Valuable advice on how to crack the safe problem

Anyone who owns a house, has a mortgage, life assurance, holds a passport and has some shares, will have accumulated copious amounts of paperwork. The need to keep it all in a safe place is always stressed by those who send them out. But where? Householders have a number of options. Buy a safe, leave them with a solicitor, put valuables in a bank or specialist safety deposit, or, from this week, store documents online.

So what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each option?

Buying a safe

Cost: Specialist safe supplier, safeoptions.co.uk, says its most popular is the Guard M80 at £49 plus VAT. It's compact (250mm high 350mm wide 250mm deep) and will hold small amounts of cash, jewellery, passports and watches.
Pros: Price makes it accessible and the discrete size means it can be bolted into a cupboard. If you leave your car keys on the sideboard and you drive a desirable car - the chances of a break-in are high. These safes are good for storing car keys by a front door. Safe codes are mainly electronic, making them hard to break into.
Cons: It's not fire proof (fire proof versions cost in excess of £350 for the smallest). It is not suitable for paperwork. If storing valuables, make sure you have written approval from your insurance company so you're covered in the event of a burglary.

Leaving documents with a solicitor

Cost: On the whole, solicitors will not charge to hold household deeds, wills or life assurance policies. Jan Wright, a solicitor from Cartmell Shepherd in Penrith, Cumbria, says they will not look after items of value - like a diamond ring or original artwork.
Pros: Convenient, free, secure.
Cons: If the solicitor's office burned down, you would need to have back-up copies. You will have to make an appointment to collect the documents.

Leaving household deeds with your mortgage company

Cost: Mortgage companies hold the deeds to thousands of properties "free of charge". When all but £10 of the mortgage has been paid off, the lender will offer to continue to hold the deeds until you need to sell your property.
Pros: Gives you peace of mind and is one less piece of paperwork to worry about. It's secure and won't be stolen.
Cons: Solicitor Ms Wright says it could more expensive in the long run. She said: "When the owner needs to release the deeds it can cost anywhere up to £100."

Using a bank

Cost: NatWest operates a Safe Custody service in the majority of its branches. Barclays, and other high street banks, run a similar service. You can hire a security box which is stored in the bank's safe and you are given a key. NatWest offers three sizes: a sealed envelope at £15 a year; a small box is £30 a year including VAT, and a large box at £45 a year - plus £10 each time you view your items.
Pros: It's good for things like mortgage deeds or stamp collections, says Caroline Harris from NatWest. The bank has very strict logging in and logging out. Key holders must have two members of staff present when they access the vault.
Cons: The cost each time you view your items. "It's not somewhere you'd store your jewels that you'd want to wear every Friday night," says Ms Harris.

Using a specialist security vault

Cost: The London Silver Vault and the Chancery Lane Safety Deposit was the largest of its kind in Europe when it opened in the late 1800s. It now houses an underground shopping mall for silver and jewellery merchants, as well as safety deposit boxes for the public. Anyone can lease a storage unit. There are 10 different size boxes ranging from the smallest (4.5 inches by 5.5 inches by 18 inches) for £146 a year including VAT to the largest (23.5 inches by 23.5 inches by 18 inches) costing £960 a year.
Pros: Security is on a par with the Bank of England and the Tower of London. It has never been broken into. As the director Geoffrey Knowles says: "There would be much easier places to get into ... like a bank." It operates on a "no questions asked" basis - customers are not obliged to disclose what is held. However, people are forbidden from storing illegal drugs, firearms and explosives.
Cons: It's expensive and may not be in a convenient location to your home.

Storing them online

Cost: A unique online safety deposit box was launched this week which allows you to record and itemise your most valued possessions and documents on the net. Inasafeplace.com costs £1 per item to upload for a year. An item record allows a title and three photos or scans with descriptions. Items have to be bought in blocks of 10 and the minimum purchase is one block.
Pros: Can be used to store anything from scanned copies of household deeds, passports or birth certificates to photographs and details of jewellery, laptops, paintings, furniture etc. You can upload relevant details of valuables, such as serial numbers, sales receipts and descriptions of distinguishing marks, which means insurance claims should be quicker and more successful and police retrieval much more likely. "It's supposed to be a tool that makes legitimate insurance claims quick and easy," says the creator Thom Board. As it is held online, the actual details will never be lost or stolen, and can be accessed only by the safebox "key holder" wherever they are in the world.
Cons: As with any internet site it could fall foul of the hackers. Depending on how many items you upload, it could be costly. Original documents can still be stolen or destroyed by fire.