The business of divorce is generating huge turnover for cash-for-gold outlets with one agency in the UK reporting over 10,000 wedding and engagement ring transactions already this year.
According to Postgoldforcash.com since their first advertisement featuring Ann Diamond was broadcast on British television in 2009, a bumper number of cash-strapped separating couples have turned to them to cash in on their rings.
In 2008, the divorce rate in England and Wales was over 11.2 people divorcing per 1000 married. Though this is one of the highest divorce rates worldwide, the divorce rate hasn’t been this low in England and Wales since 1979.
According to Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online.co.uk, the number of divorces will rocket in 2010 and onwards as a result of the economic recession. The most recent statistics from the UK Office for National Statistics show that, in the first quarter of 2010, there has been an increase of six per cent in dissolutions of marriages compared to the first quarter of 2009.
“It is no surprise that, if financial hardship is causing people to split up, they will gladly sell their unwanted gold rings for a good price,” he said.
One of the most recent Irish surveys, which shows divorce rates rising from just over 35,000 in 2002 to 59,000 in 2006, suggests the trend here is only a quarter of that in neighbouring Britain. However, with the recession continuing to bite, marriage meltdown may well catch on in accordance with the saying, “When poverty comes in the door, love flies out the window”.
