What is a bank safe deposit box?
A bank safe deposit box is a secured locker inside the vault of a bank branch. The bank keeps a master key, the customer keeps their own, and both are needed to open it. The service long existed to keep bearer securities: shares, bonds, deposit notes. Since 2008, Belgian banks are no longer allowed to issue paper securities, and part of the historical use disappeared with them, as L'Avenir recalls (article in French).
Bank safe deposit boxes in Belgium were estimated at 257,000 in 2025, spread over fewer than 3,000 branches, according to L'Avenir; Febelfin, the Belgian financial sector federation, attributes the decline in rentals to growing digitisation. Two traits define this model: you must in practice be a customer of the bank to rent a box, and access follows the branch's opening hours, on weekdays.
What is a private vault outside a bank?
A private vault is run by a specialist company whose core business it is, outside any banking network.
At Gold & Silver Company in Dottignies (Mouscron), showing an identity card or a valid passport is the only requirement: no proof of address is asked, no bank statement, no file to assemble. Individuals and professionals are welcome, whatever their nationality. A contract opens in twenty to thirty minutes, with immediate access to the box. In 2012, Gold & Silver Company opened the first private safe deposit box rooms outside the banking system in Belgium.
A six-point comparison
Both services protect valuables inside a secured room, but they rest neither on the same contract nor on the same organisation. The table below confronts them point by point, using the Gold & Silver Company vault as the private-side example.
| Criterion | Bank safe deposit box | Private vault (Gold & Silver Company) |
|---|---|---|
| Banking relationship | Account required in practice: the service is reserved for customers | No bank account required |
| Document to show | Set by each bank | Identity card or valid passport, nothing else |
| Who can rent | Customers of the bank | All nationalities, individuals and professionals |
| Access hours | Branch hours, on weekdays | Six days a week, Saturday included |
| Price | Each bank sets its own rates; BNP Paribas Fortis quoted rents of €90 to €110 per year depending on volume (RTBF, in French) | €240 to €350 per year depending on size, payable in advance; numbered custody at €10 per month |
| Privacy | Contents unknown to the bank | Contents known to the renter alone; privacy cabin out of camera sight |
Sources: RTBF and L'Avenir for banking data; terms published by Gold & Silver Company for the private vault.
The bank offer is contracting: ING stopped accepting new requests in January 2022 and ended the service at the end of 2023, according to RTBF (in French). This decline clarifies the availability difference without changing the contractual comparison above.
What changes in practice
The rent is settled in advance, for one year or more, in cash within the legal limits or by bank transfer; with a transfer, the key is handed over only once the amount is credited. One month before expiry, a renewal invitation reaches the renter, who renews remotely, by email and transfer, or at the branch. Ending the contract takes a registered letter sent at least ten days ahead; the contract runs by the year, and any year started is due.
The renter enters the box alone: access card, key and personal code, the code typed out of sight. Appointing a proxy is free: any adult of the renter's choosing may be granted access, and that choice can be changed at any time, on simple request.
The example of Gold & Silver Company in Dottignies (Mouscron)
The vault is located at Rue Arthur Roelandt 22 in Dottignies (Mouscron), in Hainaut, on the French border. Four box sizes and a numbered custody formula are offered.
Terms and prices differ from one provider to another; the full Gold & Silver Company price list is published on its official page.
Frequently asked questions
Does the bank or the private provider know what is inside my box?
No, in both cases. At Gold & Silver Company, what a box holds is known only to its renter and, where one has been appointed, to the proxy; the company does not, by design. Discretion is not a selling point added to the service, it is its architecture.
Is a private box contract always a yearly one?
Yes: the Gold & Silver Company contract runs for a year, payable in advance, and any year started is due. It ends by registered letter, with ten days' notice, and renews remotely or at the branch.
Do you have to live in Belgium to rent a private box?
No. At Gold & Silver Company, individuals and professionals are welcome, whatever their nationality. Showing an identity card or a valid passport is enough: no proof of address is asked, no bank statement, no file to assemble. The rule applies to everyone, Belgian residents or not.
Does proxy access differ between a bank box and a private box?
At a bank, the box is part of the client relationship: access for a relative follows the branch's own conditions. At Gold & Silver Company, the proxy is free of charge: any adult chosen by the renter can be granted access to the box, and that proxy can be replaced at any time, on simple request.
A question, a visit, a booking?
The Gold & Silver Company team answers Monday to Saturday, during opening hours.