Safety Deposit Box

[becca]

We just got our bill to renew our safety deposit box at our bank ($60/year). We started thinking - what do we really need a safety deposit box for?? We used it mainly to keep our stock certificates but we now have all of our stock registered electronically. Items like birth certificates and passports can be replaced. We have a few matured savings bonds in there - but we are going to cash those in shortly. Most anything else we can make copies of and give a copy to our children to keep. I don't have any precious jewels or gold coins to keep in there. Maybe we'll save ourselves $60.

What do others think of the need for a safety deposit box?

 

[Nords]

What do others think of the need for a safety deposit box?

Depends on whether you're trying to keep large amounts of irreplaceable cash from being burned or flooded in the house. I wonder how safe deposit boxes fared in New Orleans.

Some families keep jointly-owned property in a safe deposit box, with each generation holding a key, so that when a partner dies the survivor doesn't have to deal with probate.

Of course there are a lot of problems with that system.

 

[Mountain_Mike]

Becca,

You might check other options.... I have a safe deposit box at our local credit union, and it costs $15.00 per year.

 

[KB]

I have a fireproof (for a certain amount of time) safe where I keep some cash and all my important documents.
Saves on the yearly bill, and the items are available when I want them.

 

[Marshac]

Depends on whether you're trying to keep large amounts of irreplaceable cash from being burned or flooded in the house.

The Treasury will replace damaged/mutilated cash, so if you can get at those ashes or soggy bills, you stand a decent chance of getting your money back.

http://www.bep.treas.gov/section.cfm/8/39

 

[REWahoo]

The Treasury will replace damaged/mutilated cash, so if you can get at those ashes or soggy bills, you stand a decent chance of getting your money back.

Damn! NOW you tell me! All that cash I burned through in my youth...

 

[yakers]

Damn! NOW you tell me! All that cash I burned through in my youth...

Yeah, but did you keep the serial numbers?

 

[peggy]

  Items like birth certificates and passports can be replaced. 

Just one word of caution about birth certificates--if you are of a certain age and were born in a small town, it's possible even now that the only extant originals of birth certificates can be destroyed. My dad had the devil's own time replacing his birth certificate back in 1987 due to just those circumstances.

 

[education]

My DW and I have had safety deposit boxes everywhere we've been.  There are two common denominators:  they are generally expensive and-- they are a pain because you have to go, sign in, show ID, etc.  And there are also estate problems when you die.

We finally opted to purchase a fireproof sage from Sam's Club.
I bolted it to the concrete floor.  That baby isn't going anywhere.  It was relatively cheap to buy, and it is amazing how many times we use it--w/o the hassle of fighting traffic to go to the bank.  No more paying bank for that dubious service.

Professor

 

[SteveR]

My DW and I have had safety deposit boxes everywhere we've been.  There are two common denominators:  they are generally expensive and-- they are a pain because you have to go, sign in, show ID, etc.  And there are also estate problems when you die.

We finally opted to purchase a fireproof sage from Sam's Club.
I bolted it to the concrete floor.  That baby isn't going anywhere.  It was relatively cheap to buy, and it is amazing how many times we use it--w/o the hassle of fighting traffic to go to the bank.  No more paying bank for that dubious service.

Professor

We did the gun safe thing a few years ago. The beast hold 8 rifles and still has room for a stack 3 feet high of papers and other stuff we want "safe". It has a fire rating of 1800 degrees for a couple of hours and being in the basement would survive most hours fires. Oh, it weighs 350# so walking out of the house with it is not going to happen and forcing the lock will only cause it to break off (built in feature).

Bank of CU boxes are pain to use. My wife has some decent jewelry and likes to wear it when she wants to yet keep it safe when we are not home. Can't do that easily without your own.

For really important papers, we put them in a fireproof box and then put that in the safe. It is also water-tight so it should survive just about anything short of a direct A-bomb hit.

 

[LovesLife]

We have both a gun safe and a box at the local CU. I don't use the box at the CU very often because I find that it is easier to have quick access to the bonds when I need it. However, if I ever get around to taking video pictures of our house and things, than I will store the information in the box. Although, come to think of it, a person could just as easily upload that information on a place like photobuckets and just be done with the box once and for all.

LL

 

[Outtahere]

Dh has the gun safe too which doubles as our valuable storage. All important papers are in a locked fireproof box inside the safe. It's also bolted to the floor and would take 4 strong men to carry it away.

 

[HFWR]

Yeah, but did you keep the serial numbers? 

Don't remember any "numbers", but there was a Zig-Zag man...

 

[Honkie]

We have both a Safety Deposit Box in the bank and a small fire rated safe at home. We thought about ditching the bank box but in the end kept it for two reasons - fisrt we didn't have the space at home to accommodate the larger safe that we would need and second, I feel more comfortable having the "irriplacable" stuff kept there.

The home safe is basically for "regular" use valuables - passports, wife's regular jewellery, spare keys etc.
The bank box holds our educational certs, birth and marriage certificates, the expensive special occassion jewellery, Property Deeds, and some old stock certificates.
Overall, costs around US$50 a year. Because of the shortage of boxes here, we will have big problems getting one as large again if we ever give this one up. So it stays!

Cheers
Honkie

 

[LEX]

Real simple method I have used: fireproof document safe. If you are resourceful you can place this in a location other than your closet so that it will not easily be found.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873642899/103-9205078-0690209?v=glance&n=283155

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Never had one. Have a home safe which is too small and stuffed
with mostly outdated documents. Most of what should be in a safe
is spread throughout the house (somewhere). We should have a
safety deposit box, but that would create a "project" for me
gathering all the stuff that should be in it. So, we just limp along
with years and years of records stuffed into cardboard boxes.
I'm not proud of it, but there it is.

JG

 

[burch64]

5 years ago my Aunt and Uncle had a safe deposit box, my Uncle died and Aunt is automatically barred from safe deposit box until a representative of state (Ohio) can be with her to remove items.

At that time Ohio had an inheritance tax and they wanted to make sure they got their cut if there was a lot of valuables in there.

 

[MJ]

Real simple method I have used: fireproof document safe. If you are resourceful you can place this in a location other than your closet so that it will not easily be found.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873642899/103-9205078-0690209?v=glance&n=283155

I have a safe deposit box but it isn't always convenient to temporary put stuff in it. When I went to Thailand last month, I took my extra CCs and wallet and hid them in the basement. When I returned a month later, I went to my desk draw to get my wallet and went nuts when I couldn't find it anywhere. I gave up and figured it would turn up someday. A day later, the lightbulb finally lite up and I remembered that I hid it in the basement. Duh..... : Am I glad I remembered where in the basement I hid it.

Alzheimer can be a real beach.

MJ