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To Insure or Not to Insure?

tagafabo

tagafabo

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 21, 2008
Messages
32
Hi!

I have recently insured three new pieces of jewelry though Jewelers Mutual. I currently have other pieces covered by my homeowners policy, but I find that JM’s coverage is so much better than our HO's. I am contemplating cancelling the HO jewelry rider and putting all on JM.

A few of my older pieces are definitely worth keeping insured. But I’m not too sure about some previous purchases of $2,500 or less. Are they worth insuring? I have no family heirlooms to insure, if I did that would be a no-brainer.

My question is, what do Pricescoper's feel is worth insuring?

Is there a rule of thumb what to insure?

Thanks all! =)2
 
My rule of thumb is to insure only things that I'd absolutely want to replace, and things that would be painful to replace out of pocket. I also consider things that I wear often the most likely to be damaged or lost. So I only insure my AVR diamond ring and my studs, because I could see losing a stud trying on clothes or something, and the AVR ring is the ring I wear the most. It doesn't make financial sense to pay premiums on everything.
 
It’s a personal decision and there no one right for everyone. I only insure my engagement ring and have insured no other pieces.

The general rule of thumb is if you can’t replace a piece that gets stolen or lost etc and you would want to replace it then insure it. However I could not reasonably insure all my pieces so I just insure my one ring. Would I be unable to replace let’s say my Cartier black opal if it got stolen or lost or cracked? Yes I would be unable to replace it but I cannot afford to insure it so I don’t and I enjoy it and am smart about when I wear it and how I care for it but you have to enjoy your bling otherwise what’s the point?

So insure what you wouldn’t be able to easily replace that you would want to replace but within the parameters that make sense for you.
 
Same as the ladies above, some items are irreplaceable because of the sentimental aspect but if the thought of financially replacing a piece makes you wince or it's not something you could afford to, insurance is the way to go.
 
I'm in the same boat as you. A lot of my older pieces are insured on our homeowners' policy rider, and my newer stuff is insured with JM. I plan to keep insuring the new items I get with JM, but I'm not sure about the older stuff . . . I might just leave that on our HO policy.

It's hard to decide which items need to be insured and which don't. I have a few pieces that aren't insured at all, either because I think they'd be hard to break and/or cheap to repair or because I just don't wear them often enough to justify insuring them. My rule of thumb is to insure the things that I would DEFINITELY want replaced if they were lost/stolen and the things that I think would be expensive to repair. If it's something that would cost relatively little to replace/repair or if it's an item that I wouldn't be heartbroken to lose, it doesn't get added to the policy.
 
I'd also recommend never using jewelry insurance for repairs. Making little claims will hurt you down the road in higher premiums. Insure for loss or of diamonds or whole pieces of jewelry that you could not afford to replace.
 
diamondseeker2006 said:
We have probably all done that out of convenience. I do have a jewelry box with unimportant things there in hopes that they wouldn't have time to discover the others elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Yes I was quickly "hiding" in a special place. I do have a huge gun safe I use but it's not convienent to get to from my upstairs master bedroom. I need to be more safety conscious and use gun safe until we purchase a small safe for our bedroom. I also have a costume jewelry box in an obvious place.
 
Irishgrrrl said:
I'm in the same boat as you. A lot of my older pieces are insured on our homeowners' policy rider, and my newer stuff is insured with JM. I plan to keep insuring the new items I get with JM, but I'm not sure about the older stuff . . . I might just leave that on our HO policy.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
tagafabo said:
Yes I was quickly "hiding" in a special place. I do have a huge gun safe I use but it's not convienent to get to from my upstairs master bedroom. I need to be more safety conscious and use gun safe until we purchase a small safe for our bedroom. I also have a costume jewelry box in an obvious place.
Click to expand...

Great advice from @diamondseeker2006.
I volunteer at the local police department in the Crime Analysis Unit. My job is to read all of the financial crime cases in our city such as residential burglaries and enter them in a database. Very often jewelry boxes are stolen (could leave your costume jewelry in it). Also bedrooms are ransacked, drawer contents dumped on the bed. Also small safes are pried from closets even when bolted to the floor (you are better off in a 600lb gun safe).
Best thing, have a monitored alarm, have a surveillance system that can send alerts to your phone and where you can monitor cameras while you are away, reinforce door jam from garage into your house (easily kicked in), install locks on sliding windows and doors (can be removed from their tracks) .
Don't leave your garage door opener in your car, I programmed "Home" in our navigation system with the local PD address, not our real address. In our state we are allowed to black out the address on vehicle registration so we do that. Read a case once where a lady was shopping at Nordstroms, some perp stole her car, drove to her house, and broke in to her house after using her garage door to enter the garage.
 
cflutist said:
Great advice from @diamondseeker2006.
I volunteer at the local police department in the Crime Analysis Unit. My job is to read all of the financial crime cases in our city such as residential burglaries and enter them in a database. Very often jewelry boxes are stolen (could leave your costume jewelry in it). Also bedrooms are ransacked, drawer contents dumped on the bed. Also small safes are pried from closets even when bolted to the floor (you are better off in a 600lb gun safe).
Best thing, have a monitored alarm, have a surveillance system that can send alerts to your phone and where you can monitor cameras while you are away, reinforce door jam from garage into your house (easily kicked in), install locks on sliding windows and doors (can be removed from their tracks) .
Don't leave your garage door opener in your car, I programmed "Home" in our navigation system with the local PD address, not our real address. In our state we are allowed to black out the address on vehicle registration so we do that. Read a case once where a lady was shopping at Nordstroms, some perp stole her car, drove to her house, and broke in to her house after using her garage door to enter the garage.
Click to expand...

Cfultist - thanks for the wake up call! It's worth taking and extra 4-5 mins to use the gun safe. I seriously never thought about prying a small safe from the wall. Makes total sense. So glad to hear and expert's advice. Thanks!
 
cflutist said:
Don't leave your garage door opener in your car, I programmed "Home" in our navigation system with the local PD address, not our real address. In our state we are allowed to black out the address on vehicle registration so we do that. Read a case once where a lady was shopping at Nordstroms, some perp stole her car, drove to her house, and broke in to her house after using her garage door to enter the garage.
Click to expand...
C
Humm..I didn't know that...:read: are you sure?. My wife used to work for DMV in the IT department before she retired. I should ask her about it.
 
cflutist said:
Great advice from @diamondseeker2006.
I volunteer at the local police department in the Crime Analysis Unit. My job is to read all of the financial crime cases in our city such as residential burglaries and enter them in a database. Very often jewelry boxes are stolen (could leave your costume jewelry in it). Also bedrooms are ransacked, drawer contents dumped on the bed. Also small safes are pried from closets even when bolted to the floor (you are better off in a 600lb gun safe).
Best thing, have a monitored alarm, have a surveillance system that can send alerts to your phone and where you can monitor cameras while you are away, reinforce door jam from garage into your house (easily kicked in), install locks on sliding windows and doors (can be removed from their tracks) .
Don't leave your garage door opener in your car, I programmed "Home" in our navigation system with the local PD address, not our real address. In our state we are allowed to black out the address on vehicle registration so we do that. Read a case once where a lady was shopping at Nordstroms, some perp stole her car, drove to her house, and broke in to her house after using her garage door to enter the garage.
Click to expand...
I wonder if we’re allowed to black out where we live? I used to carry my registration in my wallet but now I just have it on an app in my phone.

Similar thing happened to one of my best friends- they broke into her car while she was at church, noted the address off of the registration, and cleaned out the house while they were at church.
 
I have my ering insured and that is all I have on my JM policy. Pretty much everything else I own I could replace if I lost it or broke it and hopefully our home owner's insurance would cover a burglary.
 
Dancing Fire said:
C
Humm..I didn't know that...:read: are you sure?. My wife used to work for DMV in the IT department before she retired. I should ask her about it.
Click to expand...

In CA, law enforcement has access to CLETS, California Law Enforcement Telecommunication System. By the time an officer walks to your window they have already run your license plate. Of course if the plate does not match the vehicle's description (common if stolen) then they run the VIN. If the officer's vehicle is equipped with an LPR (license plate reader) then that information is automatically displayed on the screen in the cop car.

The brochures that we pass out in the park during the summer clearly state to black out (or in our case, we use a Xacto knife to cut out) your address. Your vehicle's license, VIN, and your name is still printed on your registration. So the copy of the DMV registration kept in the car does not have our address, but a photocopy that hubby keeps in his wallet does.
 
cflutist said:
In CA, law enforcement has access to CLETS, California Law Enforcement Telecommunication System. By the time an officer walks to your window they have already run your license plate. Of course if the plate does not match the vehicle's description (common if stolen) then they run the VIN. If the officer's vehicle is equipped with an LPR (license plate reader) then that information is automatically displayed on the screen in the cop car.

The brochures that we pass out in the park during the summer clearly state to black out (or in our case, we use a Xacto knife to cut out) your address. Your vehicle's license, VIN, and your name is still printed on your registration. So the copy of the DMV registration kept in the car does not have our address, but a photocopy that hubby keeps in his wallet does.
Click to expand...
Ok, I get it now. My wife explained to me since she had access to CLETS when she was working for DMV.
 
cflutist said:
In CA, law enforcement has access to CLETS, California Law Enforcement Telecommunication System. By the time an officer walks to your window they have already run your license plate. Of course if the plate does not match the vehicle's description (common if stolen) then they run the VIN. If the officer's vehicle is equipped with an LPR (license plate reader) then that information is automatically displayed on the screen in the cop car.

The brochures that we pass out in the park during the summer clearly state to black out (or in our case, we use a Xacto knife to cut out) your address. Your vehicle's license, VIN, and your name is still printed on your registration. So the copy of the DMV registration kept in the car does not have our address, but a photocopy that hubby keeps in his wallet does.
Click to expand...

Cflutist, you are a true lady and one of many talents!
 
diamondseeker2006 said:
I'd also recommend never using jewelry insurance for repairs. Making little claims will hurt you down the road in higher premiums. Insure for loss or of diamonds or whole pieces of jewelry that you could not afford to replace.
Click to expand...
diamondseeker2006 said:
I'd also recommend never using jewelry insurance for repairs. Making little claims will hurt you down the road in higher premiums. Insure for loss or of diamonds or whole pieces of jewelry that you could not afford to replace.
Click to expand...

Definitely worth bearing in mind, the same with pet insurance. I have covered for life on my dogs and cats, costs an absolute fortune but at least ongoing issues are covered. For the horses, the best you can get is one year's vets fees paid per incident then they immediately slap on an exclusion after that and you have to fight like the dickens to get it removed.
 
My wedding set is all that I have insured.
I will likely have my Asscher band insured, after it’s made.
That is all.
 
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