While you can keep your valuables at home under lock and key, using a reliable safe deposit box service could remove the stress of safekeeping items of value yourself. Moreover, the best safe deposit services offer you greater peace of mind, securing your valuables with state-of-the-art security systems, offering insurance, and excellent customer service support. You have come to the right place if you are searching for the best safe deposit service in Singapore. We shed light on tips for assessing the best safe deposit box service based on years of experience in vaulting.
Renting a Safe Deposit Box Versus a Home Safe
The distrust in a third-party safe deposit box company safekeeping your valuables often leads many to buy a home safe. For them, keeping an eye on their home safe is deemed safer.
However, there are other reasons why renting a safe deposit box (SDB) could be better than a home safe.
#1 Your Valuables Are Only As Safe As Your Home
You are responsible for the security of your valuables when you have a home safe. The first line of defense is the locks on your doors, gates, and windows, followed by your home alarm system if you have one installed.
Your valuables are only as safe as your home. If you encounter an armed attack in which your life and the lives of your family members are endangered, the intruder may force you to open the safe, rendering the home safe’s security redundant.
With a safe deposit box service, your valuables are locked in a safe deposit box and secured in a vault with security systems to detect intrusion. In addition, some safe deposit box companies have armed security personnel on-site.
#2 Your Valuables Are Heavy And Voluminous
Precious metals like gold and silver are dense metals. While a 1-kilogram gold or silver bar may seem small, stacking multiple bullion bars in a home safe will exert substantial pressure on your home’s floor loading. The floor of your home may not be designed to support excess weight in the area of your home safe, increasing risks of floor cracks and compromising your home’s structural integrity.
Suppose you own significant amounts of precious metals. In that case, it may be more feasible to consider hiring multiple medium to large-sized safe deposit boxes for safer storage and easier management of your valuables.
#3 Insurance Option
While you can take out an insurance policy to cover your valuables in a home safe, the insurance premium will likely be costly. Moreover, you will need to increase the insured amount continuously if the value of your stored valuables increases.
While most private and bank safe deposit box services do not offer the option for insurance, some premium safe deposit box companies do. Given the economies of scale these companies have with their safe deposit box operations, your valuables can be insured at a lower insurance premium than an individually bought insurance policy.
If the value of your stored valuables is high, hiring a safe deposit box with insurance can properly mitigate loss risks and ensure peace of mind.
Types of Safe Deposit Box Services in Singapore
Safe deposit box services in Singapore consist of two types: safe boxes rented from a bank or a private operator.
#1 Bank Safe Deposit Boxes
Safe deposit boxes have traditionally been offered by commercial banks. Three banks in Singapore—DBS, OCBC, and Bank of China — offer safe deposit box rental at selected bank branches.
Access to your bank safe deposit box is restricted to the bank’s operating hours.
It is also common for banks to not insure the contents of your safe box.
You will often need to have a bank account before you can rent a safe deposit box. This may be a problem for non-residents, given the difficulty for non-residents to open a bank account with Singapore banks.
Other banks in Singapore have exited the safe deposit box business, an increasingly common trend worldwide, due to its unprofitability.
#2 Private Vault Safe Deposit Boxes
With many banks exiting the safe deposit box rental business, private companies have entered the market, providing safe boxes stored in private vaults.
Under the umbrella of private vault safe deposit box services, there are two subtypes: manual and automated safe deposit services.
Manual Safe Deposit Boxes
Manual safe deposit box services often have on-site staff or security officers escort box hirers to their box location. Opening the safe deposit box also requires dual-key access, using staff and client keys together.
Privacy rooms are provided for your use when accessing your safe box.
Access to manual safe deposit boxes is often limited to the service provider's operating hours.
Service providers like Certis CISCO and SECOM do not insure the contents of safe deposit boxes, while The Safe House vault offers silver and gold safe deposit boxes with the option of insurance.
Automated Safe Deposit Boxes
Automated or manless safe deposit box services do not have on-site staff to assist you in accessing your safe deposit box. The retrieval and return of safe deposit boxes are completely operated by machines.
The client is authenticated via an access control system and directed to a room where the safe deposit box will be sent. The client then uses a key to open the safe box.
Some automated safe deposit box services can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While 24/7 access may provide convenience to clients, the safe deposit box facility must be located in a safe location to safeguard against potential crime since there are no security personnel on-site.
However, clients cannot observe how their safe deposit boxes are stored, and the heavy reliance on machinery and computer systems requires proper maintenance, without which clients cannot retrieve their safe boxes.
Automated safe deposit box services often offer smaller box sizes, designed to consider the stress on the machinery when retrieving and returning safe deposit boxes with heavy contents.
Insurance is also not offered as part of the safe deposit box hirer agreement for automated safe deposit box services.
Checklist to Select the Best Safe Deposit Box Service
Now that you have an overview of the types of safe deposit boxes in Singapore, we address the question, “How do I find the best safe deposit box service for my needs?”
This is an important question because you need a trustworthy party to secure your safe deposit box. Based on our years of experience operating a vault with safe deposit boxes, here is a guide to assessing safe deposit box providers to help you find one that meets your needs.
#1 – Who Operates the Safe Deposit Box Service?
Starting a company to rent safe deposit boxes is not a business restricted to banks and precious metal vault operators. Anyone can do it. They just need to rent a suitable space and outfit the premises with security systems and safe deposit boxes.
Voila! They can begin to advertise their services through a website.
Trust is essential in the business of safekeeping valuables. You do not want to entrust your cherished valuables to inexperienced safe deposit box operators.
Therefore, you need to do some sleuthing into the company’s background to learn about the people behind it.
Ask yourself these questions:
- How long has the company been in business?
- What is the company’s history and reputation in the industry?
- Who are the key members of the management team, and what are their qualifications and backgrounds?
- What relevant experience does the management team have in operating a safe deposit box service?
- What is the financial health of the company?
- What do customers and industry people say about the company?
Regardless of how well-designed a company’s website is, the most important due diligence check before handing over your valuables is assessing if the company’s management can be trusted.
For companies incorporated in Singapore, you can purchase their business information via the Singapore Government’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) website.
# 2 – Where is the Safe Deposit Box Facility Located?
The next important thing to do is assess the safety and convenience of the safe deposit box facility’s location.
Even though Singapore is an extremely safe country with a low crime rate, the facility’s location and surrounding area should be safe. Remember that you will frequent the area should you become a customer, either bringing valuables to your SDB or leaving the facility with your valuable belongings.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I feel safe entering or leaving the safe deposit box facility?
- If the safe deposit box service is available 24/7, is it safe to access my box at night?
- Is the facility specifically designed and purposely built for safe deposit box services, or is it a retrofitted space?
- Is the building housing the SDBs shared with other non-related companies?
- Do I feel safe entering or leaving the facility from the car park?
#3 – How Good is the Security?
After entering the safe deposit box facility, you should observe and assess the physical security of the premises.
With manual safe deposit boxes, security personnel often verify your identity at the entrance before escorting you to your box. Along the way, you can observe if there are armed auxiliary police, security cameras, and how security between different areas is implemented.
With automated safe deposit boxes, your identity is verified only by an identification card inserted into a security terminal before being granted access to the premises.
You can ask the operator these questions:
- What security measures have been implemented for the facility? Basic safe deposit box premises only have security personnel and cameras, while more sophisticated facilities also incorporate additional security measures such as lasers, seismic sensors, and motion detectors.
- Is the security team comprised of armed auxiliary police?
- How is the safe deposit box area protected from forced entry? Sophisticated facilities often use spaces with interlocking doors, where one door must be closed before another can be opened, to restrict forced entry. The facilities also have heavy-duty vault doors protecting SDB areas.
- How are safe deposit boxes secured? (e.g., lock and key, metal tamper-evident seals, etc.) The best safe deposit box services also use unique serial-numbered metal tamper-evident seals to ensure no unauthorized access to boxes, in addition to conventional lock and key.
- How are automated safe deposit boxes secured during maintenance of the box retrieving system? Machinery maintenance teams are often outsourced to third parties who need to access the SDB area for their servicing works.
#4 – How Good is the Customer Service?
One of the best ways to assess the quality of an SDB service is to interact with the company’s staff, perhaps during a visit to the facility.
You can assess their knowledge by asking them questions about their operations and observing their body language. It is troubling if the staff cannot satisfactorily address customers’ basic concerns.
Competent customer service is especially important with automated or manless safe deposit box services. Such facilities rely heavily on employed technologies, from granting entry to retrieving or returning safe boxes. It will be problematic if the tech fails during a customer's visit. Should this happen, can the company solve or address the problems quickly, or will you be left waiting for assistance for an extended time?
#5 – How Prepared Is the Operator Beyond the Basic Questions?
The best safe deposit box companies design their services around high-net-worth clients. They understand the concerns of such clients and have solutions to meet their needs.
Beyond the basic questions about facility security and operational information, the best safe deposit box services in Singapore should be ready to answer the following questions.
- What happens if the SDB operator ceases operations or goes bankrupt?
- What happens if the SDB operator changes the facility's location since most operators rent the premises?
- Can I appoint other representatives to access my safe deposit box?
- What happens if the box’s hirer passes away?
- How can the contents of my safe deposit box be insured?
- Are the contents of my SDB reportable to local and foreign authorities?
- Can foreign authorities access my SDB without my consent?
#6 – Can the Company’s Quality Be Verified By an External Party?
It is one thing for the safe deposit box company to impress you with claims of excellence, but it is another if these claims are verified by reputable external parties.
Examples of third-party verification include:
- ISO-certified operational procedures demonstrating adherence to internationally recognized quality standards.
- Recognition by a government body
- Industry affiliations showing a mark of excellence as these associations often have standards and codes of conduct that members must follow.
Companies with third-party recognition are likely to have stronger management and track records, and you can have greater confidence in their commitment to maintaining high standards of security, reliability, and customer satisfaction.
Selecting the best safe deposit box service in Singapore requires carefully considering the abovementioned factors. They are compiled from our years of experience operating a safe deposit box service and precious metal vault. With a methodical approach, you can better assess a safe deposit box company’s quality beyond marketing buzzwords on websites and find the right service for your needs.
Renting Safe Deposit Boxes With The Reserve
The Reserve has 12,500 secure safe deposit boxes available for rent. Unlike most safe deposit box services, The Reserve is purpose-built for vault storage and securing high-value goods.
We fully own the building housing our safe deposit box facility, eliminating the complexities and risks of rented spaces. Furthermore, every floor of the building is designed purposefully to support securing our vaults and safe deposit boxes. When you visit The Reserve to access your safe deposit box, your experience will be seamless from entry to your box access.
While our staff accompanies you on your visit, our state-of-the-art security systems quietly protect you in the background. They include high-definition security cameras, security personnel, and armed auxiliary police. Our vaulting spaces are also protected by seismic sensors, motion detectors, and lasers.
Our privacy rooms provide privacy when accessing your safe deposit box, giving you absolute peace of mind as you handle your valuables.
If you store bulky assets such as gold and silver bars, you can rent The Safe House safe deposit boxes, which offer liability protection to further protect your precious metals.
The Reserve is part of the Silver Bullion group of companies. Silver Bullion, our parent company, is a pioneer in precious metals trading in Singapore and a member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA). The Safe House, our sister company specializing in vaulting, is an ISO-9001-certified vaulting facility and is a recognized bonded warehouse by Singapore Customs.
At The Reserve, we understand that your treasured items are more than just physical objects—they hold significant value, rich histories, and precious memories. We are committed to ensuring your valuables are protected with the highest standards.
Contact us for more information about safe deposit box sizes and renting our SDBs in Singapore.