Cheryl,
Thank you for the additional information about safe deposit boxes. As usual, your information is right on the money.
I came across an interesting Web page that address the Y2K compliance of Safe Deposit Box Operation that raises the question; Are safe deposit boxes Y2K compliant?
<<The Safe Deposit Box Operation product is an old DOS software program that has been discontinued and will not be upgraded to be Year 2000 compliant. We do not currently anticipate a Year 2000 compliant replacement for the Safe Deposit Box Operation software in the future.>>
sheshunoff.com
I don't know how many other Safe Deposit Box Operation products are not Y2K compliant, but I would check with my bank before putting anything into the box that I might need access to in early January.
Also, if you do not currently have a safe deposit box, you should be aware that people are grabbing them fast:
<<Demand for safe deposit boxes has some bank customers locked out
Want to stash your cash for Y2K? Get in line.
Sheryl Jean Staff Reporter
The hottest service a bank has to offer these days is somewhat small and costs extra. It's a safe deposit box.
Consumers must wait months or even years to put their name on a box at some Twin City bank branches.
In addition, some banks are receiving unusual requests from people who want to place cash in a safe deposit box around the turn of the millennium for fear of Year 2000 computer glitches. For those people, the key to a safe deposit box is the word "safe."
Norwest Bank, owned by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., plans to convert at least two bank branches slated to close in Plymouth and Woodbury into staffed, safe deposit box centers with no other bank services.
Liberty State Bank has 100 people waiting up to three months for one of its 2,700 safe deposit boxes, said vice president Joan Peper, vice president for the single-office St. Paul bank.
Big banks "have cut back on services, closed branches and cut down access to safe deposit boxes to three or four hours a day," Peper said. "That's where our demand is coming from. Basically, the consolidation and closings of banks have left people out of the loop."
The safe deposit box shortage is not universal. While some banks don't have enough boxes at certain branches, other banks have an excess. The size of the problem appears to be tied to the size of the bank and where it is located.
Convenience and proximity to home are major factors in choosing where to rent a box, said Charlotte House, vice president of marketing for St. Paul-based Cherokee State Bank. Only 10 percent of 690 safe deposit boxes at its Grand Avenue branch in St. Paul are not rented, but other branches have more than 50 percent availability, she said.
Although 14 percent of Norwest's 160,000 safe deposit boxes throughout Minnesota are available, there's a definite crunch in the Twin Cities area, said Colleen Ross, senior project manager for Norwest Bank Minnesota. Some Norwest Bank branches in the growing, western suburbs have no safe deposit boxes available, and "there's a two- to three-year waiting period," she said.
Norwest's two planned safe deposit box centers will offer hundreds, maybe thousands, of new boxes, Ross said. The exact number of boxes and the cost of construction were not available.>>
amcity.com
B.K.
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