Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

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MikeZ
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Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by MikeZ »

So I am in the process moving my banking to Ally from Wells Fargo (a manager was rude to my wife so I prefer to never do business with them again). The last piece seems to be my small safe deposit box which contains: Car titles, wedding license, paper savings bonds, birth certificates, passports, ssn cards, and a CD with our wedding photos. I pay $30/yr.

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts would be on moving this stuff to a small home safe or if I should try and find somewhere else where I can get a box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

I have a small fire proof safe for similar items. I have installed it retained into a concrete surface which is not theft proof but would detur an easy theft and might be easier to locate in case of fire.
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southbay
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by southbay »

I use a simple fire safe at home. I prefer it to a bank.

Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
Rupert
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Rupert »

I think it's a good idea to store original legal documents in a safe deposit box and copies of those documents in a home safe. I've heard that home safes, at least the less expensive ones that most people use, don't always fare well in a home fire. The best ones will protect paper for a maximum of 30 minutes, if kept down low (i.e., in a basement). It seems that where the safe is placed in the home is very important; so make sure you research that. Check Consumer Reports, which has reviewed home safes in the past. I would shop around for a new safe deposit box if I were you.

Edited to add: Also, how far are you from a fire station? What is the fire department's average response time? Do you have fire/smoke detectors hardwired into a home security system that would alert the fire department to a fire quickly when you and your neighbors are not home? All of this is important to your decision given the fact that home safes only protect paper documents inside for a maximum of 30 minutes. (They protect other items, such as photographs, slides, and digital storage devices for an even shorter amount of time.)
Last edited by Rupert on Wed Oct 28, 2015 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
tim1999
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by tim1999 »

Consider a full-height fireproof gun safe, even if you don't own guns. The kind that can be bolted to the frame of the house or a concrete floor.
Mike Scott
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Mike Scott »

Bank deposit box vaults have both security and fire suppression systems that are far beyond the protection of almost any safe you can purchase.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by saltycaper »

Rupert wrote:I think it's a good idea to store original legal documents in a safe deposit box and copies of those documents in a home safe.
Depends on the document and your state of residence. If it's a document where only the original is of any use, and if you might need to access that document in an emergency, when the bank might be closed, perhaps it's better to keep the original at home. A copy could go in a safe deposit box so that if the original were destroyed, it could be easily re-created.
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Cheyenne
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Cheyenne »

Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
Or put one in your bedroom closet with unimportant, easily replaceable documents, some cheap jewelry and a little cash as a decoy; then have another safe with the valuable items hidden elsewhere.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by jebmke »

Fireproof safes aren't always completely fireproof in a real house fire. Friend of mine found that out the hard way. Safe didn't burn but the contents were toast including metal jewelry (stones survived).
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anil686
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by anil686 »

I have a small safe deposit box for those items too - I feel better with them there but everybody is different. I do have a small home safe for some jewelry that my spouse likes to wear but not frequently but would be a relative annoyance to get from a safe deposit box as well as some copies of legal paperwork. I agree with the comments of fire proof safes - they sound good but I hope I never have to find out and considering the relative cheapness of the safety deposit box at my local bank, I made the decision to keep one...
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by JW-Retired »

MikeZ wrote: So I am in the process moving my banking to Ally from Wells Fargo (a manager was rude to my wife so I prefer to never do business with them again). The last piece seems to be my small safe deposit box which contains: Car titles, wedding license, paper savings bonds, birth certificates, passports, ssn cards, and a CD with our wedding photos. I pay $30/yr.

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts would be on moving this stuff to a small home safe or if I should try and find somewhere else where I can get a box.
A "small home safe" is not going to be very effective against much of a house fire or any sort of experienced thief.

We have a 400 lb safe that is very well bolted to the floor but we still keep a safe deposit box for important stuff. A good friend's parents kept a lot of jewelry in their heavy bolted-in safe in a closet. The thieves just power sawed it out of the wall/floor and hauled it off.

Personally, I would keep the WF box. They are not making any money on it at $30/yr so you closing it would make them happy. If you need to keep some minimal account balance to keep it I would do that too.
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heartwood
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by heartwood »

We had the same choice a few years ago and decided to stay with the bank safe deposit. One reason was significantly reduced premiums for insurance for several personal items, generally jewelry. It's extra effort to have appraisals, list the items on the policy and notify the agent of each in/out of the items. You're also limited to a number of times/year. But the premium savings are large. Another reason was the cost of the home safe, and cost of secure installation.

For our bank SD we always get the box highest off the floor that is available to minimize flood damage, either natural or fire suppression. Extreme? Our old bank was in a flood zone. A few years ago the overall area flooded, but it did not reach the bank. Imagine all your papers (or stamps?) after a flood.

We recently changed branches and had a choice of one adjacent to a river or one at a higher elevation not near a waterway. They were equidistant for us. We chose the higher elevation and still went for the box that is highest off the floor. It doesn't cost any more to ask.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Carson »

Thanks for the thoughts in this thread. We pay $28/yr at a local bank for our safe deposit box which holds our personal docs and some misc (I don't have any jewelry or valuables). We keep about $100 in a savings account there (no fees, no interest). DH suggested that we get a home safe instead, but I'm not interested in something massive. Will keep renting the box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by celia »

We have a small "fire-proof" safe that we keep in our closet. As it only contains papers and it would be easy to carry out the whole box, to deter a thief I wrote something like "documents" on the top and keep the key in it. I'd rather have the papers rifled through than missing.

The important stuff is at the bank. Since we've been long-time customers and have larger-than-average balances, I guess, I request that they waive the safe deposit fee each year and they do. When there was a shortage of boxes for a while, they weren't going to waive it, but usually they do.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by miles monroe »

heartwood wrote: For our bank SD we always get the box highest off the floor that is available to minimize flood damage, either natural or fire suppression. Extreme? Our old bank was in a flood zone. A few years ago the overall area flooded, but it did not reach the bank. Imagine all your papers (or stamps?) after a flood.
yep, and keep your stuff in a waterproof container inside the safe deposit box for the same reason.

i agree with the others who believe you are kidding yourself if you think a home safe is equal to a bank safety deposit box. access to a box is the only reason i still have an account with the bank.
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Epsilon Delta »

saltycaper wrote: Depends on the document and your state of residence. If it's a document where only the original is of any use, and if you might need to access that document in an emergency, when the bank might be closed, perhaps it's better to keep the original at home. A copy could go in a safe deposit box so that if the original were destroyed, it could be easily re-created.
I'm not sure what legal documents you could need before the bank opens. As far as I can see the only things on the list are passport and drivers license. And the passports only on the list for people who have urgent connections to foreign parts -- impromptu trips to the Bahamas are not emergencies.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by ddurrett896 »

MikeZ wrote: I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts would be on moving this stuff to a small home safe or if I should try and find somewhere else where I can get a box.
Small safe under the bed: for home defense pistol only.
14 guns safe in garage (400lbs): All other guns and ammo
Smaller safe in garage (700lbs+): Any documents, jewelry when on vacation/etc.

The above, plus backing a vehicle up to the garage door when away on vacation and I don't have any worries. If you don't have/plan on owning long buys, buy a smaller safe that's heavy and keep it in the garage.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by saltycaper »

Epsilon Delta wrote:I'm not sure what legal documents you could need before the bank opens. As far as I can see the only things on the list are passport and drivers license. And the passports only on the list for people who have urgent connections to foreign parts -- impromptu trips to the Bahamas are not emergencies.
The comment wasn't directed at the OP's list, but rather to Rupert's comment about legal documents in general. I include in this business contracts, insurance documents, wills, living wills, power of attorney, and so forth. Sometimes the copy is as good as the original. Other times it's not. One should understand potential pitfalls in keeping such documents out of immediate reach. Also, potential issues with accessing the safe deposit box if one were to die or become incapacitated should be considered. I'm not saying don't use a safe deposit box, just that it's important to consider document by document where the original should be kept, when it's prudent to make copies and where to keep them, etc.
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MikeZ
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by MikeZ »

saltycaper wrote: And the passports only on the list for people who have urgent connections to foreign parts -- impromptu trips to the Bahamas are not emergencies.
I actually have two valid passports at the moment so I have a backup in just such a case....
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Epsilon Delta »

saltycaper wrote:
Epsilon Delta wrote:I'm not sure what legal documents you could need before the bank opens. As far as I can see the only things on the list are passport and drivers license. And the passports only on the list for people who have urgent connections to foreign parts -- impromptu trips to the Bahamas are not emergencies.
The comment wasn't directed at the OP's list, but rather to Rupert's comment about legal documents in general. I include in this business contracts, insurance documents, wills, living wills, power of attorney, and so forth.
I agree you need to consider things individually, but the default should be you don't need it at home. I'd certainly add living wills and similar care directives to the short list of as things you might need when the bank is closed.

I just find it hard to imagine the business contracts, insurance documents, wills or powers of attorney are on the list. Generally if it's dealing with money it can wait, and generally it will wait because getting other people to act when the banks are closed is hard.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Bylo Selhi »

MikeZ wrote:contains: Car titles, wedding license, paper savings bonds, birth certificates, passports, ssn cards, and a CD with our wedding photos
In addition to a home fire-resistant safe, another, um, out-of-the-safe-deposit-box idea...

All of those are paper documents. You can make copies using a scanner, camera or even the camera built into a smartphone, then store those copies on flash drives, in the cloud, etc. (If you don't trust cloud servers then encrypt the files first.) You might want to have the wedding photos copied by a professional if preservation of picture quality is important.

While you probably can't use copies of official documents for routine use(*), they do serve as proof if the originals are ever lost, stolen or destroyed and you apply for replacements. FWIW I keep copies of our passports, drivers licenses, other official documents and credit cards in a Dropbox (cloud) account so they're accessible from any computer or smartphone.

(*) but the times they are a-changing... Montreal man crosses U.S. border showing just iPad scan of passport.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by saltycaper »

Epsilon Delta wrote:I just find it hard to imagine the business contracts, insurance documents, wills or powers of attorney are on the list. Generally if it's dealing with money it can wait, and generally it will wait because getting other people to act when the banks are closed is hard.
True; death or incapacity of the box owner is probably a bigger reason than bank hours to keep some items out of the safe deposit box, particularly the original copy of a will. Co-owners can and certain relatives may be allowed to access the box, and a copy of the will may allow the executor to access the original, but distributing copies of a will is not always a good idea--maybe you want to change it later or simply not share the information with certain people. I suppose the power of attorney is not as big of a problem, as the agent ought to have this document anyway, but certainly one should not put the only copy in a safe deposit box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by jabberwockOG »

Be careful of low cost consumer grade fireproof safes because many will cause documents inside to mold and mildew. I found this out the hard way. Use a bank sd box for important papers.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by livesoft »

southbay wrote:Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
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btenny
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by btenny »

Sorry but I don't think home safes are fireproof. They melt beyond recognition and you loose everything at worst and at best the stuff inside melts and burns inside. So you still lose everything. These situations are what happened to several of my friends in the Angora wild fire in Lake Tahoe in 2007. My wife's good friend lost her entire home and her dogs in one hour. She and her husband went to lunch with friends. She lost $30K of diamond jewelry in a safe they never could find. He lost his entire business (tool sales business) and all his inventory and his work truck. The truck burned and most of it melted including the tire rims. He even found iron tool wrenches that were melted into strange spooky things. He never restarted the business. Another friend lost his home he built himself and his work truck and all his tools (builder guy) and a big gun safe loaded with stuff. There are tons of stories about lost stuff and no one mentions a safe helping.

Since then we have created tons of electronic copies of most of our old pictures and keepsakes. We have made a special effort to get and keep current with computer backups. We keep those backups in a safe deposit box. We have moved critical wills and real estate titles and car titles and similar records to the safe deposit box. We now have two overlapping backup disks. We always leave one in the safe deposit box and take one home to copy stuff onto. Every few months we rotate. My wife keeps her stuff on keychain fobs and takes them with her.ds

So yes take stuff and put in in a Safe Deposit Box. That has fire protection and so forth. Is it safe from wild fire? Who knows?
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Epsilon Delta »

livesoft wrote: We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
You may find that the lock is part of the fire proofing. All UL tests are conducted with the box locked. You don't want the lid popping off when the tumescent seal expands, or the box falls over during a fire. Maybe lock it but leave the key in the lock.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by livesoft »

OK, I'll lock it and leave key in obvious place. Thanks!
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by denovo »

MikeZ wrote: a CD with our wedding photos. I pay $30/yr.

.
I would upload the photos to a free cloud service like google drive or one of the others.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by southbay »

livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
A thief might run off before looking. And, any important looking documents are appealing for potential identity theft. I would hide the fire box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by livesoft »

southbay wrote:
livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
A thief might run off before looking. And, any important looking documents are appealing for potential identity theft. I would hide the fire box.
I'm laughing at that because these cement boxes are too heavy for anybody to run with them. In any event, the papers in them are replaceable anyways.
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southbay
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by southbay »

livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:
livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
A thief might run off before looking. And, any important looking documents are appealing for potential identity theft. I would hide the fire box.
I'm laughing at that because these cement boxes are too heavy for anybody to run with them. In any event, the papers in them are replaceable anyways.
my box is not cement.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by bertilak »

southbay wrote:
livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:
livesoft wrote:
southbay wrote:Do not put it in your master bedroom closet. That is often the first place thieves look.
We have no personal valuables, so we leave the "fireproof" boxes unlocked in our bedroom closet. We don't want thieves to carry them away, but I am fine if they look inside and only find stupid documents.
A thief might run off before looking. And, any important looking documents are appealing for potential identity theft. I would hide the fire box.
I'm laughing at that because these cement boxes are too heavy for anybody to run with them. In any event, the papers in them are replaceable anyways.
my box is not cement.
Mine was cement (about 300 pounds) and the thiefs ran off with it. There were two, according to "forensic evidence." They flipped the safe end-over end until they got it out of the house and were able to get it into the trunk of their car. Made a real mess of the staircase and hardwood floors. I could have bolted it down but I didn't think it necessary, my image of a thief being some weaselly-looking guy in a racoon mask and a pillowcase over his shoulder. Santa's evil twin!
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by stevewolfe »

jabberwock wrote:Be careful of low cost consumer grade fireproof safes because many will cause documents inside to mold and mildew. I found this out the hard way. Use a bank sd box for important papers.
Agreed. Depending on what you need to store, for example professionally graded and encapsulated cards, the best option for home that I found was a media vault that is UL125 rated (keeps contents at no more than 125F for up to 1 hour at 1700 degrees). It also handles humitity, dust, water. However the storage capacity is very small and the price was $400 or so. We keep important papers in the safe deposit box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Raven2 »

A home safe should be fire-proof and most important hidden away, perhaps in a basement covered by useless junk. Never leave it in a bedroom or anyplace where thieves might look. It is true that a bank deposit box is safer but there are two disadvantages. It is only accessible when the bank is open and the other is that if the owner dies access is limited to a Will or similar documents. Removal of securities, jewelry, and other valuables are restricted until the state performs an inventory for tax purposes.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by inbox788 »

I have both and hate both. It's a pain to keep things up to date in either, but for sure the safe deposit box is less useful. I've gone years without visiting bank and wondering why I kept half the stuff that was there. Most of the stuff that should be in the home safe is scattered around the house. Since neither is likely to be lost, copies or originals of documents is about equal, but a simple list of where to get replacements is probably sufficient. Wedding certificates are replaceable as are deeds and car titles. Insurance company and policy numbers can be let in ever and also in the cloud. Photos should also be on the cloud, and I'm trusting all my recent lower resolution photos to google photos. Still looking for a good home for the digital camera megapixel sized photos, and while I've considered an external hard drive in a safe or deposit box, it needs to be hooked up to a computer regularly to transfer regularly. So, besides a will, which a lawyer may hold an original, there's less and less that must be protected in the rare disaster situation.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by F150HD »

MikeZ wrote:So I am in the process moving my banking to Ally from Wells Fargo (a manager was rude to my wife so I prefer to never do business with them again). The last piece seems to be my small safe deposit box which contains: Car titles, wedding license, paper savings bonds, birth certificates, passports, ssn cards, and a CD with our wedding photos. I pay $30/yr.

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts would be on moving this stuff to a small home safe or if I should try and find somewhere else where I can get a box.
I had one too years back, but it was like $50 a year and ended up buying a home fire-safe instead. I keep the house abstract, birth certificate etc in it. Not much use for a burglar as its documents that are only worth anything to 'me'. You can by these at Menards and the like for $50ish.

http://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-H4300- ... B004QWZINW

If you keep digital media in it, make sure its rated for that.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by skatterZ »

Don't like safes in garage. Too easy to back in pickup and use come along to pull in truck. No matter Where you put it try to hide or camouflage it. For small safes I like a simple box with folded top over safe. When you need stuff, just lift box. ALWAYS secure safe to floor to make it harder to lift.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Johno »

It seems the problem with a countering a combined burglar/fire threat with a home safe is that you're inducing thieves to steal the safe w/ your important papers which are worth nothing to them and they'd otherwise probably ignore. But depends which threats are bigger. For us fire is definitely the greater risk (in 115yr old attached row house, and no burglaries in the neighborhood in memory of anyone on the block, decades). But flood is also quite possible plus perhaps some kind of contamination (from some mass terrorist thing in Manhattan a stone's throw away) preventing us accessing stuff in the house, if we're talking about worse cases, if talking about best cases then just don't worry. :D So we have a SDB at bank 17 miles further from the City on higher ground and across the street from its local police and fire houses. No safe at home. There are gaps in that plan, mainly wife's jewelry she mainly keeps around not in SDB, so might be lost in fire/other. Passports I don't worry about much, sure hassle to replace but replaceable.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by midareff »

I went with an electronic apartment safe when I bought my condo 12 years ago. The building is gated, guarded and secure with hall cameras and surveillance system, and in a better neighborhood so someone busting up an interior concrete wall to remove the safe is not a concern. We keep important papers like passports, titles, jewelry and some emergency cash. I gave up a free safety deposit box ... even though it was in the neighborhood it just wasn't convenient.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by furnace »

If burglary is a concern, consider buying a good safe and stuffing it with newspapers and rocks and lock it up. Then put your important documents in other places in the house.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by SouthernCPA »

To get a safe that is actually going to protect documents from a fire for any extended period of time(like the bolted down gun safe recommended) is going to take many years of safety deposit box payments to justify the cost. I pay $25/year for my box at the Bank and they've got a much better system than I'll ever have at my house.

Keep originals at bank SDB and scanned copies in electronic format in a encrypted format on a cloud based service like Carbonite, etc.

After living in a house that took 28 foot of water in Hurricane Katrina, I'd rather not keep anything at my house. The last thing you really want to think about post disaster is your documents....
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by SouthernCPA »

Also, while we're on the topic of storing documents, take the time to take photos of everything in your house. Maybe even video walkthroughs.

This saved us a ton of time (and likely got us a better claim on contents) with insurance adjusters after we took 28 feet of water in Katrina. Store these online in digital format and in the safety deposit box.
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by MathWizard »

Keep a Bank safety deposit box. A home safe is not good enough.
You can keep copies of important docs in your home.
white_water
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Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:16 pm

Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by white_water »

Note: cheap home safes , esp "gun safes" use gypsum board similar to sheet rock, as a fire liner. The fire protection works because as gypsum
( hydrous calcium sulfate) is heated, it gives off water molecules, creating the cooling moisture inside the safe. After a time, the hydrous calcium sulfate turns to anhydrous calcium sulfate and begins to break down. A house fire may be knocked down in a few minutes, or could last for hours,
far beyond the 30, 60 or 90 minutes the fire rating is good for. That's why true "fire safes" carrying a high fire rating ( such as media safes) are much more expensive than gun safes. Many less expensive gun safes have no UL fire rating as the testing is very expensive and building to that standard would raise the price point. High quality document/ media safes have welded in liners, fewer metal pieces connecting inner liner to outer shell that would transmit heat to the interior, thicker fire protection or use glass wool or other more expensive insulating material.

Bottom line, a gun safe is a fairly good anti theft device, but not a good bet for high temperature or prolonged temperature fires. And if they safe should fall thru a floor , say into a basement, it will likely be damaged, the fire liner can shift or crack, or the door can leak. ( That's a good reason not to put a safe in the basement, in a serious structural fire, a lot of water is going to end up in the basement damaging your documents anyway.

So if you want a or media safe with a high fire rating, be prepared to spend some money, or for the same money as a gun safe, you'll get much smaller capacity. Note: we have both, a "gun safe" and a safety deposit box.
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saltycaper
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by saltycaper »

Here's a related question, since some people have mentioned water issues. When I first got a safe years ago, I put all documents in Ziploc bags to protect against water damage. This seemed to be common advice posted on many websites at the time, and I've been doing it ever since without thought.

But, I think the autoignition temperature of paper is greater than 400 degrees, while the melting point of Ziploc bags is much lower. I wonder, will the melting plastic cause the paper to be damaged sooner than it otherwise would?
Quod vitae sectabor iter?
168gr
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Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:06 pm

Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by 168gr »

A floor safe is an excellent option, though there's a small hassle and cost to get it installed. They're by far the best option for new construction, if your primary purpose is to store items you won't need access to often.

They're inherently superior to other safes with regard to fire protection, being underground. You also get far better security vs burglary with them, because much more of the manufacturing cost can be put into the door and lock, only the door is exposed to attack, they can't be tipped on their side, and they can't be hauled off.

The safes one can buy at ordinary retail stores are for keeping children out. Most "gun safes" are made with sheet metal measured in gauge. Anyone with a pry bar, or a sawzall, will be inside quickly. That 400 pound glossy black Centurion at Lowes might cost $700 and look pretty, but it's a metal cabinet, not a safe.
Almost there
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Re: Replace safe Deposit Box with home safe?

Post by Almost there »

We purchased a home safe and attached it to cinder blocks and to the floor. Unfortunately had to leave it behind when we moved because we installed a water heater around the corner and the safe was now too large to be removed. We thought it was a good alternative to paying $60/year for a safe at a local bank.

When a locksmith came to our new home (he had installed his safe the same way) he informed us that thieves robbed his safe etc. So right now we don't know what to do in our our new home.

Almost there
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