Renting Bank Lockers: Charges, Guidelines and Alternatives

Bank lockers have always been considered a safe and preferred place to store jewels, stock certificates, deeds and other valuables. While most banks offer such a facility, the locker size, annual rent, deposit required, time period and provision for refund differs for various banks.

As you can see in the table below Private Banks like HSBC charge almost double of public sector banks.

Bank Lockers: The ground realities –

It’s hard to get lockers in metro and other big cities due to non-availability and high demand. Due to this banks are demanding much more than the above charges

• New customers need to either open account with Rs 1 lakh or make a deposit of Rs 5 lakh for
• Existing customer may also need Rs 1 lakh in savings account or a deposit of Rs 75,000
• High risk customers may have to pay up to Rs 1 lakh for insurance cover of the locker
• Existing customer may be preferred over a new one, NRI chosen over existing customer

Bank Lockers: The Guidelines?

• RBI guidelines say banks cannot demand a deposit or insurance charges for a locker
• Banks should maintain applicants’ waitlist for lockers, give a waitlist number and ensure complete transparency in the allotment of lockers
• New customers (only new customers) can complain to the bank head office and RBI
• Redressal may be slow, warn industry experts

Private Company Vaults – Alternative to Bank Lockers:

There are some private companies who also provide locker facilities in some cities. Some companies in this field are

1. India Safety Vaults (present in Mumbai and Pune) and
2. Navketan Lockers (Hyderabad and Mumbai)

According to an India Safety Vaults’ executive, the company provides lockers in nine different sizes, A-type to L-type. You will be charged Rs 21,796 for three years for an A-type locker and Rs 59,000 a year for an L-type.

Navketan Lockers’ charges for A to L-type can either be paid for one year, three years or five years. The annual charges for A-type lockers is Rs 6,545 inclusive of service tax and caution deposit, while for the L-type locker it would be Rs 29,467 inclusive of service tax and caution deposit

Why you might not prefer Private Company Lockers:

1. The trust on Private company lockers is not as high as bank lockers
2. Private companies do not insure the lockers, which banks do
3. Private companies costs more than bank lockers

Let us know your experience in getting bank lockers and their overall service.