Safe Box Action Plan.

Week 7.4 Safe Deposit Box Action Plan.

Let have an action plan on

Things that we can do without assistance of others

1. If a private safe operator has a major break in then their business is finished. Thus, they will make sure it will never happen. If a bank safe deposit box is broken into, the bank will still in business. So better put it private operator lah.

2. Private operator operation hour is longer than bank operation hour. Thus, the time required to break-in much lesser so it may be safer. According to statistic, most of the break-in happened during long holiday break.

3. Insurance and court case settlement take years. E.g. Susan Cheah vs Maybank Finance, The incident happen in 1995, the compensation is not still settled in 3rd March 2003 (high-court case). If you want earlier settlement can but it’s RM10,000.00 only wow. So, if your box is lost due to break in considered it is lost forever. You should hedge your bet by putting your items in few separate safe deposit box preferably from different operator. Just factor in the storage fee depending on your budget. For example, UOB Singapore silver account charges 0.375% per annum for silver account. Thus, it should be ok to factor in a storage fee of 0.5% of the stored value.

4. Do you think it with a RM100,000.00 insurance protection, you will get paid RM100,000.00 compensation? You need to prove it beyond any doubt. That also depends on what’s stated in the fine print of the insurance policy you signed. Insurance on antique old coin, notes may be difficult to assess. Just look at the compensation paid-out given in most insurance cases then you have a better idea. In the end, insurance is still an issue.

5. If it is tax deductable for sole proprietor or company, why safe? Just insured it lah, get few more boxes.

6. Many banks in KL are located near the Klang and Gombak river. Some of the vault is underground and may be prone to major flood. Just don’t store anything than can get wet. If this happens, it ‘ll comes and hentam U just like that. You won’t realize it, if you about to realize it let say raining non-stop for 2 days, then KL may be traffic jam, LRT crowded etc. E.g. Cars in underground parking dataran merdeka was fully submerged with water. You never know which building water pump is working or not. They also will never tell you. Preventation is better then cure.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/11/nation/17990137&sec=nation


Things that we can’t do without assistance of others

I think it may take few more safe deposit box break-ins then only something is done. After the Sri Kembangan cases, Public bank offered Lon Pac insurance for all safe deposit box hirer. I’m not sure what was the case before the incident?

Authority 

If you happen to be someone in power or in a position to influence someone in power then the following are my recommendations

1. Information on Insurance option for safe deposit box must be widely to safe deposit box hirer. I have to spend so much time checking which bank got insurance, which bank don’t have. Apparently most banks don’t have it.

2. What is RM10,000 insurance today consider the inflation? The minimum insurance rate should be raised at least to RM50,000/-. Then there is an incentive for people to use the safe deposit box.

3. There should be an independent audit on each safe deposit facilities deployed by bank nation wide. Those facilities which found to be unsafe should be closed down.

4. Insurance coverage should be best provided by third party independent from the safe deposit box operator.

Banks and Safe Deposit Operator

During the bird flu incident in Thailand in 2004, Prime Minister Thaksin urged people not to scare and eat the chicken. He then ate the chicken himself. Thus, the bank can also do the same thing. Introduce a self-confident program. All senior staff will get a free safe deposit box in the branch where they are working. There will be a periodic check on the safe deposit box in order to qualify for next year free rental, they must show that there is something worth RM50,000 stored in their box. If there is a break-in, they also will kena because their box inside is there also mah.

Auction

Some location the safe deposit boxes are always full and the waiting list is very long. I don’t understand why the operator doesn’t want to auction it out. You can get a better deal.