You don’t want to wait until disaster strikes before you think of the best place to safely keep your valuables. Some of these items – such as college transcripts, birth certificates, flash drives, business documents or title deeds – do not need much space to store. But should they get stolen, burnt in a fire or destroyed in a flood, agony sets in because they are vital and hard-to-replace.
Losing them aside, even misplacing them can be a nightmare. Imagine you have been invited to a job interview, but you can’t locate your vital documents. They could be in your house, but you don’t remember exactly where. You end up rummaging through your drawers, flipping your beddings upside down hoping that you mistakenly put them under the mattress. What do you do when you can’t find them in time?
You may even vow to keep copies in the ‘cloud’ should you lay your hands on them. At that time, you forget that in some places, you are required to present the original documents. Saving them on the ‘cloud’ may thus not be the solution to your problem.
Replacing these records – the one you can – will cost you money and time. Moreover, the process can be quite frustrating.
You should probably think about a safe deposit box that you can rent for a small sum annually. You will get security for a small cost.
These boxes are a great option for a number of reasons. For one, they are more secure than most people’s homes – whether it is against theft or disasters such as fires and floods. It’s harder for thieves to break into a bank to steal your safe deposit box. A bank has all manner of security mechanisms, including alarms, top-notch locks, CCTV surveillance and several barriers to entry. Additionally, the vaults that house safety deposit boxes are reinforced to withstand fire and floods.
Safe deposit boxes are individually secured containers. They are usually metal boxes housed in a financial institution.
The Co-operative Bank of Kenya, one such institution, offers safe deposit boxes. The service is intended to relieve the bank’s customers of the stress of losing a valuable document and the hustle of replacing the same. At a reasonable price of Ksh3,000 per annum, the institution offers the peace of mind that your valuables are safe.
This service is ideal for both individuals and corporate entities. The acceptable items under safekeeping include title deeds, insurance policy documents, academic certificates, marriage certificates, data back-up and motor vehicle log-books, among others.
The service comes in two options:
1. Renters’ safe-keeping boxes
- Under this option, the Bank rents out a safe box of varying sizes – small, medium and large – to customers.
- The client is assigned two keys and the box is accessible during normal working hours.
- This is ideal for storage of title deeds, academic/marriage certs, data back-ups, logbooks, insurance policy documents and jewellery.
- The requirements are the standard KYC for individuals and company, standing order form and an executed renters’ box application form.
- The price is competitive at Ksh12,000 for a large box, Ksh8,000 for a medium box, and Ksh4,800 for a small box.
2. Branch safe-keeping of parcels
- The service is available for Co-op Bank customers and is offered throughout the bank’s branch network.
- The Bank accepts properly sealed documents in envelopes within legal discretion that what the client has provided is lawful.
- This is ideal for the safe keeping of academic or marriage certificates, title deeds, insurance policy documents, log books and data back-up.
- Competitively priced at Ksh3,000 per annum.
For additional information:
Telephone (+254) 020 3276237/781 or 0711049237/781
eongwae@ke.nationmedia.com
