While diamonds are forever, that’s only really true if they’re not lost, damaged or stolen which of course can happen to anyone. Although replacing your luxury diamond jewellery may not be front of mind when you buy it (and the sentimental value of it can never be recouped), We Love Diamonds strongly recommend that you do make sure you’re safeguarded against any unfortunate eventualities by getting insured. Our advice is that you should always give yourself the peace of mind by professionally insuring your diamonds and diamond jewellery at your earliest possible opportunity and, hopefully, this blog will tell you all you need to know on how to do this and how/where we can help. Will My Diamond Jewellery Be Covered On My Home Contents Insurance? Firstly, even if you do have home contents insurance, never just assume that you’re automatically covered for all your diamond jewellery. While the chances are high that you will indeed be covered to one or extent or another if you have such a policy, the fact is that your coverage may only go up to a certain value and certain circumstances such as loss or damage may not even be included (plus there may well also be a deductible to pay from any subsequent reimbursement that you do receive and/or an insurance excess to factor in). You may need to contact your insurer to add your item(s) to your existing policy and potentially pay them an additional premium. Alternatively, depending on the value of your jewellery, whether you even have an existing insurance policy and even who your insurer is, you may instead just be better off contacting a specialist jewellery insurance provider to protect your assets should the worst ever happen (see below). If in doubt always check! Where Can I Get Home Contents Insurance? If you don’t already have a home contents insurance policy then we recommend that you simply visit one of the main comparison websites like Money Supermarket here or Compare The Market here to learn more and get yourself a competitive quote. Just be sure to check the policy details of any provider you choose very carefully and make sure that you’ve really got the right level of cover for all your diamond jewellery and indeed anything else of high value in your home. You will find that most home insurance policies automatically cover expensive items like diamond jewellery up to the value of around £1,000 to £2,000 per item. If your individual diamond jewellery items are valued higher than this then you may need to pay them an additional premium (or get specialist insurance, see below) to add it as a ‘specified’ or ‘listed’ item. Commonly, the upper limit for high-value items with most insurers is usually around £10,000 but many will expect any items to have been listed with them in advance. Be aware that whatever your level of cover is, it will usually not apply if you take your diamond jewellery out of your home so you will probably need to enhance your policy by adding what's known as a 'personal possessions' feature to it. This can usually be done for a one-off fee of around £30 to £50 a year. It's also important to note that this may or may not include overseas cover so if you’re taking your expensive diamond jewellery on holiday then please do make sure that you are fully covered for its full market value on anything like your travel insurance.
Where Do I Go For Specialist Jewellery Insurance?
There are numerous specialist providers offering specific jewellery insurance including Assetsure here, High Worth Insurance here, Stanhope here and TH March here. As a rule of thumb, you’re probably looking at paying around £10 a month for a diamond platinum ring with a market value of around £5,000.
Why An Expert Diamond Jewellery Valuation Certificate Is Essential
We want all our customers to be 100% satisfied and secure with their purchases and We Love Diamonds are absolutely committed to helping make sure that you indeed get your diamonds and diamond jewellery properly insured. A valuation certificate is essential should you ever need to look to recover the full replacement high street price of your diamond jewellery should it ever get lost, damaged or stolen. We also want you to have all the official credibility, authenticity and visibility of the genuine retail value of your jewellery to hand should you ever wish to sell it in the future.
We Love Diamonds always supply a professionally assessed insurance valuation certificate to all our customers on a free 2GB USB memory stick which comes inside the free luxury pen that's provided with every purchase as you can see here in our explainer video. This USB also contains a raft of other important information like your warranty, jewellery guides, vouchers etc. All our diamond jewellery is sold at well below market value so your insurance valuation is always based on the true RRP value amount of your diamonds and diamond jewellery. This means that your valuation is not for the much lower amount that you will actually have paid including any additional savings or discounts. The signed professional valuation certificates we supply for each and every purchase lists the full specification of your diamond jewellery/ diamond(s), their professionally assessed high street retail value (which will always be more than what you purchased it for) and confirmation of any relevant properties of the diamond and precious metals in terms of UK Hallmark, GIA grading etc. A key benefit of this is that even if your insurer forces you to go to a named high street jeweller to later replace your diamond jewellery (meaning you will likely have to pay at least twice the price of We Love Diamonds and probably a lot more than that) then thanks to our trade pricing, your valuation guarantees that you can replace your item like-for-like based on current market values. Finally, your insurer may expect you to have an up-to-date valuation certificate each time you renew your policy. We are always happy to help our customers with this and can usually supply you with an updated valuation certificate, please contact us if you need help with this important area.
Anything Else I Need To Know About Insuring My Diamond Jewellery?
Firstly, don’t forget that we have a full jewellery workshop and design centre and that we can therefore always repair, remake or create any piece of diamond jewellery for you with ease. This includes items you haven't even purchased from us. Please contact us on 0800 987 7100 if you'd like to discuss this further.
Another thing to remember is that your insurer will probably require you to take a photo of your diamonds and diamond jewellery as actual photos make it easier for the item(s) to later be repaired, replaced or recreated should that eventuality ever occur. Unlike most online diamond jewellery providers; we only ever display actual photographs of all our diamond jewellery on our website and not just artificially created and misleading CGI images of them which, sadly, seems to be the trend elsewhere. This means that you can always come to us for the real photographs of your actual jewellery and not what’s effectively just an artists impression! It’s also important that you get your diamond jewellery revalued (ideally ever three years) as it's value can fluctuate. This is something we are always happy to help you with. Don't forget to keep your receipt safe too as your insurer may need this if and when you make a claim! Any problems just contact our customer support team on 0800 987 7100 as we will always have a copy to hand should you misplace it.
Finally, you will find that practically all insurance policies require reasonable precautions to be taken by you. If your diamond jewellery is indeed of high value then it's likely that your insurer will require you to have something like a safe or other minimum security standards in your home like a burglar alarm. If you do make a claim for theft or accidental loss then it will be essential that you have reported this to the police as soon as possible and that you have received a valid crime reference number from the police to support your claim for loss.
One last point... good luck getting a lab-diamond insured in any kind of meaningful way and which gives you genuine value for money. Lab diamonds have zero resale value from the get-go. The best case scenario with man-made factory diamonds when it comes to insurance is that you will (at best) get the current market value for a replacement fake diamond. Balance that against the fact the cost to buy them decreases daily (as their output increases and the costs to artificially produce them plunge parallel to their totally abstract market value). So their current market value will likely differ wildly from what you originally paid. Your insurer will never replace an artificial lab-diamond with a real diamond. While you can probably insure a fake Gucci watch as such you can obviously never expect to get a genuine Gucci watch back when you make a claim. Ask yourself whether it's even worth bothering buying a lab diamond in the first place let alone attempting to insure it. Don't put lipstick on a pig!