I lost my wedding ring. It felt awful. For days afterwards I’d go to touch my ring only briefly to re-experience the sensation of losing it. The only saving grace was that I lost it on my way home from a drunken night out – with my wife. imagine what she would have said if I was out with the lads.

I decided to claim on my insurance policy because I really wanted a replacement, it’s a piece of symbolism to which I’m attached, because I really wanted the same, distinctive ring and because I couldn’t afford to replace it. Thankfully, I had been paying a little extra to cover loss of our wedding rings – and extra still for accidental loss of valuable items. Or so I thought.

I phoned Halifax – or whatever it’s called now – to report it. The assistant was perfectly helpful, even if the website did advertise a disconnected phone number and even though I had to key-in my policy number and give the same details again to the person who took the call.

The next stage of the process was dealing the the loss adjusters – creatively called the Loss Management Group. They were particularly efficient and it was good to be able to email them my documents. Two days later they called me with their decision: the ring had increased in value by 10% in the two and a half years since I got married.

And then for the bad news which felt so unfair that I can only conclude that you don’t get a fair deal from the Halifax:

1. I can only buy a replacement ring from their jewellers of preference: H Samuel or Ernest Jones. Except I bought my ring in Hatton Garden and neither of their jewellers sell my ring. The closest designs they offer are rings that two people I know have.

And of course neither jeweller sell a platinum male wedding ring for £1000 so I will have to pay more.

This is wrong on a matter of principle. I didn’t buy my insurance with H Samuel. I shouldn’t be forced to buy their products in return.

2. I have to pay the excess in cash, up front, before they will give me the gift voucher. Great for their cashflow, not for mine.

3. They will give me a cash settlement so I can buy the ring I want – rather than the ring they want me to have. But I would need to accept a 40% reduction – 60% including the excess – which would leave me in no position to buy a replacement.

And at the end of all of this, with someone else’s choice of wedding ring and paying an extra £250 for the privilege, the cost of my insurance will increase by 30% to reflect the loss of my no claims bonus.

I always found it hard to trust insurance companies – if you gained more than you paid they would go bust. But they can’t all be as bad as the Halifax policy.

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