Metro Bank Safe Deposit Box Terms and Conditions

Still, it`s very easy to get a locker, and it could cost as little as your broadband subscription. As safe as a locker is, it`s not 100% guaranteed against theft or damage – and since the contents aren`t insured by the government, you`re out of luck if a fire or flood destroys it. So make sure that all the valuables you store in your box are covered by your home insurance and keep a list of them. Given the cost and effort of providing safes or lockers, banks that reduce costs stopped providing them, including Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and Cooperative Bank in 2015. Two keys add an extra layer of security. If someone steals the key to your locker, they can`t get into the box without the help of a bank employee. But the bank does not open a box or the locked room where it is kept for anyone. Most banks require proof of identity before opening a box, e.B. a signature that they can compare to your signature. The terms and conditions can be found in the respective bank secure deposit center and the private secure deposit center. Please check these Terms and Conditions annually for changes. Items you can`t keep in a bank or private locker: All live items – including animals and plants; harmful material; offensive material – including drugs; flammable or explosive substances; firearms; immoral objects; perishable items; prohibited or embargoed items; stolen goods or objects stored for the purpose of placing them out of reach of law enforcement authorities; Money obtained from a crime or fraudulent activity. It`s unlikely that you`ll need any of these documents for everyday use, but if you do, getting a copy of them is a lot of work.

You will need to provide proof of identity, pay a fee, and wait days or weeks to receive your documents. It is much less tedious to store them safely. For some people, bank lockers seem like a relic of the past. Nowadays, it`s so easy to store financial and other important documents in digital form that the idea of storing important documents in a locked bank vault looks ridiculously like the 20th century. And indeed, there is evidence that the lockers are set back. The New York Times reports that many banks no longer offer them, and many who say half or more of their boxes are currently empty. While useful, the appeal of a locker, unlike a bank account, is that you can actually see it. Like your home certificate, the title of your car is an important but rarely necessary document and represents a huge expense in case of loss. This makes a locker a great place for this.

When it`s time to sell the car, you know exactly where to find the title: safe and healthy in your box at the bank. Worse still, in such cases, the bank is not required to compensate you for lost items, even though it is clearly responsible for the loss. Unlike money in your bank account, items in a locker are not covered by FDIC insurance – although the FDIC guarantees that if your bank goes bankrupt and the government takes them back, you`ll have access to your locker again within one business day. Some banks have separate insurance policies to cover items in lockers, but most don`t. You may not even be able to sue the bank to make up for your losses, as many banks have language in their locker leases that limits their liability for loss of property. There are three ways for individuals to keep their gold bars or coins. Christopher Barrow of Metropolitan Safe Deposits explores the contrasting benefits of a home safe, third-party storage company, and locker. As you`d expect from one of the UK`s leading lockdown service providers, our three safes in Knightsbridge, St John`s Wood and Chiswick are protected by state-of-the-art layers of security, including the latest biometric technology. Each locker is also alerted individually and comes with £10,000 insurance.

Most of the big banks in the UK are in the process of closing some of their branches and safes, but other smaller banks are setting up new lockers, such as Punjab National Bank, Bank of India and Metro Bank, which are planning hundreds of branches in the UK with bank lockers. Whether it`s personal treasures, family heirlooms or important documents, we can help you keep your valuables safe in a locker. They are located in our safes, so you can rest assured that the most important items for you are protected. The peace of mind that your valuables are safe is invaluable, but this accessible and convenient security is also affordable, with lockers starting at just £99 a year. You can keep a wide range of personal items and investments such as gold bars and coins, jewelry, high-quality collections, legal documents, and even hardware digital wallets to store Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency tokens. A locker also offers better protection against natural disasters. Bank safes are usually strong enough to withstand fires and strong winds that could destroy a typical home. In many states, banks must automatically seal your record when you die.

This can cause problems if your will is included. Your heirs will have to jump through all sorts of legal hoops and maybe even get a court order to get into the box. This will significantly delay the time it takes to get your money to your heirs. There`s another lesson in this story: if you have a locker, make sure you stay up to date on payments for it. In most states, if you don`t pay the rent for your box long enough, the bank is allowed to open it and sell the content to cover your unpaid fees. Keep your payments up to date to make sure the valuables in your safe stay really safe. There`s another thing you should keep outside your locker: an up-to-date inventory of what`s inside. This way, if the box is damaged during a natural disaster, you will know exactly what you have lost, so that you can replace missing documents or file an insurance claim for lost valuables.

And in case of death, this list will let your heirs know what`s in the box if they can`t access it immediately. According to Kirkpatrick, “There are a number of areas where police and the neighborhood guard have recommended that people find a safe place to store their belongings based on the crime rate.” You don`t need to use a bank and it`s possible to find local suppliers that offer boxes for much cheaper, although the number of visits may be limited. The Safe Deposit Association has a list of suppliers in major cities. When you sign an agreement to open a locker, it usually includes a list of items that you are not allowed to keep in the box. As a general rule, banks do not allow firearms, explosives or any other type of hazardous material. Illegal drugs and anything that is banned in your state are probably also taboo. Read your agreement carefully and follow the rules. If they are not clear to you, ask your banker to explain them to you. Another end-of-life document you can keep outside your locker is a precautionary policy, sometimes called a living will. This document describes your wishes, the steps that doctors should and should not take to prolong your life. However, it is only useful if everyone who needs it has access to what they don`t do when the bank`s only copy is locked.

If you want to keep a cash reserve ready for emergencies, it`s best to hide it at home so you can get it back even when the bank is closed. In addition to documents, your locker is a safe place to store small valuables that you prefer not to keep in your home. Jewelry is an example of this. If you have jewelry that you wear all the time — like an engagement ring or a pearl necklace that you wear regularly to work — then of course, you should keep it at home, no matter how valuable it is. Some of the items you enjoy the most aren`t worth much in dollars, but you associate them with precious memories. Your locker can keep personal papers, such as letters from friends and family, or old diaries – yours or those of a long-deceased relative – safe. You can analyze these items before storing them so that you always have a backup, but this does not replace a valuable item that you can hold in your hands. You can also use the box to store old family photos taken long before digital cameras and cloud storage. If you have the negatives, you can put them in the locker while keeping the original prints in your family album. If not, scan the photos to make a backup before locking them.

Store digital copies in the cloud, on a USB flash drive, or both to make sure you never lose them. Most banks do not offer insurance for the contents of your box. Some private centers offer limited coverage, with the policy issued in the name of the center. .