Ever since the recent "bailouts" of many Insurance Companies, Brokerages and Banks, people are calling us and asking: "Is my bank safe?". With so many banks failing today and many more projected to fail in the future, we are receiving calls from homeowners and businesses asking about the security of safes for their money. This is advisable but not without some careful, well thought out planning.
First, we want to advise everyone that the best way to ensure that your Bank or Savings Thrift Bank is safe is by checking out their ratings by going to: www.thestreet.com.
The Street.com's very accurate and conservative Bank and Savings Thrift rating system. If your Bank is not rated "B" or above, then the general advice would be to move your money to a safer bank with the "A" or "B" rating. This is very sound advice during today's economy. You will find that even some of the largest banks have very poor ratings. These ratings mean that this bank has too high of a debt to equity ratio or too many bad loans outstanding along with many other factors used by the financial experts at The Street.com's staff.
Second, many people want to keep some emergency cash, gold, silver, platinum or other items in a Home Safe. Each family will have to decide how much cash or metals they want to keep on hand, based on your own needs. We suggest that you do not keep excessively large amounts of cash on hand, since it will not be earning any interest. Metals can be a great hedge against inflation depending on which direction the gold, silver or platinum market is heading, so they are good for storing in a Home or Business safe.
There are many different types of Burglar Fire Safes for home or business use. If the total content value of your Burglar Fire Safe is less than $30,000, then you can shop for the right safe by going to Burglar Fire Safes on our web site. Here you will find a large variety of quality Burglar Fire Safes that will fit your needs.
If you have a need to secure more than $30,000 of content value in a home or business safe, then you should be looking at High-Security Burglar Fire Safes. Here you will find Underwriters Laboratory rated safes that will protect amounts from $30,000 to $1.5 million dollars or more. Underwriters Laboratory uses many burglar ratings for high-security burglar fire safes starting with TL-15 up to TRTL 30 X6. You can learn about how some of these ratings are tested by Underwriters Laboratory by going this article on Burglar Ratings.
If you are going to be storing cash, coins, gold, silver, platinum, jewelry or other high dollar value items, we always recommend that you install a quality home or business burglar alarm system. Burglar Alarms work in tandem with burglar fire safes and high-quality door deadbolt locks to protect your valuables. Using all three will ensure that if someone does break in to your home or business, your valuables will be protected by each one of these security measures. Of course, we recommend that you call one of our security consultants at SafeandVaultStore.com to get the very best advice on the right kind of Burglar Fire Safe or High-Security Burglar Fire Safe depending on your needs for your home or business. Many more banks will probably fail over the next few years, however, if you plan properly, you can purchase a home safe or business safe designed for the content value you decide on by careful planning ahead.
Now is the time to find out if your bank is safe. Make sure to check out their rating at The Street.com. Move your money to an "A" or "B" rated bank because these are the most likely banks that will NOT fail since they are conservative, have large reserves and have the smallest amount of bad loans on the books. Decide what the total content value will be in a home or business safe, then shop for the safe with a rating that meets your content value needs. Strongly consider buying a Burglar Alarm system since they are very inexpensive. Basic alarm systems typically run between $200-300 and monthly monitoring fees usually run about $25-35 per month. It will cost you less than having cable TV and far more important! Make sure to beef up your doors with strong dead bolts which run about $50.00 per door. Once you have your safe installed in your home make sure it is anchored and keep it a secret. We recommend you put it in a closet or under the stairs. Just remember, out of site and out of mind. The only people who need to know are close trusted family members and the less people who know, the better.
Many banks may not be safe now so putting some cash away is a good idea. As in all past recessions or depressions, the stronger banks survived and so will you but you should do your homework. Find an "A" rated bank, then take the right steps to secure a home or business safe with a Burglar Alarm and strong dead bolts. You will get through these tough times with your assets secure if you just do some simple planning ahead.
