Rentals of many safe deposit boxes have gone up, from 1.6% to 62.5%, during the past six months.
The upward adjustment in rental rates was reported in a Consumer Council survey of 21 banks operating deposit box service.
Public concern over this service was generated in the wake of the accidental destruction of safe deposit boxes of a bank in October last year.
In the survey, the Council collected a total of over 1,000 rental prices on deposit boxes of different sizes located in the various bank branches in different districts throughout Hong Kong.
Often deposit box rentals vary according to both the size and location of the branch office even within a same bank.
The latest rentals were compared with available historical data collected by the Council in an earlier survey soon after the incident.
It was found that, on the basis of the comparison, out of 728 rentals, one-third (33%) have risen since November last year. The extent of the rental increases was 1.6% to 62.5% or $20 to $555 more.
The rest of the rentals (67%) remained unchanged at the time of the survey.
The survey also looked at the terms and conditions of bank deposit box service agreements. The Consumer Council was pleased to note that all service agreements collected are now in line with the review proposed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and no longer list the upper limit of compensation to losses of content in the deposit boxes.
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