Home Safe Cash Ratings

One often overlooked bonus of owning a home safe is the insurance perks that can come with it. It’s common for many home insurance policies to cover small amounts of cash stashed at home but this number increases greatly when you keep your assets in an insured safe. One important factor when considering a safe is its cash rating. In short, this is the amount of cash that can be safely stored in a safe but perhaps, more importantly, it’s also the maximum amount that insurance companies are typically willing to cover.

Interestingly, the cash rating can be used as a metric for storing other non-cash valuables. Generally, insurance companies are willing to cover 10 times the cash rating for jewelry or other valuables. Here we’ll look a bit more into how insuring a safe and its valuables works and how security ratings match up with cash ratings.

Security Ratings and Cash Ratings

Insurance companies don’t like to payout so they want to have some security knowing that your valuables are safe. This means that in general, the cash rating for your safe is going to be closely tied to its security rating. A high-security rating generally means a high cash rating and vice-versa. Different types of safes also have different cash ratings somewhat independent of their security. For example, a wall safe with the same security ratings as a normal safe will usually have a slightly higher cash rating because it is hidden. The same goes for floor safes to an even higher degree. One additional factor that plays an important role in determining the cash rating is whether or not your safe has a burglar alarm. This can dramatically increase the cash rating.

Here’s a quick look at how cash ratings match up with UL security ratings