The Advantages

• In spite of the scepticism about bank lockers offering full-proof safety, it is still the safest place to keep your valuables. Bank lockers are made of high-quality, thick steel plates with screws fitted on them, making them difficult to penetrate. Closed-circuit TVs (CCTV) are now a standard part of the security system.

• Bank lockers come cheap for the space you hire, which is incomparable with any other alternative system.

• Bank lockers are secured by insurance cover against fire and other hazards.

• Locker-hirer(s) can nominate/appoint a locker deputy to operate the locker in his/her absence.

• Bank officials do not see what is being kept in the bank locker; they at best take a declaration that the locker contents are not opposed to public policy. So the secrecy of the customer is maintained.

There Are Some Disadvantages too

• One can operate the bank locker only during business hours of a bank – this restricts one’s freedom to access the locker contents in case of an emergency.

• Normally, banks charge locker rent in advance for a specific period (for example, for one year). In case the locker-hirer vacates the locker in the middle of the year, banks mostly do not refund the locker rent for the unexpired (broken) period.

• Banks usually insist, albeit orally, on one depositing a sizeable sum as fixed deposits to be held with them for a longer period for letting out a locker.

• Lockers are not available at small/medium-sized branches in urban/semi-urban and rural centres, where the fear of theft is perhaps the maximum due to their remote location.