Do You Need A Safe Deposit Box?

By Author: Damien Alcock
Total Articles: 143
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This safe place is what you get with a Safe deposit box, as it is a facility particular to financial institutions for storing clients' valuables and essentials.


However, there is the question of whether it is a necessary option to store essential and valuable documents and items. This article will answer that question, highlighting information about how a Safe deposit box works, its benefits and demerits, and how you can get and use it. This information will be vital in helping you determine if you need this facility.


What is a Safe Deposit Box?
Sometimes, there are better ways to do things than storing essential and valuable documents and items like family heirlooms, property documents, and more at home. This is because the unexpected can happen in the form of an accident and damage the items. Hence, a Safe deposit box is a facility used to preserve these essential and valuable documents and items, protecting against some unexpected events, like fire outbreaks or theft, and more. 


How Does the Safe Deposit Box Works?
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... First, where can you find a Safe deposit box? It is present in banks and other financial institutions, as they are tasked with safekeeping valuables like money. The Safe deposit box is a metallic box kept in the institution's vault for safekeeping.


These boxes come in various sizes, with the smallest size being a 3X5 inches box and the largest a 10X10 inches box. Its size depends on what the client wishes to store in it. Financial institutions operate these Safe deposit boxes using a dual-key system. In a system where the Safe deposit box has only two keys in existence, one of the keys is handed to a registered client for easy access to the Safe deposit box assigned to the client, and the bank keeps the other key.


The dual-key system protects the safe deposit boxes assigned to clients, where only a client with the box's key can access the box. The key with the institution functions like a physical or electronic key used in opening the vault before a client can access the Safe deposit box. Hence, you cannot access the Safe deposit box without the institution's consent. The bank or financial institution requires an authorized signature before the key is handed to the client opening a safe deposit box account. Hence, if the person who shows up with the key to request access to the box needs to be recognized by the bank, access is denied.


Also, once an item has been locked up in a safe deposit box, it is stored there for a specified period, as the financial institution will charge you a fee for the time the item is in storage. Your access to the stored item depends on when the financial institution is open.


What can and cannot be Stored in a Safe Deposit box?
You should and should not store some items in a Safe deposit box. This information is helpful because instincts can direct you to store everything you consider essential and valuable in a Safe deposit box. These are some of the items

What can be stored in a Safe deposit box:

Birth, death, and marriage certificates


Deeds to properties for Realtors


Car titles (although you should have a duplicate with you).


Stocks and bonds


Family heirlooms and photos


Legal documents

What cannot be stored in a Safe deposit box:

Items you can find a need for at anytime/unexpectedly


Drugs


Weapons and ammunition


Human remains, like the ashes of the dead.

Merits of a Safe Deposit Box
What are the advantages of using a Safe deposit box to store valuables and essential items? They include:

Safer than home storage: The level of security the vault in banks offers to your valuables and essential items is more significant than that offered by your home's file cabinet, drawer, or pillow.


You know where things are: Sometimes, you keep things in different places in your home for safekeeping and need to remember where you kept them. This does not happen with a Safe deposit box, as the only item you are tasked with keeping is the key to the deposit box. Hence, once you find the key, you know where your valuables and essential items are.


Personal items are protected from family members: There are homes where the family members are more of a security concern, especially for your valuable and essential documents. In this kind of home setting, the home is not safe for your valuables. Hence, the Safe deposit box is an ideal and safer option, as you are the only one with access to the items, and you can register any trusted family member with the bank to have authorized access to the deposit box.

Demerits of a Safe Deposit
 Using the Safe deposit box does not promise to be all merits; there are risks associated with using this facility, and they are:

Limited liability: In the case of the unexpected happening to the items in the Safe deposit box, financial institutions do not have an insurance scheme to cover the box's contents. Hence, to overcome the risk of limited liability when using a Safe deposit box, you must secure insurance for every item that will be kept in the deposit box. (If there are any insurance schemes available for them).


Limited access: Banks and financial institutions are not open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Various factors influence their opening hours, and you only gain access to the Safe deposit box when the banks are open. Hence, you do not have unlimited access to the items stored in the Safe deposit box.


Contents can be lost: The Safe deposit box is yours to use, provided you have paid the required fee (rent fee) for a specific period. Hence, when this fee is not paid, the institution can open the box as it is considered dormant, and its contents become unclaimed property.


Survivors face delays: If the Safe deposit box belonged to a deceased individual, a procedure must be followed before its contents can be transferred to the deceased survivor, and this procedure can take time. Hence, delays are one risk faced when using Safe deposit boxes.


They are not disaster-proof: Some disasters can be avoided, which is why you chose to use the Safe deposit box; some disasters cannot be avoided or proofed against with Safe deposit boxes. These disasters include fire and flood. Hence, it would help if you took measures to protect your items from these disasters when using a Safe deposit box.

Conclusion
The Safe deposit box is an excellent option to store your essential and valuable items, but whether it is necessary depends on preference. There are alternatives to a Safe deposit box you can use to store your valuables and essential documents and belongings. However, it is another topic on its own. The information above will help you decide if you need a safe deposit box and how to get one.