62 • SAFESEXTRA
PROUD SPONSOR OF
THE LOCKSMITH JOURNAL
How to Choose a Safe –
Top 7 Questions to Ask
» » WHEN IT COMES TO
protecting cash, documents
and valuables, a safe makes all
the difference – from deterring
thieves and satisfying insurance
requirements, to providing
protection from floods and fire
damage.
With thousands of models
available in a huge range of
sizes, styles and security ratings
– finding the right safe for your
customer’s home or business can
be a real challenge.
Ensure you make the right
choice with help from this quick
guide - here are the top 7 things
a customer needs to consider
before making a purchase…
‘you get what
you pay for, and
increased levels
of security mean
higher prices’
1. WHICH SAFE DO I NEED
FOR MY INSURANCE?
This one is really important.
One of the key drivers in
making a safe purchase for your
home or business is to satisfy
your insurance requirements.
Choose the wrong safe, and
the insurance company may not
pay out if you need to make a
claim.
All security safes come with an
insurance rating, from £1,000 to
£100,000 or more. This denotes
both the level of safe security, and
the maximum value of cash you
can store inside it for insurance
purposes. The higher the
insurance rating, the more secure
the safe is.
For insurance purposes, you can
store valuables up to ten times
the value of the cash rating. For
instance, if your safe has a cash
rating of £1,000 – you can store up
to £10,000 in valuables inside.
When choosing a safe, it’s
worth thinking about your future
needs. Choosing a safe with a
higher insurance rating than the
value of the contents gives you
some leeway, and helps to ensure
you’re always covered if you need
to make a claim.
2. DO I NEED A SAFE
FOR MONEY, PAPERS
OR VALUABLES?
One of the first things you are
going to need to consider is what
you’re storing in your safe – is
it money, jewellery, electronics,
valuables or papers? You’ll also
want to think about the quantity of
items you’re storing.
These factors will impact on the
kind of safe you need in terms of
size, fire rating, cash/valuables
limit and whether or not it needs to
be flood/fireproof.
It’s easy to underestimate
your requirements in terms of
size, so think carefully about the
dimensions of the largest item you
need to store inside.
3. HOW MUCH DO I WANT
TO SPEND ON MY SAFE?
Safes range massively in value
– from £50 or less, to tens of
thousands of pounds. How much
you need to spend on your safe
depends on a few different factors,
including:
• What you are storing inside
• Whether it’s for your home or
business
• The cash/valuables limit for
insurance purposes
• Whether it needs to be flood
or fireproof (and to what
degree)
• How big it needs to be
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | MAR/APR 2019
Sponsored by ERA - Total Security