Safe Keeping: Bank vs Home

stevepk · July 23, 2016 10:42AM

Hopefully the formatting has been fixed on this forum since the last time I posted. If this message is displayed in a huge one-paragraph block, it obviously did not post how I intended. Anyway, this is a summary of the pros and cons of keeping your personal coin collection in a bank safety deposit box versus home and vise-versa. Opinions and feedback are welcome.

Bank safety deposit box - Pros
* most secure way to store a collection
* protection against fire or flood at home
* secure even in case of home robbery
* a must-have if you do not have an expensive home safe

Bank safety deposit box - Cons
* horrible bank customer service, often denied access due to insufficient staff and long wait times
* $100 a year
* 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday, 9:00 to Noon Saturday
* poor lighting for viewing
* inconvenient and time consuming
* not humidity controlled

Home safe - Pros
* convenient, no need to rely on Banking hours or lack of customer service
* never denied access to your collection
* perfect light for home viewing
* paid for one time and one time only, no re-occurring fees
* humidity controlled

Home safe - Cons
* quality home safe is expensive
* subject to home invasion, fire, or flood
* home safe typically does not add to home's value or liquidity
* subject to 'stick up' home burglary if home at time of invasion

Am I missing anything?

TomB · July 23, 2016 10:47AM

I use bank safe deposit boxes for everything and my experience at my local bank is a bit different in that-

* I have superb customer service at my local bank with every bank employee being friendly and prompt

* the large boxes are only about one-half the $100 rental fee listed in the first post

* very convenient location

* Intercept Shield boxes and Ziplock bags provide very good moisture control

smallchange · July 23, 2016 11:00AM

Credit union offers much better rate for storage boxes, about half what you listed.

Jim

stevepk · July 23, 2016 11:00AM

Bank customer service is awful where I live. Everyone is cutting costs, which means fewer employees. It is not uncommon to walk into the bank only to find a crowd of people waiting on customer service with only one or two employees available. The wait may be up to an hour or longer. You can forget about any other plans you may have had for the next couple of hours. This could very easily be fixed if more employees were staffed, but this is not the case as bank management is trying to save every dollar they can. Accessing the bank safety deposit box requires customer service. As awful as this is, this bank is actually the best in my area. Other banks have even less customer service or no safety deposit boxes at all. My rental rate is $100 a year and continues to increase about every other year.

DNADave · July 23, 2016 11:13AM

Banks are not immune to flooding.

The floods recently here in West Virginia took out one bank. All of the safe deposit box holders had to schedule appointments to open their box.

SeattleSlammer · July 23, 2016 11:20AM

I store all my coins in a glass cookie jar on top of the fridge.

TopographicOceans · July 23, 2016 11:28AM

A home safe only works once.

Once a felon knows you have a safe in your house, they just come back the next time with a gun.

hchcoin · July 23, 2016 2:52PM

Safe deposit box for me

BryceM · July 23, 2016 3:18PM

An SDB is probably the right answer for most people who have more in coins than they can tolerate losing. A well hidden home safe with a slightly more obvious decoy isn't too bad. A bunch of copper rounds and a few slabbed MS69 near-miss modern slabs would look pretty tempting to your average thief.

keets · July 23, 2016 9:22PM

it all comes down to what we think is important. if the answer to that is the security of our collections and the safety of our family members than I can't understand any choice besides the SDB. if convenience and 24 hour access are most important than keep everything at home.

Bob1951 · July 23, 2016 9:32PM

Another con for safe-deposit boxes.

-Not big enough. I have two safe-deposit boxes one is 5x10 and the other 10x10. They are full. One cost $50 and the other $100 per year. If you collect coins in slabs or albums they fill up fast. Modern proof sets and some mint products if kept in original packing will fill these up fast also.

2ndCharter · July 23, 2016 9:46PM

Sorry about your bad experiences with your bank - my bank is just the opposite. It's less than five minutes away, the customer service is great - I've never had to wait more than a couple of minutes, and now that I'm a "senior citizen", my box is free.

SDB all the way.

JJSingleton · July 23, 2016 10:19PM

SDB for me. My bank customer service is outstanding, and the large box is ample for my collection. Like TomB, I use the intercept shield products for protection.

As a gun owner I understand some of the bravado of members who keep their coins in a safe at home. And if I were home during a home invasion I am confident that I would hold my own in that situation. Yeah, Make My Day! What I would fear is my wife being home alone with some meth-head pointing a gun at her head while yelling open that f'ing safe or I will blow your brains out.

ebaytrader · July 23, 2016 10:46PM

Originally posted by: JJSingleton
What I would fear is my wife being home alone with some meth-head pointing a gun at her head while yelling open that f'ing safe or I will blow your brains out.

At my house that goes into the Pro column.

ebaytrader · July 23, 2016 10:53PM

There's definitely a trade-off between a SDB and the convenience factor. I used to sleep with a gal in the mortgage dept at the local bank where I kept my SDB. Thinking that I was a "known" and that it meant something there I still got lousy service. In any event, the bank does not insure the contents of your box. Make sure it is covered under your homeowners policy. There have been a couple of cases where bank SDB were burgled.

TigersFan2 · July 24, 2016 12:21AM

Con for Bank Safety Deposit: Limited storage space.

ricko · July 24, 2016 12:37AM

I store my coins at home.... in a major safe.... guarded by me..and my wife...and my dogs, and an alarm system....and - well, never mind the 'extra' surprises... I have no problems with this...never have...been doing it for over 50 years...Cheers, RickO

YQQ · July 24, 2016 12:59AM

Insured under your homeowners policy????
you must have a very low cost coin rider??
in Canada it is CAN $ .60 per $ 100 declared value. If, bif IF they will insure it.
My coins are stored in 3 different locations. Only the currently "active" coins are at home in a well hidden safe. I would dare any of you to find it within 10 minutes. that is the max response time before the law will show up in response to a well hidden silent alarm.
should a culprit find the safe by sheer luck, he will find himself with a serious problem. If the right"thingy" is triggered, he will be engulfed in very thick "smoke" and will not be able to see anything. not even 5 inches in front of his eyes.
Oh referring to OP: most reasonably priced home safes are "fire safe to some max temperature" and protect the contents. some even with a guarantee.

BSDBoxes?? are they fire protected? and are they burglar proof when a culprit decides to come through the roof as many banks move into existing premises in shopping centres? I believe in this case the internal alarm system is the only protection???

Musky1011 · July 24, 2016 1:40AM

Do not put all your eggs in the same basket

Barndog · July 24, 2016 11:16AM

Government will take over/close banks and seize assets some day...that's got to be a potential "con"

RYK · July 24, 2016 11:38AM

Originally posted by: Barndog

Government will take over/close banks and seize assets some day...that's got to be a potential "con"

If it comes to that, the coin collection will probably not be worth much anyway.

Musky1011 · July 24, 2016 11:43AM

The banks run the government

sellitstore · July 24, 2016 10:07PM

"Government will take over/close banks and seize assets some day...that's got to be a potential "con""

I don't believe that most here would factor this into their decisions, nor do most consider this a realistic threat.

Here in lower NY state 10x10 boxes are very hard to find and cost around $250 each. Some banks have no crowds and have good customer service but no boxes. Other banks are crowded and I won't do business there. Finding all is difficult and you will pay for it.

thebeav · July 24, 2016 10:16PM

Originally posted by: SeattleSlammer
I store all my coins in a glass cookie jar on top of the fridge.

The kids are never going to reach that !!

topstuf · July 24, 2016 11:26PM

Septic tank.

AUandAG · July 25, 2016 12:51AM

I get a free box from Chase for being a Veteran. Don't use it.

When I go on vacation I take all my expensive coins out of my safe and hide in more than a dozen places around

the house/garage. Then I put all my pennies/and stuff that is normally outside the safe into the safe. Can't find

a way to hide it all so just make it a time consuming search for the thieves. Let the neighbors know and hope it

doesn't burn to the ground....

bob

Bankerbob56 · July 25, 2016 1:06AM

Originally posted by: ebaytrader

Originally posted by: JJSingleton
What I would fear is my wife being home alone with some meth-head pointing a gun at her head while yelling open that f'ing safe or I will blow your brains out.

At my house that goes into the Pro column.

This is an extremely poor attempt at humor?!?

Bankerbob56 · July 25, 2016 1:07AM

Originally posted by: Barndog
Government will take over/close banks and seize assets some day...that's got to be a potential "con"

In the highly unlikely event that a bank is closed, the FDIC seizes BANK ASSETS, not SDB contents....

CommemKing · July 25, 2016 1:34AM

Heavy safe at home. Gun close by.

DeepCoin · July 25, 2016 1:52AM

I guess I am a bit of a hybrid, but perhaps not as much as one might think. I keep all my expensive slabbed coins in my SDB. I am lucking in that it is cheap and also about a block from my home in a small town. I do not keep things like 1970s proof sets in the SDB as the cost benefit is not there and I do enjoy being able to look at my inexpensive coins,

My question would be, for those who keep coins in both places, what is the cutoff for the SDB. For me it between $100 and $200 and up. I enjoy being able to look at some of my less expensive coins, i.e. modern type set without going to the SDB.

DNADave · July 25, 2016 2:06AM

Originally posted by: CommemKing
Heavy safe at home. Gun close by.

Gun.....IN safe also.

Safe Keeping: Bank vs Home

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