Do you always have a certain amount of cash stored in your house? Whether it is because you don’t trust the banks or if you always have cash in the house in case of an emergency, you will need to keep that money somewhere that is safe and secure. Not in your socks!
Remember that after a burglary, insurance companies often require homeowners to purchase a safe with a specific insurance rating. This is known as a cash rating and is basically the amount of money an insurance company would usually insure the safe contents for.
To help you, we’ve put listed five ways of storing your money safely:
Fireproof safes
A fireproof safe is good way to store your money should you feel that your property is at risk from fire. This safe is freestanding and has been designed to protect its contents from fire for a rated time-period.
It should be noted that 95% of fireproof safes provide little or no protection from burglars. However, a safe of this type greatly increases the chance of your money surviving a fire.
Jewellery safes
Jewellery safes give the utmost protection for your valuables and will therefore be a very safe place to store your money. The many drawers make it an ideal way to organise and keep valuables in one place. Unfortunately, jewellery safes do tend to be more expensive than other types of safe currently on the market.
Data Safes
A data safe is primarily designed to store digital media such as CD’s, DVD’s, hard drives and data back-up tape. They are generally exceptionally fireproof, designed to keep the internal temperature below that of 52 degrees centigrade, protecting plastic based data from being damaged.
Cash can be stored in these safes, however a determined thief may be able to get into it. These safes are fairly portable, so if you are going to use a safe of this type, you may want to secure it to the ground.
Waterproof safes
These safes are built to withstand water damage, which makes them very good for protecting paper bank notes in case of burst water pipes or flooding in the home. Check to see if the safe has a ETL verification on it. To obtain this verification, the safe will have been tested by completely submersing it. For one hour, the unit is submerged with up to 2 inches of water above the uppermost surface. No more than 0.5 grams (8 drops) of water will be allowed to enter it.
Fit a safe under the floor
For extra safety, safes can be in a solid floor such as concrete or a floor with floorboards. To fitting a safe into a concrete floor – dig a hole around twice the size of the safe, place it in the hole and surround it with a good quality concrete. Fitting the safe beneath the floorboards will need a pre-cut hole and placing wooden shuttering around it before pouring in concrete.
About the Author: Robert Phillips donated this article. He’s knowledge of home and fire safes is unparrelled.
