Choosing the Right Safe for Your Business

27/06/2018

Most businesses have sensitive documents, sums of cash and other valuables like keys laying around. While you may think that your premises are secure enough, you can never be certain and thieves are always willing to take on a challenge. Buying a safe is one of the easiest ways you can protect your business. However, the wide variety of different safes on the market can make this process confusing – which shouldn’t be the case.

Cash Ratings 

Safes have different cash ratings, which are simply the amount of cash an insurance company will cover you to hold in the safe. These cash ratings start from £1000 and go up to £150,000. The rating for valuables like jewellery is always 10 times the cash rating. Meaning for example, a safe with a £10,000 cash rating will allow for protection for up to £100,000 of jewellery or similar valuables. Before buying a safe, you should always check with your insurance providers to see how much cover they need you to have. 

AIS Safe List 

The Association of Insurance Surveyors (AIS) has been producing a safe list for years now. This list incudes makes and models of safes manufactured in the UK and safes that are imported to the UK for sale. Alongside the maker’s name and the model of the safe, the list states the certified resistance grade achieved when tested and it also lists the recommended maximum overnight cash holding. Insurance providers often insist that your safe is AIS approved, but always check with them beforehand.

Different Types of Locks 

Here are the different types of locking systems commonly used on safes, here are the pros and cons of each locking system:

• Key locks – Although key locks are easy to use and fairly reliable, having the added worry of carrying around a key is something you will need to take into consideration. Keys are easily lost or broken and a stolen key poses a serious threat to the security of your safe. 
  
• Electronic lock – There is no key needed with electronic locks, making them a safer choice than key locks, however you will need to remember the combination to open the safe. If you have a poor memory these aren’t the best choice, but the fact they don’t require keys allows multiple people to gain access and eliminates the risk of a lost key. 
  
• Mechanical combination locks – Mechanical combination locks are extremely reliable, partly due to the fact that they require no keys and there are a wide variety of different combinations that can be used to open them. Although they are slow to open, they are a good choice for your business. 
  

Fire Protection 

Fire protection is a pretty important thing to take into consideration when choosing your safe. Most modern safes provide protection to paper for between 30 and 60 minutes, although this varies depending on the design of the safe. The maximum level of fire protection is 120 minutes, which provides plenty of time for a fire to be extinguished before any damage occurs to your valuables and irreplaceable documents. Fire protection will protect the contents of your safe in the event of a fire until the blaze is put out. 

Interested in purchasing your own safe, or need repairs for your existing safe? We can help, give us a call on 01603 812613 or email us on admin@ptlockandsafe.co.uk.

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