question will just not go away.
It began as a marketing campaign in the 1930s by the De Beers diamond cartel who introduced the idea that a ring should cost a single month's salary. By the 1980s, De Beers had upped their game and the price guideline to boot. They released an advert featuring a woman and her diamond ring with the words: "Two months' salary showed the future Mrs Smith what the future would be like."
Decades on, it's now common to be told that three months’ salary should be splashed on an engagement ring - after all, it is the love of your life!
3. Do more expensive engagement rings equal true love?
But the cost of the ring question was finally turned on its head when a report found that the more expensive the rock, the more likely a divorce - a fact that must have sent a small shiver down the spines of the De Beers executives.
A study out of Emory University surveyed over 3,000 participants and found that couples whose engagement ring cost between $2,000 and $4,000 were 1.3 times more likely to divorce than those whose engagement ring cost between $500 and $2,000.
We can only assume that George Clooney, who dropped £450,000 on a seven-carat diamond for Amal Alamuddin, had not read the report!
4. How do I get engagement ring insurance?
Regardless of how much you spend, there’s no such thing as a cheap engagement ring. That’s why it’s a very wise move to have the ring insured.
Having your ring insured between buying it and giving it is simple. Just contact your Home Insurance provider to arrange cover. While your usual Home or Contents policy may cover an engagement ring inside the home (subject to certain limitations), it may not be covered outside the home.
And it is outside the home when your ring is most likely to be lost or stolen - sometimes in the most bizarre ways.
Insuring your engagement ring, or indeed your wedding rings further down the road, is straightforward but you may need to get an original appraisal or perhaps even a diamond certificate to verify its value for more costly wedding and engagement rings. However, the original receipt from where it was purchased will normally suffice.
5. When is your engagement ring not insured?
When it comes to popping the question, romantic thoughts and profuse sweating are likely to overshadow concerns about your insurance policy - and understandably so.
Yet amid all of the hoopla, the tears and the grand plans for the future, it’s important to keep a few things in mind, because as you move from a relationship to an engagement and finally to a marriage, there could be a ‘loophole period’ when your engagement ring might not be insured.
Following a (successful) proposal, the ring belongs to your fiancée, but depending on your living arrangements, their possessions may not be included under your insurance coverage. If you don’t live together, or if their name is not on the insurance policy, that ring that you have spent a small fortune on, and that you confidently believe to be insured, is in fact not.
In these kinds of cases, you will need to either speak with your insurance provider to clarify the situation or your fiancée will need to call their own insurance company to arrange cover.
6. How do I claim if I've lost or had my engagement ring stolen?
If the worst-case scenario occurs and you either lose or have your engagement rings stolen there are no amount of niceties that can help the situation. It can be devastating to lose something of such value, in terms of its monetary cost, but also its sentimental value.
All we can say is that if your ring is covered by your insurance policy and you need to make a claim, we won't drag our feet when it comes to reimbursing you for the cost of the ring to its full value. Allowing you to find a replacement quickly and with as little fuss as possible.
How to lose a ring in 10 days
Sarah Darling’s lost ring story is worth retelling - as a warning if nothing else. When out shopping in Kansas, she emptied the change in her purse into the cup of a homeless man.
But she forgot she’d put her 1-carat diamond ring into the purse earlier. The next day, Sarah went to find him and the man, Billy Ray Harris, remembered her and handed her the ring. The story went viral with headlines like “A Diamond in the Rough” and “Story with a Ring to it”, and $187,000 was raised for Harris online. He is now living in a house of his own.
Hollywood actress Megan Fox wasn’t so lucky. When Brian Austin Green proposed on a Hawaiian beach in 2010, Fox first said yes then promptly dropped the 2-carat engagement ring into the sand and it was never seen again.
7. Insuring a ring everywhere: “All Risks” cover
Stories of lost engagement rings are the stuff of nightmares. So it pays to have it covered outside of the home with an additional “All Risks” cover.
This optional extra on your contents insurance covers items for loss, damage or theft outside the home, and includes worldwide cover for up to 60 days in each policy year - which should cover the honeymoon. Simply specify the ring and its value on your policy.
Once you have your "all risks" cover in place your engagement ring will be insured whether you are at the office or the altar, sunbathing or out shopping.
8. Conclusion
Getting your engagement and wedding rings properly insured needn't cost the earth and will take you less than an hour of your time.
For the peace of mind it provides, it would be crazy not to have ring insurance of some kind, whether it be covered under the homeowners' insurance policy or an individual policy.
The information provided above is general information and is not specific to 123.ie products.
