Aussies who bought Diamonds in the US have you changed you updated your insurance due to the falling

[Deelight]

In about the last 1.5 months the Aussie dollar has taken a massive stumble against most currencies especially the USD as most of you know (though it has raised about 6 cents in the last few of days WOOHOO up to 68 cents last count), I was OS while this happened thankfully I had a travel card but thats another story so I didn''t feel the effect that badly.

However I get home and plug into a currency converter how much he paid for the e-ring and all of a sudden I am under insured by a significant amount (this also doesn''t take into account rising diamond prices since he first bought the ring which makes it worse). I currently don''t know if I should now up my insurance premium to reflect the change or do I wait a little longer and see what happens to the AUD against the USD my insurance premium is already massive as it is so an increase in it wouldn''t make me happy either.

Is anyone else worried about this or am I the only one?

 

[arjunajane]

Great point Dee, thankyou for posting this.
I have to admit I have been wondering the same thing - but wasn''t sure whether to act or not.
As it is, my policy is already quite confusing - I have quite a "buffer" there as the Australian appraisal (which my insurance is rated on) is quite a bit higher than the equivalent of what I paid after conversion. However , this buffer is shrinking every day as you mentioned..

I''m not even sure if you can just up your sum insured without a new appraisal being done - I dread the thought of new $90 appraisals every time there is a large shift in the currency !

I would be very interested to hear some appraisers'' POV''s on this one - Neil, you out there? lol..

What will you do Dee?

 

[Deelight]

At this stage I don''t know, I insured with Chubb and they are not cheap but it was the best option at the time.

The dollar has risen in the last few days so it may go back to normal so this would be a non-event. As it I have to get my ring re-appraised to reflect the the updated setting from the temp WG one I had for insurance in the first place but I need to find a decent appraiser in QLD, if anyone knows one I am all ears.

 

[arjunajane]

Yes I've been watching the $ with interest, as my ebay purchases have become so expensive !

Dee, I used this resource to find my appraiser, I'm pretty sure they can point you in the right direction
http://www.gem.org.au/contactf.htm

Also, the JAA

http://www.jaa.com.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=26

 

[Deelight]

Date: 10/30/2008 5:00:07 AM
Author: arjunajane
Yes I''ve been watching the $ with interest, as my ebay purchases have become so expensive !

Dee, I used this resource to find my appraiser, I''m pretty sure they can point you in the right direction

http://www.gem.org.au/contactf.htm



Also, the JAA


http://www.jaa.com.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=26

I was just about to buy some colored pretties but that has been put on hold

Thanks for the links I will check them out , I have a bracelet I need to get valued and identified as well.

 

[strmrdr]

My opinion is that if you feel it is a long term event reappraise and raise the insurance.
If you think that if you have a claim you can cash out and wait out a temporary currency fluctuation then don''t. So it depends on what you think the AUD will do.

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 10/30/2008 5:06:22 AM
Author: Deelight

Date: 10/30/2008 5:00:07 AM
Author: arjunajane
Yes I''ve been watching the $ with interest, as my ebay purchases have become so expensive !

Dee, I used this resource to find my appraiser, I''m pretty sure they can point you in the right direction

http://www.gem.org.au/contactf.htm



Also, the JAA


http://www.jaa.com.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=26

I was just about to buy some colored pretties but that has been put on hold

Thanks for the links I will check them out , I have a bracelet I need to get valued and identified as well.

I know, I need to Log Off Ebay , lol - oh well, at least its improving lets hope it continues.
I''m glad to hear all of this didn''t put a dampener on your trip - do you have any holiday snaps to share?

I really like the appraiser I found through the GAA - plus I have since found out her and her mother are pretty much the most professional / well known ones here.

Hope you can find a good one too

 

[Deelight]

strmrdr My theory is that it will go back up maybe not back to 98cents but it will, I joked with my FI that it would go back up soon after we got back LOL and it has started. Every time we set to make a payment on the ring to one vendor or another the dollar fell, we booked our trip it fell soon after again. At the moment I guess I am being a little paranoid as the ring is still new and I am worried it might get lost or damaged somehow even though I being meticulously cautious with it.

AJ We were really lukcy we booked our trip and a 1 week later they dollar feel down 8 cents in one day to 84 cents, I nearly cried. Luckily my debit CC was set to expire while I was away so we got a cash credit card from ANZ locked in our exchange rate at 84 cents and OMG am I glad we did. While we were away we kept checking the rates and it fell down to 60 cents at one stage

. So for us no dampener really, very very lucky.

I do have pictures (a lot of pictures) to share I just have not had the time to catalogue them and upload which I will have to do this week our trip was a blast I wish I was still traveling though but at the same time after visiting poorer countries like Thailand (which is a really beautiful country) I feel very lucky to have won the geographic lottery.


There is always hope the AUD has been gaining slightly so we can hope for the best I have a little play money lying around that is itching to be spent on some coloured pretties. I must admit I have never bought anything off ebay LOL.

 

[softly softly]

Date: 10/30/2008 4:50:01 AM
Author: Deelight
At this stage I don't know, I insured with Chubb and they are not cheap but it was the best option at the time.


The dollar has risen in the last few days so it may go back to normal so this would be a non-event. As it I have to get my ring re-appraised to reflect the the updated setting from the temp WG one I had for insurance in the first place but I need to find a decent appraiser in QLD, if anyone knows one I am all ears.

But do we know what is normal? I read in 'The Age' yesterday that some economists were predicting the Aussie dollar could sink as low as 47c which is what it was in 2001 - this was before it rallied today. I'm by no means an expert on this but perhaps it is safer to assume that the levels it reached earlier this year were also abnormal.

In the current financial climate it is very hard to predict what is going to happen, but until commodity prices regain some of their lost ground and while the market remains wary of risk I think our dollar will probably stay under 80c.

Maybe looking at a long term average of our dollar against the US dollar over a longish period would give you a better idea of what to insure your ring for???

A site you might find helpful with comparing our dollar to other currencies is http://www.ozforex.com.au They also send out daily updates of what our dollar is trading for.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

We are thinking of allowing our (smarter) clients to name the exchange rate on their valuation and point it out as part of their agreement (in writting) with their ins Co.
All valuations we did in July for say $6.500 are now $9,500.

In 32 years flogging trinkets I have never experianced this

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 10/30/2008 5:40:12 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
We are thinking of allowing our (smarter) clients to name the exchange rate on their valuation and point it out as part of their agreement (in writting) with their ins Co.
All valuations we did in July for say $6.500 are now $9,500.

In 32 years flogging trinkets I have never experianced this

Thanks for offering the vendors POV Garry. I would love to have this on my policy, but 1) my appraiser said they couldn''t do it and 2) my Ins. Co. said they would not accept anything but one value in AUD.

 

[Deelight]

Softly Earlier this year some financial experts were predicting that the Aussie dollar would surpass the USD by the end/mid next year, at this stage I think it is doubtful however earlier who knows...

I have been away for 7wks without much access to news, tv and internet (and really I am no financial wizard) so I can''t comment on it while I was away but before I left it fell 8 cents in one day due to an announcement in interest rates drop

but I know since I have been back in the last 4 days the AUD has been gaining slowly so who knows at this stage, I check Xe compulsively.

As to what is normal, I have no idea all I know is if I were to lose or damage my ring now at this current rate I would need to come up with about 7k out of my own pocket to replace it

.

Garry I have seen pictures of your pretties trinkets is not a word I would use

, you have very lovely pieces.

Your idea sounds good but would insurance companies allow that? Sorry if I sound stupid but from my experience most that I spoke to were very unwilling to allow for anything to be written in an event of a claim, you had to negotiate at the time of an event. We went with Chubb because they were the only ones who would in their case offer cash out though I would have been happy to be able to pick my own vendor.

 

[arjunajane]

Dee, if I were you I would seriously consider increasing your sum ins. - 7k is alot honey ! I can feel your pain though, I can only imagine how expensive Chubb is

As for me, I might wait and ride it out a little longer - even with the current craziness, a cash out would more than cover me..

 

[Deelight]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:09:05 AM
Author: arjunajane
Dee, if I were you I would seriously consider increasing your sum ins. - 7k is alot honey ! I can feel your pain though, I can only imagine how expensive Chubb is

As for me, I might wait and ride it out a little longer - even with the current craziness, a cash out would more than cover me..

To give you an idea my premium is currently just over $900 a year

I about hit the floor when I got the quote but like I said at the time (and I called a lot of companies) they were the only ones who offered what I was after. FI and I talked about it and figured it was worth the peace in mind of the just in case.

The scary thing is I had no idea until I plugged the numbers into xe how under insured I really was I did it for fun on a whim so I figured other PS''ers might be in the same boat.

I agree the 7k is ALOT this is even with the cushion I already had in place we were so lucky he bought the ring when he did because there is no way we would have been able to now or even contemplate spending so much.

 

[softly softly]

Dee just did some checking and for the last five years the dollar was pretty steady at mid to high 70s, it was only last year that it started to climb past that. I think you will probably find that it is pretty closely linked to how commodity prices are faring.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:02:13 AM
Author: Deelight


Garry I have seen pictures of your pretties trinkets is not a word I would use

, you have very lovely pieces.

I just did a google image search http://images.google.com.au/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=diamond+trinkets&ei=Go0JSZbRH4bs6QPTkJSDAg&gbv=2

and came up with this


http://fashion-stylist.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/diamond.jpg

This was not a bad result either http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/uploads/diamonds.jpg&imgrefurl=http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/index.php%3Fserendipity%255Baction%255D%3Dsearch%26serendipity%255BsearchTerm%255D%3Derror&h=532&w=283&sz=28&hl=en&start=19&usg=__VaEyWJ-P6TPgvTzLNQfpMpoEXG0=&tbnid=UQM_7LffVhaOJM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=70&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddiamond%2Btrinkets%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:37:47 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

This was not a bad result either <16 year olds do not open

That is 10ct away from being ****.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:45:49 AM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 10/30/2008 6:37:47 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

This was not a bad result either <16 year olds do not open

That is 10ct away from being ****.

Closer to 50ct for the hard **** i think Storm - several carat each for the soft stuff

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:16:58 AM
Author: Deelight

Date: 10/30/2008 6:09:05 AM
Author: arjunajane
Dee, if I were you I would seriously consider increasing your sum ins. - 7k is alot honey ! I can feel your pain though, I can only imagine how expensive Chubb is

As for me, I might wait and ride it out a little longer - even with the current craziness, a cash out would more than cover me..

To give you an idea my premium is currently just over $900 a year

I about hit the floor when I got the quote but like I said at the time (and I called a lot of companies) they were the only ones who offered what I was after. FI and I talked about it and figured it was worth the peace in mind of the just in case.

The scary thing is I had no idea until I plugged the numbers into xe how under insured I really was I did it for fun on a whim so I figured other PS''ers might be in the same boat.

I agree the 7k is ALOT this is even with the cushion I already had in place we were so lucky he bought the ring when he did because there is no way we would have been able to now or even contemplate spending so much.

Sheeeesshh !

That is alot of premiums hey?! But I know why you chose them and what they offer - its a shame we don''t have any other companies that offer those services here - I imagine those Chubb premiums are influenced by the fact they know they have No competitors

With re. to the highlighted, tell me about it ! You have no idea how much I''m "wiping my brow" that I decided to jump in and get my upgrade when the dollar was ~95c - almost seems like a dream now, lol..
We too would never have been able to afford it if we''d held off. At least it makes me feel even more content when I admire my ring, lol..

Also, as I know you haven''t been around, I and others such as Honey22 have been advising new Aussie members not to buy from US vendors and focus on good Aussie vendors for currency reasons..as you know how much I love GOG/WF, this is a pretty radical change imo !

Anyways, I''m sure other PS''ers are pretty tired of hearing us whinge about the $ by now, lol..

I''ll try to tone it down ...

Sorry for the threadjack again, but I''m keen to hear about your hols if you find the time! I love Thailand (is where we got engaged), and am intrigued about your experience with LM ! I am planning to visit NY to stay with a close friend early next year, so would love to hear about your time there.
Pls start a thread if you can ok ?

On another note, I actually work in Insurance, and first thing tomorrow I''m going to suggest developing a new product to compete with Chubb''s stand alone valuables cover. I doubt they will, as it doesn''t really suit the needs of our members - but hey, you never know right? Watch this space, lol..

 

[Deelight]

It is a lot but heaven forbid something happened while I was away I can tell you know I would be kicking myself, at the end of the day it was about the Aussie price for a latte each day (I have a tendency to use the price of coffee analogy a bit LOL). I agree at the moment chances are you would be better served buying here unless the prices have gone up again with the dropping of the AUD, still I feel very lucky .


I have to do a proper write up on my holiday, I promise a proper threads for new ring and hols very shortly - I also have to remember all the places we visited it didn''t go exactly to plan but hey while your there what can you do suck it up and deal with it, the way we saw it we could whinge or we could build a bridge and keep on moving we built that bridge.

You will LOVE NY seriously the shopping is a DREAM $20 levi''s!!!! for example and seriously the food and drinks are so cheap. Navigating is so easy and really it is a fun city . I will expand later but I seriously loved it we both did.

My experience with LM which I will also do a write up in my ring thread, I meet with him and found him to be a perfect gentleman, seriously I puffy heart him and I would without a doubt work with him again the ring and the service was excellent no complaints here.

Please mention it I swear Australia is seriously lacking some good old competition in so many areas.

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 10/30/2008 8:03:05 AM
Author: Deelight
It is a lot but heaven forbid something happened while I was away I can tell you know I would be kicking myself, at the end of the day it was about the Aussie price for a latte each day (I have a tendency to use the price of coffee analogy a bit LOL). I agree at the moment chances are you would be better served buying here unless the prices have gone up again with the dropping of the AUD, still I feel very lucky .


I have to do a proper write up on my holiday, I promise a proper threads for new ring and hols very shortly - I also have to remember all the places we visited it didn''t go exactly to plan but hey while your there what can you do suck it up and deal with it, the way we saw it we could whinge or we could build a bridge and keep on moving we built that bridge.

You will LOVE NY seriously the shopping is a DREAM $20 levi''s!!!! for example and seriously the food and drinks are so cheap. Navigating is so easy and really it is a fun city . I will expand later but I seriously loved it we both did.

My experience with LM which I will also do a write up in my ring thread, I meet with him and found him to be a perfect gentleman, seriously I puffy heart him and I would without a doubt work with him again the ring and the service was excellent no complaints here.

Please mention it I swear Australia is seriously lacking some good old competition in so many areas.

You got it, I will post about how it goes.

And I''m holding you to your new threads sweetheart - must be off now, have a lovely evening !

 

[Deelight]

First chance I get, have a good night