As far as I know, the only high street bank that offers this service is metro bank. Selfridges in London offers the same service. And, of course, Hatton garden. :-)
Genuine question, having just read to often recently of collectors having pieces stolen. In the UK, in a typical high street bank, where you have your current account say, is it possible to hire a deposit box these days?
I have no idea if I'd get laughed at if I rock up at my local Lloyds Bank demanding to store all my watches in their safe.
How does this work and if it's not high street banks, then where?
cheers
As far as I know, the only high street bank that offers this service is metro bank. Selfridges in London offers the same service. And, of course, Hatton garden. :-)
I think there is only a few banks that do it now, I've used a private vault for years here in Manchester in fact the oldest one in Manchester, search "safe deposit boxes" find a company your happy with and enquire.
Not many about but you might get lucky.
Many years ago I asked our local bank about this and the best they could offer was to put a box on a shelf in their strong room. ISTR we had a Tupperware box in there for about 5 years.... tbh I'd forgotten all about it.... it might still be there and this was 25 years ago!
High street banks have either stopped providing the service, or some of them keep it going for existing customers only. Metro mentioned above is the only one I know of who still provides a safe deposit box service for new customers.
Thanks for the input all. Shame that Metro bank is South East only so far. Not heard of them before this.
Did they not take over the Northern Rock book?
Metro bank are expanding at a rate so won't be long until there is one local to you. I use them and for the largest box, it's around £600 a year. Worth mentioning though, you still need to make sure the watches are insured.
You need to have an account with them also which isn't a problem as they are open 7 days a week and actually seem to value customer service. No complaints so far.
Virgin money took northern rocks book. Metro is brand new as far as I'm aware
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
HSBC provided the service to me for many years, a large deed box, in my case a lockable metal box with watches and paperwork, £50 per year, £10 ish per access visit. Have just had a letter advising they are ceasing this service and have 60 days to arrange to collect my box.
After decades of providing this service they are now not happy with not knowing the contents, which I guess could be anything, legal or illegal. I was never asked what was in it and always in a room alone once my box was delivered for access.
At the one I use they ask you to sign a form which states you have nothing illegal in the box (right) but that's good enough for them, they only have slim letter boxes available ATM I remember a big rush for boxes about 3 years ago, I think that's when banks started to drift off the idea.