What's you safety deposit box fee?

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island
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What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by island »

if you have a safety deposit box can you please tell me what bank or credit union you use, what size, what you pay for it, and if you receive any discount for keeping a minimum balance there?

We have one at our local BoA branch and even with 2 direct deposit paychecks, balances to keep free checking, savings, ATM etc, and a high 5 figure Merrill brokerage account we still have to pay $100 year for the smallest box. It's really too small to meet our needs, but there is nothing larger available and a wait list for all sizes so I'm hesitant to give this one up.

Curious to hear what the Bogleheads are paying. If this is the norm, I'll stop grousing to myself. :annoyed
Thanks.
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welderwannabe
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by welderwannabe »

This may not be the help you are looking for, but many years ago we bought a small jewelers safe. UL Listed TL30x6. You can get a used one from a local safe place for a few thousand. The convenience was well worth it for us.
I am not an investment professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

I can not disclose the bank name lest they get wind of this and raise the fees to make up for lost business in other areas - small box with compensatory balance to obtain a discount - $60. The next size up box runs around $110 (not that much bigger).
"One should invest based on their need, ability and willingness to take risk - Larry Swedroe" Asking Portfolio Questions
zztr87
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by zztr87 »

$112/year. Our bank is in the bay area. We got the largest size they had. When they told me it was "large," I didn't even want to know what "small" looked like. These safe deposit boxes are tiny.
Gill
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Gill »

Free.
Gill
Cost basis is redundant. One has a basis in an investment | One advises and gives advice | One should follow the principle of investing one's principal
student
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by student »

If you have high 5 figures at Merrill Edge, did you sign up for Preferred Rewards? It gives you a free small deposit box.
sport
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by sport »

My bank charges $45 for a small box. By having sufficient deposits, I pay nothing for the box.
Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

sport wrote:My bank charges $45 for a small box. By having sufficient deposits, I pay nothing for the box.
You do realize you are paying for it as am I, the balances are being invested by the bank, the interest earned on it is paying for the box and then some.
"One should invest based on their need, ability and willingness to take risk - Larry Swedroe" Asking Portfolio Questions
AZAttorney11
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by AZAttorney11 »

Wells Fargo
Small (don't know the exact dimensions, but plenty of space for what we need)
$0
Cruise
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Cruise »

Medium box. $85.
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celia
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by celia »

Free. From a local private bank we've been with for about 30 years. Our account balances there are probably higher than the typical bank customer has. I got tired of paying for it, so called up the branch manager (who I now know) who waives the fee after looking at our
accounts.

In-person one-on-one relationships sometimes help.
sport
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by sport »

Grt2bOutdoors wrote:
sport wrote:My bank charges $45 for a small box. By having sufficient deposits, I pay nothing for the box.
You do realize you are paying for it as am I, the balances are being invested by the bank, the interest earned on it is paying for the box and then some.
Of course. I also get no-fee checking and no-charge check printing. With interest rates so low, I believe it is roughly a break even proposition. I also get a free pen with the bank's name on it. :happy
letsgobobby
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by letsgobobby »

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unclescrooge
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by unclescrooge »

Chase.
Free. One box each for both my and my wife.
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topper1296
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by topper1296 »

$40/year for a medium sized box with a large national bank.
Gnirk
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Gnirk »

$37 per year for the medium sized box at my local Credit Union.
The small box was $17 per year, but the bigger box is so worth it to me.
As far as I know there is no minimum balance required in my checking account. There is a minimum balance required at all times in the savings account.
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BolderBoy
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by BolderBoy »

Boulder, CO. CU. 5x10x21 (inches) box for $65/yr. There are no box freebies - everyone who wants one has to pay for it.

Was on the waiting list for 5-6 years.
"Never underestimate one's capacity to overestimate one's abilities" - The Dunning-Kruger Effect
peace_isnt_money
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by peace_isnt_money »

I pay, unfortunately, ~$150 per year at BofA for a medium. In the CA Bay area, this seems to be the going price, I can't find better deals elsewhere..
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sunny_socal
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by sunny_socal »

Free at bofa, we have some arrangement but I don't know what. Only about twenty bucks in my checking and that's it, no other assets with the bank.
j0nnyg1984
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by j0nnyg1984 »

Free small box at BoA due to my preferred rewards tier. It's too small to hold all of my precious metals but I don't care to pay for anything bigger.
MikeG62
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by MikeG62 »

We closed our safe deposit box several years ago. Was paying around $85 per year at the time and I felt we were throwing money away. We did not have much in there to be too worried about and every time we needed to access it (usually to get our passports), it required a trip to the bank.

We bought a home safe (for less than two years safe deposit fees), which is hidden and secured in my house. Biggest risk is not a thief finding it (as that would be extremely unlikely), but what would happen to the contents in the event my home were completely leveled by a fire. It's a risk we are willing to take (home fires are rare and most do not completely level a home).
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Nowizard
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Nowizard »

Safety box fee of $100 and glad to pay it after having a robbery where a 400 pound safe was stolen during a 30 minute absence from home.

Tim
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SmileyFace
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by SmileyFace »

We pay $50 for a small box at a local/regional bank.
Well worth it - we use it not just for important documents but every 6 months or so I rotate a hard-drive in so I have all our electronic financial records plus all our family photos and videos backed up (without having to use a cloud service or hope that a safe isn't stolen or doesn't succumb to a fire that is hotter/longer than the safe is spec'd for).
DetroitRick
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by DetroitRick »

Chase, annual fee of $100 for a 5"x10" box. That fee is discounted from $125 to $100 (20%) based on the type of accounts we maintain there.
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peetsperk
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by peetsperk »

Our saftey deposit box is held at a credit union. For a medium-sized box they charge $30 per year.
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greg24
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by greg24 »

Our box is large enough for 8.5" x 14" documents to fit. $30 at a local credit union.
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BolderBoy
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by BolderBoy »

Nowizard wrote:Safety box fee of $100 and glad to pay it after having a robbery where a 400 pound safe was stolen during a 30 minute absence from home.
Good grief. How did the thieves know in advance to bring a dolly with them?
"Never underestimate one's capacity to overestimate one's abilities" - The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Ron
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Ron »

sport wrote:<snip...>no-charge check printing.
What's a check :mrgreen: ???

- Ron
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F150HD
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by F150HD »

Had one years back for the abstract to my home but I bought one of these and got rid of the box at the bank.

https://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-HD410 ... =fire+safe

Its not meant to protect against someone breaking into it per se, moreso a firesafe which contains items of no real value to a burglar (birth certificate, passports etc)
Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
rooms222
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by rooms222 »

$10 per year for the smallest box at Teamsters Federal Credit Union in Detroit, Michigan. The largest box is $60. Anyone that lives, works, or worships in Wayne County Michigan is eligible for membership. They ask an average monthly balance of $250 in your savings account to have no fees on the account. That is all that is required, this offer is open to all members.
Nowizard
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Nowizard »

Bolderboy: The thieves were professionals. About 90 minutes after the robbery, I received a call from a person who saw the safe near a dumster with a blown door and papers identifying me. It had contained a large coin collection and a diamond ring, among other items. They took other things as well, making this a quite substantial robbery. One, amusing fact (Not at the moment!) was that they liked our stuff so much that they unloaded items stolen from other homes, leaving them in our garage.

Tim
Cheyenne
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Cheyenne »

$30/yr. for smallest box. Small local bank with no balance requirements or discounts.
letsgobobby
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by letsgobobby »

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Earl Lemongrab
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Earl Lemongrab »

student wrote:If you have high 5 figures at Merrill Edge, did you sign up for Preferred Rewards? It gives you a free small deposit box.
Yeah, if I had a box it would be at BOA with the fee waived. My understanding is that it can be a crap shoot as to whether any particular branch has small boxes available. I think periodically about checking the two BOA branches close to me.
Starper
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Starper »

Is there a way to get a safety deposit box with an option to have the bank mail me the contents to another country? For example, if I start traveling long term but want to keep some of my documents safe. No gold or cash or anything like that, just documents.
Mintee
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Mintee »

Chase, $135/year for a large box (what they call large).
Raabe34
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Raabe34 »

$15 for what I would call small(possibly 3"X5"X24") at a medium local bank.
rkhusky
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by rkhusky »

$45 for a small box (3x5x18'ish) at a bank I have no accounts with.
rkhusky
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by rkhusky »

Starper wrote:Is there a way to get a safety deposit box with an option to have the bank mail me the contents to another country? For example, if I start traveling long term but want to keep some of my documents safe. No gold or cash or anything like that, just documents.
I thought they needed your key to open it. Otherwise, it would have to be drilled.
sport
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by sport »

rkhusky wrote:
Starper wrote:Is there a way to get a safety deposit box with an option to have the bank mail me the contents to another country? For example, if I start traveling long term but want to keep some of my documents safe. No gold or cash or anything like that, just documents.
I thought they needed your key to open it. Otherwise, it would have to be drilled.
I seems you would have to give one of the two keys to the branch manager and give him/her authorized access. I would think that they would decline to do this due to liability issues.
treypar
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by treypar »

$60 per year for medium sized box.
BanditKing
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by BanditKing »

$60/yr for their smallest box, which is 3" tall, about 9" wide (wide enough for paper to lay flat inside an envelope) and maybe 24" deep (longer than a legal-size page).
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Doom&Gloom
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Doom&Gloom »

DW & I have two SDBs in the SE US. I got the largest I could find in the area years ago at a regional bank to hold a fairly large and heavy coin collection and a few other things--$90/year. Unfortunately we no longer live near that bank and I have been unable to find a box that size closer to us. We have a small SDB at a smaller local bank for items we need to have more convenient access to--$20/year. We do all of our banking with the regional bank which discounts the large box to us.
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welderwannabe
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by welderwannabe »

Nowizard wrote:Safety box fee of $100 and glad to pay it after having a robbery where a 400 pound safe was stolen during a 30 minute absence from home.

Tim
That stinks. :annoyed
I am not an investment professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
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topper1296
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by topper1296 »

For the people that complain about the cost of a box, don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Having the original and the backup files (both paper and electronic) in two different physical locations is basic risk management/common sense.
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midareff
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by midareff »

I gave up on safety boxes and bought a fire retardant home safe with professional installation when I bough my condo about 13 years ago. It was about $175 at the time and would probably be $300 - $400 today. I have the convenience and as much safety as I need right at home, and no monthly or yearly fee. I also keep electronic copies of important things off campus.
MrNewEngland
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by MrNewEngland »

student wrote:If you have high 5 figures at Merrill Edge, did you sign up for Preferred Rewards? It gives you a free small deposit box.
I was going to post this. I have a small safety deposit box at my BoA branch and it's free because I have over $100k in all my combined BoA/ML accounts.

Plus it looks really cool to go in there bc it's a hand/palm reader to get into the room.
bhchica
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by bhchica »

Chase. Free for smallest size (20% off for other sizes), with Premier Plus Checking.
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Sheepdog
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by Sheepdog »

Local bank. The box is a medium size, about 5" high, 12" wide and 15" deep. $31 a year
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jeff1949
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Re: What's you safety deposit box fee?

Post by jeff1949 »

$35 per year at Key Bank of Oregon. It is a small box.
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