topic Re: options for buying a ring in General Credit Topics

options for buying a ring

2014repair — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 16:18:42 GMT

I have put this off long enough and it is time I step up and buy an engagement ring. I have been putting it off so I could save up and pay cash but I ended up buying a new house in June and then had a sister get married in Mexico after that. This has kept me from being able to save up and now I feel I really need to make this happen. I have looked at doing a prosper loan but dont think I really want to go that route. I have a new discover card with a $7,600 limit and 0% for 14 months and a citi simplicity card with a $5,000 limit and 0% for another 10 months. I also just got my Venture card with $10,000 limit but at 16.9%. I was thinking about spreading the purchase out on these cards being sure not to go over 30% utilization on any of them. The ring I am looking at is right around $5,000. What are everyones thoughts on this idea?

Re: options for buying a ring

onstar — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 20:23:50 GMT

Congrats! I'm in the same boat. About to go ring shopping. I got my VentureOne card just for this purpose (0% interest for 12 months), and I'm also looking to spend around $5K. I was going to put it all on this card, but now I'm having second thoughts. Maybe I'll do what you intend on doing. Hmmmm.

Sorry, I don't have a really good answer for your situation (or my situation for that matter), but I look forward to people's responses.

Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 20:36:32 GMT

I'm actually entertaining the idea of doing a cash out auto refi. I currently owe $12,000 on my vehicle and it is valued at about $25,000, so I could possibly do a cash out which would increase my current payments by about $75/month and would extend the term of my current loan by an additional 8 months.

Re: options for buying a ring

takeshi74 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 13:21:46 GMT

@2014repair wrote:
What are everyones thoughts on this idea?

What are your concerns? Would you be able to pay off the balances before the 0% offers expire? Do you have any sort of financial safety net if anything happens in the meantime?

Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:36:26 GMT

It would be tight trying to get it paid off in the 0% interest period.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:41:37 GMT

@2014repair wrote:
It would be tight trying to get it paid off in the 0% interest period.

Not trying to be rude but maybe then a $5K ring is too much for your budget. I see far too many people over spending on a wedding ring when they should be putting that money towards savings, potential house etc. Belive me I know from experience that the amount of money you spend on a ring has no bearing on having a happy marriage but being in debt does cause marital problems.

Just something to think about.

Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:24:29 GMT

I hear ya, and that is why I am doing my research and taking my time with this. I am leaning toward doing a cash out auto refinance right now. I can get a good rate with a local credit union and would only see a payment increas of $35 from what I am currently paying and would extend the loan by 8 months from what I have remaining. Total interest paid would be $1,015. If I keep my current rate and terms I would end up paying $1,376 in interest for the remainder of the loan. I look at this as free financing on the ring and saving money from my current loan. To me this looks like a win win.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 19:43:20 GMT

I second Irish's thought on the subject as marital bliss is not entirely contained in the overall value of the ring. I do have a few suggestions however.

- See if there is a independent diamond broker or jewelery maker in your area. When I went down this route I became a quick master on the 4 C's of diamond buying: Cut, Clarity, Carat, and Color. By understanding all of those things, it made it very easy to find and select a stone that straddles the border between what is a $1,000.00 stone and a $2,000.00 stone. For example:

- Carat. The human eye can not really tell the difference between a .50 carat stone and a .65. Same goes for the .75 or .95, etc, etc, etc.

- The same goes with Clarity, very few inclusions in the stone can be seen with the naked eye and unless it is a horrible stone, you would mostly have to twist the stone in the light to notice it. Far more than the normal bride showing it to friends. Anything VS1 or better will be hard to detect without anything but a 10x gem scope or better. So again, if you straddle the clarity scale between VS1 (hard to see with 10x) and VVS1 (very difficult to see under 10x) you can find a really nice stone.

- Color - same deal. The scale goes from colorless to light coloring. Though this used to be important, it is not so much anymore as people are tending to use "black" diamonds and canary colored ones to come up with something unique to them. It has brought some parity the market, but for the most part, colorless = expensive and light = far less. If you stick in the Near Colorless range of "I" to "L" of faint, only a gemologist would be able to tell (which will happen, every lady at some point gets it cleaned and just happens to ask. Plus, for insurance purposes you'll want it properly graded) . Maybe you'll be lucky and she'll comment on how cool yellow diamonds are ;-).

- Cut - The cut in my non-expert opinion is the most important! If the stone was cut right, it would have been cut in a way to let light shine in and refract and reflect in such away that if there are any flaws from the above characteristics, they are masked. This becomes important in the type of setting you choose. If you do not choose the right setting for the ring, all positive features of the stone will be muted and it might appear dull, lackluster, and not of very good quality.

So, in my case, I found a local place, picked out the stone, worked with them to design the ring, and all told, spent $2,500.00 and got their expert craftsmanship to boot. Far better then any mall jewelers, Jared's, Shane Co. & Tiffany's included. When it came time for the band, I did the same thing and paid an additional $1,350.00. When we went for the homeowners appraisal, it came in at $8,500.00 and I looked like a champ. Granted, my SO knows exactly what I did and why I did it, but she cares nonetheless. She got a great ring that is unique only to her (we destroyed the wax mold) and has a far brillant shine and luster than her pals that overpaid for crap. You can actually see the dam thing scintillate when she walks back from the mailbox. This is exactly why you see some ladies with massive rings that upclose look dull, like they have dirt in them, and a slight tinge of urine color in direct light. But who cares, I got a 1.5 carat ring ya'll!!!

At any rate, you can go HERE to the GIA website and read more indepth as to what I'm babbling about. If you take the time, you can come out far, far, far ahead in this. Then, if all else falls, go to CostCo. Seriously. Their buyers are experts on riding this fine line and they leverage buying power to get some good deals. You can find anything from a $2,500.00 ring to a $300k monster. Either way, you'll fair far better then at the malls.

Hope this helps.

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Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:03:34 GMT

I'm meeting with a small local jewler on Monday to go over our options and show him a couple of rings that we both really liked to see what he can build for us.

Re: options for buying a ring

skigirl916 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:21:37 GMT

I'd shop around at various jewelry stores that offer financing with 0% interest for a specified time period, and buy the ring there.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 05:25:40 GMT

i would just use one card ... the venture, since it has the higest limit.

Congrats btw

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 09:02:31 GMT

I second the recommendation to do your research re the 4 c's, so you can maximize the value you get for what you spend. And shop around.

I just went through this last year. I bought a stone and had it set.

The best deal for a classic Tiffany style white gold Solitaire custom setting in my area did happen to be one of the stores at the mall- but not the first one I tried, which quoted me 4 times the price that one of the other mall stores offered, Fred Meyers Jewelers which is owned by the grocer chain, did the setting for $220.

Also, conside a lab-grown diamond- it is chemically indistinguishable, just made in a lab instead of underground, and you will pay about 50% the cost of a mined diamond. It is also conflict free and more ecologically friendly. Only a few companies are doing this, Gemesis seems to be the biggest.

Lab grown diamonds might be harder to resell, but reselling diamonds bought retail is a losing proposition anyway- they are not an investment vehicle, save the $20 million dollar one of a kind high carat stones bought and sold by the super-rich, because they are in limited supply.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 13:01:07 GMT

I think its an absolutely horrible idea.

I dont think you should have to get in debt to prove you love someone...

Young man buy a ring you can afford!

If she cant accept an affordable engagement ring then......

A $900 engagement ring should be recieved the same way as a $5k ring.

Think about the other costs, enagement ring, wedding arrangements wedding ring, honeymoon.

Are you going to charge all of these expenses too? Gotta think about that.

Dont feel guilty, if you cant afford it right now that shouldnt be an issue in my eyes. Save up and buy it when it becomes affordable to do so.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:30:21 GMT

I run an estate jewelry store and we tell people all day long "we will happily take as much money as you want to give us, but please don't go into debt over something as silly as an engagement ring." and it's true, you can always upgrade her later, and we see that plenty of times.

Most young people (under 30) stay in the $900-$3500 range (barring the occasional 24 year old finance major who works at Merrill Lynch and writes us a $20k check), but get something beautiful that you're confident you can afford. That's my advice.

Re: options for buying a ring

dawnm72174 — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 15:12:30 GMT

When my husband and I were engaged 13 years ago we opted to not buy a ring to show the world that "I was his." Instead we used the money towards our wedding bands. Fast forward 9 years, when we were more financially stable, he surprised me with a small diamond engagement ring to go with my wedding band. He paid cash and this small ring means more to me than any larger ring ever could

In my opinion, a $5,000 engagement ring is unnecessary. If you really want to get her a ring make it more budget friendly. The extra money you'll be saving could be put into your retirement account or your future children's college fund. Or your honeymoon. Like I said, this is my opinion.

Anyway, congratulations to you and your fiancée. Wishing many years of happiness to you both.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 18:29:12 GMT

And okay, the jeweler in me is coming out, here goes:

1) When you buy jewelry that's mass produced (Jared, Kay's, Zales, etc.) you really do need to pay attention to quality. The 4 C's are a place to start, and as someone said earlier, I concur that cut is the most important aspect of a stone, here's why:

- Color is in the eye of the beholder. If you want a white stone, fine, but if you want a "white enough" stone, anything from F-I should be fine... though no lower than J, unless you want a warm toned stone.

- Clarity isn't what makes a diamond sparkle, necessarily, and most diamonds HAVE something going on in them. VVS or VS by today's standard is fairly exceptional, but SI1-2 is where most stones tend to fall (unless they're worse), and that means they're basically clean to the naked eye.

- Carat. Who cares how much a stone weighs? If it's an ego thing, fine, but if not, just know that it's a measurement of weight (mass) not of size, which brings me to:

- Cut. An off cut stone can make all the difference in the world. A diamond gets its sparkle from its cut, and cuts can make or break the character of a stone. Remember earlier, when I said that carat is an approximation of weight? A 1 carat stone should be 6.4-6.6 (ideally 6.5) millimeters wide, across the top. Any wider, and it's cut too shallow, any narrower, and it's cut too deep. This applies to modern round cuts only, old cuts (Old European, Mine Cut) were cut deeper/shallower than today's standards, and that's OK. That's how they're supposed to be. Brilliant Earth gets away with selling 1 carat stones for so cheap because they tend to be off cut. A 6'4" guy and a 5'3" guy can both weigh 200 pounds, but which one does the weight look better on?

Also, beware of store financing and read the terms very carefully. A financing company approached us about 5 years ago with an offer to underwrite any financing we decided to do. Their standard interest rate was 25% and they generously offered to share some of that with us. 25% was usurious as far as we're concerned, and we declined. In good conscience, we couldn't gouge people like that.

Finally, diamond certifications mean an agency has looked at it and they judge it to be something. A cert doesn't make a diamond better, it just means it's been evaluated. That being said, GIA, EGL USA, and the AGS (American Gemological Society) are the most reputable certification agencies. Avoid EGL Israel and other branches of the EGL (there are numerous cert agencies with the EGL name, EGL USA is the one to trust). Also, the IGL is useless.

Anyway, I overshared, but this is what I do for a living and I couldn't leave the thread alone.

TL;DR - Make sure you know what you're getting. Be smart about it. Buy something you can afford. Beware the finance monster, read your certifications carefully and be sure the certification agency is reputable.

Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 18:46:47 GMT

Thanks for all the advice on what to look for in diamonds and rings. As for the purchase I decided to go ahead with the auto loan refinance. My monthly payments only go up $35/month and add on 8 more payments from what I currently have left. I will actually end up saving money overall on interest from what my current loan was.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 22:18:05 GMT

Congratulations!

Just my two cents, but get her something SHE will love.

Re: options for buying a ring

2014repair — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 15:01:39 GMT

Her and I have looked together a number of times and both just absolutly love this ring we are going to have made. We can't find this same style anywhere else and every jewler we talk to says to have it made and not to even look at their rings.

Re: options for buying a ring

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 03:18:08 GMT

Hi,

Congratulations on your upcoming engagement. The rule of thumb when I got engaged was to budget approximately 2 months salary on a ring and to pay for it in cash. Getting married is a big thing and there's no point in going into debt in the process and getting started out in debt. As others have said, spend what you can afford. If you really need to extend yourself, save up for it just as you would for a big vacation.

If you know someone in the jewelry business, see if they can get you into a wholesale shop. Doing that saved me a lot of money. The $5K ring I bought for my future wife appraised at twice that. I picked a loose diamond and it was set while I waited.

Best Regards,