Your Valuables: Is Your Hiding Place Really as SAFE as you Think?

Research conducted by Confused.com in 2013 revealed that despite the fact homeowners in Britain estimate their home contents to be worth £38,000 on average, they are still using obvious places to hide their valuables.

Things like jewellery, official papers, cash, etc. are, according to the survey, being stashed in sock drawers, under the bed, in the top of the wardrobe, under the bedside table and under the sink. And according to the Crime Prevention Website, it doesn’t end there. Behind books on the bookshelf, in the fridge, in the shed and in the back of the drinks cabinet are more favourite hiding places. 

The trouble is these are the places burglars always head for first, so you really can’t call them a ‘safe hiding place’ at all. The Crime Prevention Website reports from its own research findings that as many as 73% of homeowners are using these hiding places, or not hiding things at all. 27% use a safe of some kind, however of those, only 33% describe the safe they use as being acceptable to their insurers.

A Guide to Buying a Safe

In a previous post – A Safe Buyer’s Guide – we talked in detail about how safes are rated, the various specifications and what makes them insurance-approved. If you have just had your hiding places rumbled thanks to this blog, it is well worth having a read of it and thinking about getting yourself a safe.

If you are thinking of buying a safe and are considering a trip to a high street DIY store, you’ll certainly find plenty of choice. However, it is important to remember that if you want the contents to be covered by your insurer then you will need one that is certificated to a certain ‘cash rating’ and is professionally installed.

Cash ratings work like this: if for example a safe has a cash rating of £3,000 then it can be used to store up to £30,000 of valuables. In a nutshell you can store 10 times the cash rating value in, for example, jewellery or tech.

Professional Installation for Complete Peace of Mind

Even if insurance approval is not something you are seeking, you should seriously consider having your safe professionally installed if you want complete peace of mind. Many homeowners will buy a safe and just place it in a cupboard. But without being adequately fixed down there is nothing to stop a burglar simply picking it up and taking it away to open later, or dropping it on the ground, moving the elements and breaking the safe open.

Visit the Largest Safe Showroom in London

If, having realised your ‘safe’ hiding places are in fact the first place an intruder would look, you are keen to up your security levels by investing in a safe, get in touch or call in to see us. Our experts are on hand for advice and our London security showroom is full of a wide range of high quality safes and is in fact the largest safe showroom in London. A professional installation service is also offered nationwide.