Households urged to check jewellery insurance cover after gold prices surge
Gold has been hitting highs as investors rush into 'safe haven' assets amid global market turmoil, following US President Donald Trump's move to unveil sweeping trade tariffs across the globe.
Admiral Home Insurance is urging households to review their cover for gold jewellery and luxury watches.
Insurers tend to have limits on cover for valuables and some may need specific cover. Admiral said items worth more than £2,000 must be individually listed on its home insurance policies.
The company said it dealt with more than 300 claims for watches stolen outside the home in 2023 and 2024. Of these, two-thirds were valued at more than £2,000 and specifically listed on policies, underscoring the need to regularly check valuations.
Noel Summerfield, household director at Admiral Insurance, said: 'Providing up-to-date valuations to your insurer is essential so if you do have to make a claim for theft, damage or loss you will be covered for the full value of your items. If something is undervalued, insurers might not pay out its full worth.
'Gold prices have tripled in a decade – if your valuables haven't been revalued in years, now's the time. Depending on the value of your item, your insurer may need you to provide proof of how much it's worth when you add it to your policy.
'However, it's also important to make sure you check the value of your item regularly and, if it changes, you should update your policy to make sure you're fully covered.'
– Keep receipts
Having proof of the amount paid and the date can also help with tracking changes in an item's value over time.
Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.
Capital at risk.
Terms and conditions apply.
– Create an inventory
Keep a secure, up-to-date record, including high-quality photos stored safely, such as in the Cloud.
– Check the policy small print
You may need to list items separately and make sure they have appropriate cover if they are taken out of the home. Individual insurers have their own thresholds and requirements.
– Store valuables securely
Some people may want to consider storing items locked away. Some insurers require items over a certain value to be stored in a safe. Admiral, for example, requires jewellery, items containing gold, and watches worth more than £10,000 to be stored in a safe.
– Keep valuations up to date
Many high street jewellers and specialist organisations offer valuation services. If an item's value changes, submit an updated document to your insurer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
41 minutes ago
- Reuters
India wants US ties based on mutual respect, says its arms purchases are on course
NEW DELHI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - India said on Thursday that it hoped relations with the United States would move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests, seeking to temper worries that ties were headed downhill in the aftermath of high tariffs imposed by Washington. A U.S. defence policy team will be in New Delhi this month for talks with Indian officials and its arms purchases from the U.S. are on course despite the strain in ties, the Indian foreign ministry said. A new friendship built between the two countries has hit a rough patch after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last week from an earlier 25% saying it was a penalty for India's continued imports of Russian oil. New Delhi has accused the U.S. of double standards in singling it out for Russian oil imports and called the tariffs unfair, unjustified and unreasonable. At the same time, it has also indicated that the warming of ties that began at the turn of the century covers a wide range of areas and should not be seen only through the prism of trade, although it hopes that trade talks will continue and result in a deal. "This partnership has weathered several transitions and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing. Purchases of military equipment from Washington were on course, Jaiswal said, adding that a U.S. defence policy team was expected in Delhi this month. Reuters reported last week that India has put on hold its plans to procure new U.S. weapons and aircraft and that a planned trip to Washington by the Indian defence minister had been cancelled. The Indian government subsequently said reports of a pause in the talks were wrong.
Reuters
41 minutes ago
- Reuters
Surging goods, services prices boost US producer inflation
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices increased by the most in three years in July amid a surge in the costs of goods and services, suggesting a broad pickup in inflation was imminent, potentially jeopardizing an anticipated interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next month. The stronger-than-expected producer inflation report from the Labor Department on Thursday followed on the heels of data this week showing consumers paid higher prices for services like dental care and airline fares last month. Economists had hoped that moderate services price gains would blunt the inflationary impact of higher goods prices from President Donald Trump's sweeping import tariffs. The U.S. central bank puts more emphasis on services inflation given that economy is mostly services driven. Financial markets expect the Fed to resume rate cuts in September, but much will depend on August's employment and inflation data. "This is a kick in the teeth for anyone who thought that tariffs would not impact domestic prices in the United States economy," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. "This report is a strong validation of the Fed's wait-and-see stance on policy changes." The producer price index for final demand jumped 0.9% last month, the largest advance since June 2022, after being unchanged in June, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI rising 0.2%. Goods prices vaulted 0.7%, the biggest gain since January, after climbing 0.3% in June. A 1.4% surge in food prices accounted for 40% of the broad increase in the cost of goods. Food prices were driven by a 38.9% acceleration in the cost of fresh and dry vegetables. There were also increases in the prices of meat and eggs. Excluding food and energy, goods prices increased 0.4%, with strong rises in the costs of steel, aluminum and primary nonferrous metals. Services prices soared 1.1%, the largest gain since March 2022, amid strong increases in machinery and equipment wholesaling, and costs of portfolio management, hotels and motels, and road transportation of freight. In the 12 months through July, the PPI increased 3.3% after advancing 2.4% in June. "While businesses have assumed the majority of tariff costs increases so far, margins are being increasingly squeezed by higher costs for imported goods," said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. "We expect a stronger pass-through of levies into consumer prices in coming months with inflation likely to climb modestly over the second half of 2025." U.S. stocks opened lower. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields rose. With the July report, the BLS ended the calculation and publication of approximately 350 indexes, including data from the PPI Final Demand-Intermediate Demand, special index, industry and commodity classifications. The agency has suffered years of underfunding under both Republican and Democratic administrations, a situation worsened by an unprecedented campaign by President Donald Trump's White House to remake the federal government through deep spending cuts and mass layoffs of public workers. The resource constraints have impacted the closely watched employment report and also resulted in the suspension of data collection for portions of the CPI basket in some areas across the country. This has raised concerns about the quality of the government-produced economic data, long viewed as the gold standard. The nomination of Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, a critic of the BLS, to head the statistics agency, is also adding another layer of worry over data quality. The government on Tuesday reported a mild increase in consumer prices in July, though rising costs for services like dental care and airline tickets caused a measure of underlying inflation to post its largest gain in six months. The Fed left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range last month for the fifth-straight time since December. Prior to the PPI report, economists estimated the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, increased 0.3% in July after a similar gain in June. That would raise the year-on-year increase in the so-called core PCE inflation to 2.9% from 2.8% in June. Core PCE inflation is one of the measures tracked by the Fed for its 2% target. A separate report from Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 224,000 for the week ended August 9. Economists had forecast 228,000 claims for the latest week. The labor market has split into low firings and tepid hiring as businesses navigate trade policy, which has raised the nation's average import duty to its highest in a century. Employment gains averaged 35,000 jobs per month over the last three months, the government reported in early August. Domestic demand grew in the second quarter at its slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, slipped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.953 million during the week ending August 2, the claims report showed. The elevated so-called continuing claims align with consumers' growing perceptions that jobs are hard to find. Economists view the continuing claims trend as consistent with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3% this month from 4.2% in July.
Reuters
41 minutes ago
- Reuters
Hot U.S. inflation data rattles global bond markets
LONDON/SINGAPORE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stagflation fears seeped into global markets on Thursday after surprisingly hot inflation data applied heavy pressure to U.S. Treasuries and sparked selling of government bonds everywhere from Germany to Japan. Wall Street stocks took a hit too, with futures contracts tracking the domestically-focused Russell 2000 share index , which dropped 1.2% in the minutes after official data revealed an unexpectedly large jump in U.S. producer prices. The producer prices index, which investors have been watching for signs of pipeline inflation pressures from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, rose 0.9% in July from the month before, trouncing consensus forecasts for a 0.2% gain. European stocks (.STOXX), opens new tab held on to gains from earlier in the day and were last 0.2% higher, while Wall Street's S&P 500 index was set to fall about 0.4%. Two-year Treasury yields, which track monetary policy expectations, leaped by 4.3 basis points (bps) immediately after the data to 3.73% as expectations for jumbo Fed rate cuts faded . Money markets showed traders still almost unanimously expect the Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs next month after keeping its main funds rate at 4.25%-4.5% since December. But bets on a bigger 50-bp rate cut, encouraged by comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday, quickly faded out of the market. The five-year Treasury yield climbed about 2 bps as the price of the debt fell, and last traded at 3.798%. "Inflation is starting to come through. It's not massive yet but that could certainly continue in coming months," Russell Investments global chief investment strategist Paul Eitelman said. The U.S. dollar, which had weakened on rate cut fervour, ticked higher but remained pinned near multi-week lows against major currencies. An index tracking the greenback against peers including the euro and Japan's yen edged 0.3% higher. The euro dropped 0.4% to $1.166. European stock indices mostly traded calmly, with the main STOXX (.STOXX), opens new tab index up 0.2% and Germany's DAX (.GDAXI), opens new tab adding 0.4% UK and euro area government bonds sold off alongside Treasuries. The benchmark 10-year Bund yield was up 2.4 bps to 2.27% and Britain's equivalent gilt yield rose 3.7 bps to 4.626%. MSCI's global share index (.MIWD00000PUS), opens new tab edged down 0.2% after hitting all-time peaks for the two previous sessions, in a rally led by a strong corporate earnings season and anticipated monetary easing. Surprisingly weak monthly U.S. jobs data on Aug. 1 had kept the focus on the softening U.S. economy and the potential for rapid rate cuts. But while markets overall had been expressing a glass-half-full approach to the U.S. economy, big investors have been preparing for inflation to rise. About 70% of global investors expect U.S. stagflation, where growth slows as the rate of consumer price rises accelerates, to become the dominant market narrative within three months, a Bank of America survey found this week. Elsewhere, commodities markets were showing some signs of geopolitical stress ahead of Friday's summit between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Trump on Wednesday threatened "severe consequences" if Putin did not agree to peace in Ukraine and has also floated the idea of a second summit that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Brent crude, the global oil marker, rose from almost a two-month low with a 1.2% jump to $66.39 a barrel and U.S. crude added 1.3% to $63.43 . But spot gold prices , which tend to rise when investors focus on geopolitical and inflation risks, bucked the market trend and edged 0.2% lower to $3,346 an ounce.
