For those that still choose Safe Deposit Box over Safe

This is utterly rediculous. I could not imagine how a bank, anywhere could find out your dead unless they have a person dedicated to read the obits in the newspapers everyday and then compare with thier customers. And what state has people that do nothing but compare deaths with bank accounts? If they are wasting money doing that, there should be a class action law suite against the state for wasting money.
I have 5 safe deposit boxes and my son and his wife are also listed on them as well as myself. I'd put my grand daughter on them also except she is only 3 years old. Not tall enough to reach the desk to sign in yet. If something happens to me, they would or could just empty the box or continue paying on it for as long as they wanted. My loss makes no difference to those accounts.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Must be a local thing. Possibly in a town with a small population. Ever see the obits in the Chicago papers? I also asked these questions at all the banks where I have safe deposit boxes. The answers were always the same. Anyone that is listed as renters of the box can access those boxes anytime they want. They can also pay for those boxes for hundreds of years if the bank is still there and they are too.
I asked at one of my banks about them checking the obits daily and was basically laughed at. No, not an actual laugh, but kiind of a silly grin and then questioned is this some kind of joke. With Chicago and suburbs having approximately 8 million people, imagine the size of the obits in all the papers. Remember that every suburb has their own paper(s) also. Charter One bank for instance would have probably 50 newspapers on a desk for someone to just check obits. Then naturally a list of present customers which also changes almost daily. Yeah, right.

 

Amen. Someone has to take in a valid, and certified death certificate, if they are co-renter. Otherwise forget about accessing the box without court orders.

 

You think that's bad - wait until Obama is President.

 

What does that have to do with a bank screwing up and shipping off the contents of your safety deposit box. This was a Bank of America Screwup, had nothing to do with the government (other than they handled the actual auction for far less than the value of the contents).

 

When they refer to storing of cash in a safety deposit box they are referring to large amounts. 10k or more. If you have a collection in the box I imagine the notes are in holders probably with the price still on the item that you paid for it. The same for coins. I doubt any one that seriously collects would just have coins filled to the rim with out being in flips or 2x2s. That would be some sight though to open a box filled with nice coins just laying there. I would be upset and thrilled at the same time.

 

To paraphrase:

For those of you that still choose a home safe over a safe deposit box to secure your coins, you should read the following article in the June 2, 2008 issue of Coin World:

Alert Florida dealer helps FBI recover coin stolen in Ohio (page 86)

When a seller brought a coin into his shop the Florida coin dealer recognized it as a very high-grade, slabbed 1893-S Morgan Dollar that was stolen in a December burglary in Ohio. With the help of this dealer and Larry Shepherd (the dealer who sold the stolen coin to the Ohio collector/burglary victim and new ANA Executive Director) the FBI was able to recover this coin as well as others stolen in the burglary. (The other coins were recovered from another coin dealer. I can't wait to hear THAT story.)

I found the following excerpt to be of particular interest to those that "still" think that a home safe is the safest way to secure their coins rather than those pesky safe deposit boxes that are inconvenient, expensive and subject to "government confiscation":

I will continue to keep my most valuable coins in my bank safe deposit box, thank you.

 

Just another reason to make the best (security wise) choice for you by you. Instead of following the crowd. This same (and lessons learned from others mistakes) principle can be applied to everything else in life as well.

 

It isn't always necessary to read all the obituaries in a town or city to find out if a person is deceased. If one has access to the Social Security Death Index one can find out if a person who had a social security number has died. Most of this information is available to anyone who can use a computer.

I once found a social security number of a long ago deceased person that was being used by another person because this person needed a new social security number to try to get local, county or state aid illegally. They were actually getting funds from four different counties in at least two states. My find was totally accidental. Think of what could happen if I was intentionally searching the index to use the information for illegal gain.

jeankay

 

nothing is perfect

 

Thank goodness my safe weighs more than double that ?!?!?

I think we can all agree that there is no clean cut answer to which is better.

Both the safe and the safety deposit box have extremely strong arguments for their pros. It all comes down to personal preference and risk tolerance.