A few years ago, engagement ring searches took place in high streets or in London's Hatton Garden (or Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter). Next came the growth of online jewellers which has reinvigorated the market and driven down prices.

Will the next phase in the engagement ring market see more people importing jewellery from around the world to find the best price?

It's a possibility - because many of the best value diamond ring sellers we've stumbled across in our search for cheap engagement rings have been megastores based in the USA.

Of course, there are import duties and taxes to pay on diamond rings. Generally that means you'll pay VAT (currently 20%) plus a customs duty (although that's usually just a couple of percent - HMRC has more detail). According to The Duty Calculator, you'd pay about £150 tax on a $1000 engagement ring.

There are also varying policies from the jewellers. Zoara, Overstock and Macys add the import duties in with your bill, whilst SuperJeweler leave you to pay it yourself. 

​But is the saving you're likely to achieve worth it once you've factored in a) the extra hassle and risks of dealing with a foreign postal service and b) those extra costs that come from importing?

Let's start by looking at the potential savings you can achieve by importing an engagement ring from the US.

In our search for the cheapest 1 carat diamond engagement ring, 4 of the top 10 were American stores.

Whilst well established UK jewellers were selling their cheapest 1 carat rings at around £2500 (Argos), £2700 (Goldsmiths) and £3800 (H Samuel), we found some US online jewellers were offering prices as cheap as £700 (Overstock), £1300 (SuperJeweler) and £1350 (B2C Jewels).

Of course, it's not that simple as no two diamonds are the same, but it does give an indication that bargain engagement rings can be found if you widen the net.

However, it's worth considering that once we take less well-known UK retailers into account, the US sellers suddenly don't look quite so remarkably cheap. We found Amazon Marketplace sellers offering new 1 carat rings for £800 and eBay based stores such as Diamond Jewelry United offering prices around £1100. Meanwhile, Diamond Heaven wasn't far behind some of the US sellers at £1750 and they carry the advantage of having actual stores in the diamond quarters of Birmingham and London.

So, the savings are considerable when you compare US megastores to UK high street retailers but less significant when you compare them to the cheapest engagement ring sellers in the UK (which tend to be those with the lowest overheads and only an online presence).

Those savings are also less significant if you are working to a smaller budget for your engagement ring. In our comparison of quarter carat diamond rings, SuperJeweler once again came in at a very good price (under £250), but Amazon was actually cheaper at around £220 and there were several UK base retailers that came very close including The Jewellery Channel (£270), Argos (£270) and F Hinds (£299).

You might endure the hassle of importing if it would save you £1000, but would you really bother to save £50? I know I wouldn't.

Exchange rates are also a factor to consider. When the pound is stronger, you'll get a better rate and the ring will work out cheaper. Remember that those prices are just based on the prices when we searched, and we've since seen a fair bit of fluctuation in the currency market following the EU referendum vote.

Finally, let's consider the hassle and convenience of importing engagement rings from the US.

There's a fair chance that you might need to return your engagement ring. I found that with UK online jewellers that is usually pretty simple. If you need a ring resizing you can get it back to them next day and get your new ring pretty pronto. In my case, it took a couple of attempts to get the right size and I was grateful that my fiance wasn't left waiting for days or weeks for international post.

My conclusion?

For cheaper engagement rings (under £500), I don't think there is enough of a price difference to bother importing from the USA. Once you start considering bigger carat diamond rings (1 carat or 2 carat) then your saving will start to increase, but you then face the question of whether you want the worry of £1000 or £2000 of jewellery flying around the world. Of course it will be insured, but if it will worry you then I wouldn't consider it.

For me, it's too much hassle to import engagement rings at this stage - though I certainly think it's worth considering if the exchange rate improves significantly or if you have your heart set on a very large diamond and can't find a good deal in the UK.

If you're starting your search, check out our guide to 10 of the best places to buy cheap engagement rings online for under £1000, £500 or £100 and our price comparisons for 0.25 carat, 1 carat and 2 carat diamond rings.

​Please note: Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, but we include good deals regardless of whether they have the potential to earn money for the site or not. 

I'm sure I am risking great controversy and trolling by saying this, but it is OK to consider buying a second hand engagement ring. 

Many of us have been sucked in to the various expectations of what makes a perfect wedding and proposal and we are terrified of being seen as the tight-fisted fiance who dares to question the norm. 

But let's be a little more realistic for a second.

As has been well reported, 'traditions' about spending a month or two month's salary on a diamond engagement ring are carefully constructed marketing messages from diamond manufacturers (or even 3 months salary according to some sources).

After all, we are talking about a month's salary - not just disposable income. The average UK salary is about £27,000 or £2250 per month, yet the average monthly disposable income for under 30s is about £400. So, if you wanted to spend your monthly salary (pre-tax) on an engagement ring you would be saving up for nearly 6 months, during which time you wouldn't be saving money for anything else or even leaving the house. You might trouble to keep this thriftiness secret from your potential spouse.

So - here's a refreshing phrase that will liberate you - it is OK to spend as much or as little as you like on an engagement ring. 

After much digging around and researching, my conclusion is that if you are working to a budget of £100 or £200 for a diamond engagement ring then you are best to buy second hand. I'm afraid most high street jewellers will laugh you out the shop with a budget along those lines, and you'll only get something very tiny from even the cheapest online jewellers.

If you've got a budget of £300 or more for your diamond ring then you can start to look for reasonable new diamond rings, although various sources put the average spend at somewhere around the £1000 mark.

So, what savings can you achieve if you buy a second hand diamond ring? 

As a very broad rule, I would expect to get a preloved ring from a private seller for somewhere between one fifth and one third of the original price. So, a ring with an original price of £1000 would sell for between £200 and £330. A ring with an original price of £2000 would sell for about £400 - £650. 

eBay is a good place to start - after about 5 minutes searching I found this 4 month old 18 carat white gold H Samuel ring with a 0.33 carat diamond which sold for £150, compared to a retail price of £700.

As you'll notice, diamond rings just don't hold their value as much as gold which can be melted down and reused as new.

If you fancy looking for yourself, search eBay for engagement rings under £100, under £200, under £500 and under £1000 or try Preloved ​or Etsy.

After a few minutes you'll notice that there are loads of used engagement rings on offer which have only been worn for weeks or months (or occasionally days).

I'm not trying to put you off proposing...but you may not be surprised to learn that many engagements don't work out, so there is an abundance of barely worn jewellery out there. According to the Daily Mail, a quarter of women have turned down a marriage proposal and according to Marie Claire, 10-15% of weddings are cancelled.

So, whilst it may feel a little mercenary, there are certainly bargains to be had in the used engagement ring market.

One final thing to consider - if your potential spouse is particularly superstitious then they may have an objection to second hand jewellery. Clues might include them refusing to walk under ladders or having a rabbit's foot and a four leaf clover hanging from their rearview mirror. (I've got no evidence to back this up, but I can't help feeling that the superstitions around second hand jewellery may well have been cooked up by marketeers for jewellers...)

Of course, you could keep the fact that the ring is secret hand secret...although I personally could see that backfiring rather spectacularly!

Good luck with your search!

See our guide for more advice on where to buy second hand diamond rings at the best price, or our guide to 10 of the best places to buy engagement rings under £1000, £500 and £100.

I once had an odd conversation with a bemused independent high street jeweller whilst shopping for my wedding ring. I asked what I would be getting for my money if I bought an 18 carat gold ring rather than a 9 carat wedding ring.

"Well, you'll get more gold" he replied, clearly slightly mystified at my stupidity.

"Yes, but what are the advantages of 18 carat gold over 9 carat" I said, clearly still appearing stupid.

"You get more gold" he said again. This conversation was clearly going nowhere, and he was getting irritated.

I gave up and went home.

I'm a practical person so owning gold for the sake of owning gold wasn't enough for me - I wanted to know a few more facts.

And after all, the difference in price between 9 carat gold, 18 carat gold and platinum engagement rings is pretty significant, so I didn't feel it was an unreasonable question.

For example, when I searched I found Amazon offering a 9 carat wedding band for £120 and a similar platinum ring for about £800. 18 carat gold generally costs twice as much as 9 carat gold rings.

You wouldn't buy a laptop or washing machine that cost six times as much as the rest without having some reassurance that it was 'better' than the cheaper alternatives.

So what's the answer, which metal is the best option?

The answer isn't as simple as you might hope, and there is some disagreement online about the various merits of 9 carat gold versus 18 carat gold.

According to H Samuel, 18 carat gold 'is much warmer and brighter in tone than 14ct and 9ct gold'.  However, 9 carat gold is 'stronger and more durable and particularly suited to the creation of jewellery'. 

However, you will find those online who say that 9 carat isn't actually more durable than 18 carat gold. For example, Australian jewellers Metal Urges says that 'The reason people believe 9ct gold to be more durable than 18ct gold is simple, there is confusion between the two terms 'hardness' and 'durability'. 

There then follows a thorough explanation of the semantics of various apparent synonyms which will leave you scratching your head and giving up on shopping for another evening. 

However, I think we can take heart from one single sentence within this article which sums up the futility of the whole debate: "An engagement ring made from 9ct gold can not be expected to last more than a lifetime's normal wear."

So, we can conclude that if you are happy for a ring to last for your wife's entire life then 9 carat gold will be fine. If you want it to last into the afterlife, then it might be better to pay another couple of hundred pounds for an 18 carat gold ring.

My view, as a practical person, rather than someone who loves to own expensive jewellery for the sake of it, is that 9 carat and 18 carat are both perfectly good enough for an engagement ring in terms of durability and quality.

If you are keen that your engagement ring has a 'brighter' tone then you might do better to choose 18 carat, but if the cost of marriage is putting you off proposing then I'd say 9 carat is a perfectly acceptable choice.

One other thing to consider - you should ideally choose the same type of gold ring for an engagement ring and a wedding ring. 18 carat gold rings are softer than 9 carat gold rings, so they will very very slowly rub against each other and wear away the softer ring.

Finally, let's consider platinum, where the advantages and disadvantages are rather less viciously debated.

H Samuel says that 'Many of us veer towards this metal because of its hardness and resistance to tarnishing'. An eBay article concludes that platinum 'never fades or changes colour' and I've not yet found many articles coming up with anything especially contradictory (I'm willing to be corrected on this).

You will though find that platinum is very expensive, and you may prefer to either let your gold ring lose a little colour over the years or get it replated at a jewellers (which will cost you somewhere in the region of £30, so far less than the extra cost of buying platinum).

If you're just starting out your search for an engagement ring, take a look at our guide to 10 things you need to know and our guide to 10 of the best places to buy cheap engagement rings under £1000, £500 and under £100.