Bank locker insurance protects your jewellery and documents

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Bank locker is considered to be one of the safest places to keep your jewellery. The tight security of a bank takes the stress away from keeping it within the home. Despite all security measures, we often hear about incidences of theft, burglary, fire in banks. The locker hiring agreement also does not give you compensation in case of any such untoward events. The good news is Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come up with new guidelines for locker facilities provided by banks, under which the banks’ liability will be 100 times that of the annual rent of the safe deposit locker in case of loss of contents of locker due to fire, theft, burglary, dacoity, among others. The new guidelines will come into force from January 1, 2022.

For example, if you are paying an annual rent of Rs 5000 then your bank will have a maximum liability up to Rs 5 lakh in case of any untoward event. Will this amount be sufficient considering Indians love buying physical gold and the value of gold in possession of each family may be much higher. If you wondering how to bridge the gap then you would be happy to know that many insurers provide bank locker insurance policies that offer protection to valuables stored in a bank locker.

Bank locker insurance

There are two types of bank locker plans available in the market-  you can either buy the cover as a part of your home insurance policy or buy it as a standalone gold locker policy. Under the standalone bank locker policies, the sum insured will depend on the declaration made by the policyholder. For small value items, you only need to give a self-declaration of the gold value. Generally, in cases where the value of an individual item is more than say Rs 10 lakhs then one requires to have a valuation report from government-approved valuers.

Not only jewellery there are policies that cover important documents, too. Some of the items that are, however, not covered in such policies include cash, mysterious disappearance from the locker, among other things.

The premium rate is affordable for such policies with a cover of Rs 3 lakh available at around Rs 300.

Claim process

In case of a claim, the insurance company requires a claim form, written statement, invoices, and investigation report. Additionally, FIR filed by the bank authorities will be required in cases of burglary, terrorism, etc.