Before she died, my mother purchased savings bonds for my son for special occasions and holidays. I kept those in the bank safety deposit box. Those are like cash. If they were lost to fire or stolen, poof, they are really gone.
I made my first trip in years to the box last May to get them out. Gave them to DS as a gift from my mother for his election to PBK. She would be so proud.
Actually, no, if you take note of the numbers now it can save you headaches later.
See: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ebonds/res_e_bonds_eefaq.htm#lost
Or…you could convert to paperless and you wouldn’t have to worry about losing them.
Didn’t know that. Thanks ClaremontMom.
Gringotts, yes! 
We have a small home safe too, but it opens with a key, not a combination lock. My problem is, where do we keep the keys? I’ve read articles online about storing your safe key out in your yard somewhere (like in your dog house, etc.) but I’m not crazy about that idea.
And I’m not sure what’s supposed to be stored in the safe either; I don’t have “good” jewelry or sterling silver that might go in a safe deposit box, so really all we have is papers – house, cars, wills, etc.
I’ve always have safe deposit boxes, not one but two. One I keep baptism records and the other one passport and important papers. I don’t trust them at home. One is free and the other one I pay about $60 a year.
I just go the notice that mine ($75/year) renews soon, so I clicked on here thinking maybe there was an alternative, but looks like this is still the best option.
@rockvillemom, are you in Maryland? I went through the same thing with my branch of Capital One closing last year. They gave me a free year when that happened.
In a safe deposit box at the bank, of course.
@Barbalot - that is interesting! Suntrust branch. The letter that arrived yesterday just notified that branch was closing later this year and said more info would follow re safe deposit boxes. I wonder if Suntrust will offer that?
We’ve never had a safety deposit box, have never felt the need. We do have a home safe, though.
We have one which contains all the usual – passports and birth certificates, car titles, originals of legal documents. There are also a couple of loose gems which i haven’t yet had set.
My elderly mother’s box ( of which I am a co-owner) contains all of her fine jewelry except one. It works on a checkout system, and she may only have one piece out at a time. Unfortunately she can no longer be trusted to keep track of things, so this at least limits her loss to one.
We rent a safe deposit box for things like deeds, etc. For something that we might need right away like passports and some cash, etc. we put them in our home safe.
Don’t keep your will in a safe deposit box unless someone who is unlikely to die at the same time (i.e., someone other than your spouse) has access to the box. The bank might not give access to the box to something other than the owner or the owner’s executor, and if the executor is identified in the will, which is in the box … Much time and legal procedure will ensue.
In our area it is really hard to find a bank that has them available.
So this is kind of funny/offensive - I come home to find a message on our vocemail from the next closest Suntrust branch - but the person who called asked for Mr. XXX and invited Mr. XXX to call or stop in the branch to get acquainted. What is this? The 1950s? All of our accounts are joint - and the branch we have banked at for 24 years has rarely seen DH - banking is my lane. Not a great first impression.
@rockvillemom I got a call like that from my bank twice in the last few months. They want to retain customers and increase banking relatiionships. ( oh so you want to buy a bigger house or so your son is going to college gives them ideas on how they can service you or oh so you want to remodel the kitchen)
Rosered, the executor has a copy.
If you put expensive valuables like jewelry in a bank’s safe deposit box you should still get insurance on the items…if a big bottomless sinkhole gobbles up vault and your stuff disappears for good I don’t think bank is going to reimburse you.