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Safety deposit box

nala

nala

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
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7,354
So I'm going to go open one today and deposit a lot of my lovelies! Does anyone else have one? Do you think they are 100 percent safe? Any special tips?
 
My friend has a home safe that fireproof. It's about 6 ft by 3 foot by 1 foot. It weighs a ton, literally. Not doable for most people. In fact now she has two! I would think a safety deposit box would be quite safe!
 
I'm sure you've already done this, check what your insurance on the items says about coverage whilst there, take very detailed photos of everything you put in to the safety deposit box, if possible next to your proof of purchase/appraisal. Keep the receipts/appraisals separately. :)
 
I just got the smallest one at my bank yesterday for $63 a year. I'm going to use it when I travel.
 
I just got the smallest one at my bank yesterday for $63 a year. I'm going to use it when I travel.
 
I just got the smallest one at my bank yesterday for $63 a year. I'm going to use it when I travel.
 
I use one when I travel. Keep everything in a fireproof safe, bolted into the foundation of my home. However, I know that crooks can break them open if the opportunity arises. So when I am away for an extended time, put my jewels in the bank safe.
 
The drawback with keeping things in a safety deposit box is the inconvenience of getting it out again. I put my rings in years ago before an extended trip abroad and I haven't gotten around to retrieving them. My fingers have been bare for 5 years, if not longer!
 
I was at mine just yesterday. It's the smallest available and costs about $50 a year I think. Having worked in a bank many years ago, I think they are very safe. Although I live I in one of the safest cities in the country and have a large, loud dog (supposedly the best kind of security because most bad guys will bypass a house with a dog when there is always another house out there, without a dog.)
 
I've had one for the past 20 years. My bank is a 10 minute drive and it takes less than 5 minutes to put stuff in and get stuff out. I looked into getting a home safe but found it an unpractical option for me.
 
t-c said:
The drawback with keeping things in a safety deposit box is the inconvenience of getting it out again. I put my rings in years ago before an extended trip abroad and I haven't gotten around to retrieving them. My fingers have been bare for 5 years, if not longer!
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Get thee to the bank, t-c!!!!
I've done the same, though not for five years. Months, maybe two or three :)
 
KaeKae said:
Get thee to the bank, t-c!!!!
I've done the same, though not for five years. Months, maybe two or three :)
Click to expand...

Hehe, yes! Get thee to the bank, t-c!

It's a minor inconvenience having a safety deposit box in the bank, but I have this addition to having a home safe. For me, the inconvenience of making the trip to the bank outweighs the risks of keeping all your jewellery at home (particularly when you travel), including 1) burglars/home invaders threatening or worse harming you, 2) your home safe being carted out of the house etc...

As someone said, some insurance policies would also allow you to insure your jewellery in the safety deposit box, for a very very low rate.
 
I have a friend who's home safe was carted out by burglars in 11 min! It took them 11 min while it took the cops 15 min to reach the house. They were long gone! My friend and family were out of the country at the time. She lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, family heirloom, and jewelries. None was insured. She only could claim 10% of value from her home insurance. Unless home safe is super heavy and bolted, I think home safe is a bullseye target for burglars... But, that's just my opinion...
 
acebruin said:
I have a friend who's home safe was carted out by burglars in 11 min! It took them 11 min while it took the cops 15 min to reach the house. They were long gone! My friend and family were out of the country at the time. She lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, family heirloom, and jewelries. None was insured. She only could claim 10% of value from her home insurance. Unless home safe is super heavy and bolted, I think home safe is a bullseye target for burglars... But, that's just my opinion...
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I have been thinking about getting a home safe when we move, and have heard similar stories about a safe just being carted out of the house. I will still get one once we move, so I have something more secure than my jewelry box in the house, but I will also get a small safe deposit box, as I've had for 15 years now. I will also NOT put the safe in my own bedroom, which I understand is the first place a thief will go, especially if he wants to be in and out very quickly, like in your story. And, it will be bolted down, where ever I put it.
 
If your going to put something highly valuable in a safe get a 3hour fire Class 350(ok for jewelry and paper, 150 is better(rated for photos) and 125(floppy disks will survive lol) the best)) tl15 safe and bolt it down or better yet encase it in concrete. Any safe is just to slow the crooks down long enough for your alarm to summon the cops.

The internet combined with powerful battery powered grinders has made safes less than tl15 obsolete.
Generally there is a huge price and wight jump to to tl30.
You can sometimes pick up a used tl15 2-3hour class 350 fire out of a out of business store or bank for a steep discount.

2hour class 350 will be fine in most all house fires but the 3hour is added insurance.
 
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That's good information, Karl K. Thank you.
After looking at pricing, any ideas on how to convince my husband that I need one of those? ;)
 
Hi Nala,

Only tips I have is that you are not supposed to put pearls in there or opals. They need to breathe.
I use the largest safe deposit box that my bank has. It cost me 95.oo per yr, but I can put the boxes that the jewelry comes with right in there, Necklaces, bracelets, rings and stones, and store the certs or appraisals there as well.

It saves insurance costs, and you just have to hope bank robbers leave your bank alone.

I keep the less expensive jewelry at home. Lately, I have begun to see prices rise more than expected, and so keep moving the jewels to the safe deposit box. I do visit them every so often.

When I was a young woman, a friends mother used to take her grandchildren to the bank on a rainy day to visit her jewels. The girls loved going. So enjoy going to the bank to see your jewels.
Have fun.

Annette
 
KaeKae said:
That's good information, Karl K. Thank you.
After looking at pricing, any ideas on how to convince my husband that I need one of those? ;)
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To be honest, most people who do buy a good safe do so after they or someone close to them has already been robbed :{
 
Safety deposit box for me. My dh keeps suggesting we buy a safe but I'm afraid of him realizing how much I own by seeing it all in one place :eek:

(My aunt had her safe stolen from her house while out of town...the safe was found miles away in a wooded area..papers still there but jewelry was all gone)
 
I agree that a safe deposit box offers the best amount of security for me. I've heard stories of home safes being carted off by robbers, too. My husband thinks that it's good and cheap, too.

The drawback is that anything put inside is not easily accessible to ME and so those pieces rarely get worn, or I don't get back to the bank shortly after a trip and my more valuable, but everyday pieces aren't being worn. Accept for a couple heirlooms, I want to have them accessible to me, but yet, it would be good if I could also have some better security than hiding them in the house. (especially considering my track record of forgetting where I put them!)
 
Even with safety deposit box you NEED insurance. Back in 1980 I sold a client two diamonds for over $50,000, fortune in those days. He could have insured them for $0.25 per thousand, a pittance.

About four months after he bought them, the bank was robbed and the safety deposit boxes looted. Without insurance he got a few dollars from the bank, but their liability was severely limited by the contract that he had signed.

Such a loss is incredibly rare, but if you are going to go to the trouble of getting a box, it costs so very little to protect yourself that I highly recommend it.

Wink
 
acebruin said:
I have a friend who's home safe was carted out by burglars in 11 min! It took them 11 min while it took the cops 15 min to reach the house. They were long gone! My friend and family were out of the country at the time. She lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, family heirloom, and jewelries. None was insured. She only could claim 10% of value from her home insurance. Unless home safe is super heavy and bolted, I think home safe is a bullseye target for burglars... But, that's just my opinion...
Click to expand...

A little bit different, but I know a kid who broke into parents' biometric safe. Just made a hole in it.
 
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