A while back I was speaking with a gentleman who had several of his precious watches secured in a safety deposit box located at a Commonwealth Bank in the Brisbane CBD. You would expect that a safety deposit box is a pretty good place to have your precious goods secured. However, it seems that not all safety deposit boxes share the same equality in the eyes of the Banking God's. The gentleman with the watch collection explained that when he goes on a extended holiday he has to relocate his watches to another safe place in fear of Brisbane flood waters potentially flooding his collection. You would think this an extreme action to take, and you would expect a bank to take certain actions against fire or floods (or at least have a emergency evacuation plan of their customers goods in case of impending rising waters). After reading this article about documents stored in safety deposit boxes at the Lismore Commonwealth bank, maybe transferring your precious cargo may not be a bad idea. https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/customers-not-banking-on-an-ethical-result/3204805/ Of course many of you would say that water may not effect gold or silver which is true to a degree - if it has no numismatic value. However, for those who are holding collections of graded or numismatic coins or any precious item located in a bank it's well be worth to quiz them on flood or fire damage or their evacuation program. As for those customers of the Commonwealth Bank Lismore they have been treated very poorly. Anyway, this post is just food for thought for anyone with goods retained in safety deposit boxes. I'm not deterring anyone from not having one, as they also have benefits. It's weighing up the situation and what suits the individual.
When I got my safety deposit box, I was told clearly what was covered and what was not. For example due to location it is unlikely my SDB is to be flooded by rain or be in the middle of bush fire, but she did discuss fire and water damage etc etc. If the vault happen to be in flood zone like Lismore or lower parts of Brisbane CBD, I am sure the vault person ran through specific risks and it would be on the contract. Of course the customer can pay extra and look for a secure vault that protects against, earthquake, meteor strike, nuclear bomb, chemical hazards, smoke, fire and flood with relocation if any events occurs on the owners behave. But i presume the cost would be way over $20 to $200 he or she was paying.
If your friend is really worried about his valuables then he should NOT be storing them in a bank SDB. It should be in a private SDB. I got my stack at Guardian Vaults and never would I keep them at a bank SDB. I rather keep them under my bed then a bank vault. Do not trust the banks in GFC!
it will not be call safe IF it is is really safe they have not been around for very long, people have been very safe as safe they can be around really really long
