Insurance: Appraisal vs. Bill of Sale?

[aggie300zx]

I recently purchased a ring and setting through Blue Nile. In the process of trying to get it insured, my insurance agent (State Farm) requested the Bill of Sale and Appraisal documents which I provided. The Bill of Sale was for $7500 and the apprasial value was $12,800. Now the problem is that they told me since the ring is new they can only approve insurance for the Bill of Sale value (+25%). My problem is that I feel the Bill of Sale price is lower because I purchased through an online only store (Blue Nile) and does not accurately reflect the cost if I were to have to replace the ring in a retail store.

Has anyone encourted this and if so how did you resolve it?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[lmurden]

Go through Chubb Insurance. I got my ring from Blue Nile also and had it appraised by an independent appraiser and he valued it a little bit more than the in house Blue Nile appraisal. Chubb is better anyway, because they will cash you out and it only took me 2 minutes on the phone and a fax machine to go through the process. Good luck.

"For a quote or to arrange for insurance for your Blue Nile purchase, call Chubb Insurance Solutions at 877-972-8282"

 

[mrssalvo]

if you go through you homeowner's it doesn't really matter how much you are paying for. most policy's will only pay to replace at what "they" could replace it for through their wholesaler. I just went through this myself and was paying higher premiums that i needed. when it came time to replace my stone, they would replace it themselves or cash out at what they could replace it for not the amount i had on the appraisal. Go with an amount that you can replace it plus a little for inflation and give them as much detail about your stone as possible so it's harder for them to replace for you. In my opinion policy's like Chubb are nice b/c they will write you a check for the amount you are insuring with them. Also, check with Statefarm to see if they have An "agreed amount/agreed value" policy that would pay out the agreed amount in the event of loss. NOT like kind/replacement which is on most policy's.

 

[mrssalvo]

Here''s a quote from Rocdoc that i took from another thread. I hope he won''t mind posting it again but I think it is very helpful and he''s one of the experts around here

My only thought here is that Chubb doesn''t require an appraisal, but usually just the cert, the receipts, description of the item if it is valued at under $ 50K.

It would be a very interesting help to the readers of the forum - if you got a copy of these company''s copy of the policy, and post them here - so they could be compared.

RE: Typical appraisers valuing for upwards of 100% ... I am not sure I understand the logic of this opinion. First the replacement type policies don''t replace at wholesale. They pay THEIR COST to REPLACE. Usually this is slightly more than the wholesale cost of the item. So if a diamond actually has a wholesale cost of $ 3000.00 and the consumer ( in a competitive market) paid $ 4000.00, and the appraisal valuation is $ 8000.00 ( 100% more than what the consumer paid) , hypothetically the diamond would probably have an Insurance company replacement cost of maybe $ 3400.00. This is what the Insurance company would pay, so how does appraising/valuing the item for $ 8000.00 have any " factual truth to it''s real cost"???

This just results in the consumer paying higher premiums than they should. In many cases for claims, the insurance company doesn''t disclose their cost to the insured who has a loss. They do this generally if the insured is insisting on cashing out, and many times since the replacement company knows the insured isn''t actually going to accept a replacement, this is low-balled. I have had several instances of this, where the replacement company even quoted prices at less than scrap value.
This has happend in the health insurance world as well, where some companies have deals with medical service providers to deeply discount their services, yet the insurance company claims they actually paid an amount that was higher than the actual amount paid to the medical service provider. This was publicized a few years ago in cases filed by various attorneys general against companies that did this.

I do agree that in many instances the agents of insurance companies really are well informed about the details of jewelry coverages. It is commendable that in your situation you stuck with the intent of getting the proper coverages for your items.

Rockdoc

 

[lmurden]

Chubb required an appraisal for my ring. Like I said the call took 2 minutes and a fax machine!

 

[lmurden]

Oh I forgot to add that when I spoke to Chubb last week they said that it would not be a problem for them to re-insure my diamond ring once it is reset and I get a current appraisal on the ring.