Poll: Do you have a Bank Safety Deposit Box?

[CRLLS]

Some other recent discussions have me wondering how many of us have a Safety Deposit Box at a local bank.

Personally, we do not have one. We keep all important papers such as birth certs, vehicle titles, mortgage papers etc. in a fire-proof safe. Our major concern is the protection of then in case of fire. If we have valuables such as jewelry, it has little value if kept somewhere where it is out of reach.

For those who do, why do you? What specifically is important to you?

 

[Dtail]

We have one for certain jewelry, birth certificates and misc other items.
Will there be a poll attached?

 

[CRLLS]

Dtail, Can you not see the poll? This is my first.

 

[street]

I got a safe at home and I do have one at the bank as well.

 

[Dtail]

Dtail, Can you not see the poll? This is my first.

I see it now. Probably just a little delay.

 

[jollystomper]

Yes. For duplicates of important papers, jewelry, additional level of data backup.

 

[gettingthere]

Yes. Important papers and data backup.

 

[MichaelB]

We’ve had a safe deposit box for years. We use it to store a few valuables and some personal items of important sentimental value. All our documents are stored at home.

 

[aja8888]

No, closed it years ago. Have a safe at home.

 

[anethum]

When I had a will and advanced directive drawn up, my attorney suggested that I store the documents in a fireproof case at home rather than a safe deposit box, because of the difficulties often faced when the executor or person entrusted with POA & Medical POA wants to access the safe deposit box. So that's what I did. I don't have any valuables like jewelry that I need to store. My parents had a safe deposit box at their bank but they put my name on their account so I could access it. When the bank branch was closing, I retrieved their documents (my dad died a few years ago and my mom now has dementia) and put the documents in a second fireproof case I purchased.

 

[Dash man]

We have a fireproof safe for important papers and a few coins I keep. Nothing too exciting.

 

[rk911]

savings bonds, birth certificates, etc. $30 p/y = no brainer.

 

[Sunset]

I'd hope someone who had a fireproof safe and had their house burn down will post.

My feeling, and the little news I got from CA fires was that fireproof safes just burn/char everything inside as they are only good for 1 hour at relatively low temps.

I am eligible for a free safety deposit box, but will admit, being too lazy to go claim and use it. Pretty stupid of me really.

 

[PatrickA5]

We have one. Important papers and I think a thumb drive of pictures or something. It's free for us old people, so I keep it. I also have a fire proof safe at home.

 

[audreyh1]

We store a lot of backup drives in ours.

We have two large safe deposit boxes. One is for storing docs and drives when we travel for longer periods.

 

[badatmath]

My feeling, and the little news I got from CA fires was that fireproof safes just burn/char everything inside as they are only good for 1 hour at relatively low temps.

A quick google said most home safes 30 minutes @ 1550 degrees but I am sure if I looked harder I'd find more articles.

 

[razztazz]

I have a box at a bank

 

[Green Papaya]

We use a safe deposit box for important papers, data backup, and jewelry. Nothing important at home.

 

[calmloki]

Have a freebie box at Chase up north. It holds deeds and info for my sister, who has an access signature on file there. Figure the bank vault is more fire resistant than our house. Should Gal and I both be hit by a meteor Sis can get in the box and access the list of bank accounts & assets. Also have a pound of Philharmonics in there.

 

[brett]

We have one. Since retiring and pre covid, we typically travelled for four-five months per year for durations of two months. We take our jewelry, our backup disk, etc to the box each time we go. Just in case. Plus any paperwook that we deem to be important at the time. We had a larger box when we were away for seven months and our possessions were stored in container storage warehouse.

This is the ONLY reason we go to the bank branch.

 

[scrinch]

I'd hope someone who had a fireproof safe and had their house burn down will post.

My feeling, and the little news I got from CA fires was that fireproof safes just burn/char everything inside as they are only good for 1 hour at relatively low temps.
.

I had quite a few friends lose their homes to the Santa Rosa fires in 2017. A couple of them had fireproof safes at home, and the safes were completely destroyed in the fire. This was a huge regional fire that burned thousands of houses to the ground, though, with no attempt to fight the fire at individual houses. I suspect that the safes are intended for situations where a home partially burns and the fire is put out by the fire department, not where the home burns unimpeded to the ground.

We keep paper bonds, coins, and some jewelry in a safety deposit box at a local credit union. That credit union came within a quarter mile of being engulfed in the 2017 fire. Wouldn't that have been ironic?!

 

[rodi]

We have a fairly large one. Hubster has some artwork. We also keep the passports, data backup, birth and marriage certs.

The data backup is important - it's always good to offsite storage. I've heard that disks/usbs/etc can get damaged, even inside a fire safe, if it's an intense fire.

 

[Onward]

Bank safe deposit box, but there are many problems/risks with bank safe-deposit boxes.

Never liked the idea of an at-home safe because I assume (?) it's the first thing thieves will take, try to break into, or force me to open for them.

 

[Texas Proud]

I have a fire resistant box at home that I keep important papers.


I do have a safe deposit box that was my mom's. Trying to convince DW that we should move stuff to that but without success so far.

 

[Dash man]

Our attorneys have an original of the wills, Trusts and POAs. Our originals are in a safe. All files are backed up into Carbonite and on a secure site our attorney has. If we had a fire and papers in the safe didn’t survive, our attorney has them. Deeds are all recorded with the counties.