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Home >> Safe Deposit Boxes
Locating Safe Deposit Box after Bank Buy-out
I recently found a key to a safe deposit box for which I remember signing a signature card for with my grandmother. She passed away two years ago, but the key was issued before then. The bank has been bought and I called the current bank gave the number of box and size. They told me that wasn't correct and passed me off to main office in a different city. I live in another state. Is there anything I can do with the markings on the key? Any other suggestions?
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 The key markings may not be particularly helpful. Even though some safe deposit box keys were stamped with a box number when they were first used, locks are very often swapped between boxes as renters come and go, as a security measure, so yesterday's key to box 623 may now access box 1074.
One thing you might try is to dig through your grandmother's bank statements and/or papers to see if you can find a debit to pay box rent or an old paid safe deposit box rent bill. Often the box number appears on the bank statement when charges are assessed to deposit accounts. The acquiring bank should have access to an alphabetic listing of box renters that could help locate the box, too.
Finally, since your grandmother died two years ago, there is the possibility that the bank, either the old bank or the new one, attempted to collect the box rental and, when no payment was made, drilled the box lock, removed whatever was in the box inventoried it, and forwarded it to the state as unclaimed property. This is generally done with a notary public in attendance. Whether its in the unclaimed property area is a possibility will depend on the specific safe deposit box laws and regulations in effect in the state where the box was located. If the bank can't turn up a record of such a transfer, the state's abandoned property office should.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 8/26/08
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