Safe Deposit Boxes and Storing A Passport

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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Hi, I'm planning to stay in the DR and use Scotiabank. I'm Canadian. Can I rent a safety deposit box to store my passport?
The process to open a bank account with another Dominican bank, without a cedula, based on reading threads on DR1., is long and frustrating.
I don't think buying and transporting a safe is an option here.
 

Derfish

Gold
Jan 7, 2016
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Hi, I'm planning to stay in the DR and use Scotiabank. I'm Canadian. Can I rent a safety deposit box to store my passport?
The process to open a bank account with another Dominican bank, without a cedula, based on reading threads on DR1., is long and frustrating.
I don't think buying and transporting a safe is an option here.

I once asked in Scotia bank about a safe deposit box for that same purpose and they said they had none at that time, over a year ago. But that oe pays for an entire year at once when one is available. As I left I realized that I hadn't asked the amount.
Der Fish
 

DRdreaming

Member
Jul 29, 2014
242
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Hi, I'm planning to stay in the DR and use Scotiabank. I'm Canadian. Can I rent a safety deposit box to store my passport?
The process to open a bank account with another Dominican bank, without a cedula, based on reading threads on DR1., is long and frustrating.
I don't think buying and transporting a safe is an option here.
Buying a small safe will cost about $75 USD. The installation should be about $20. This might be a better option.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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Buying a small safe will cost about $75 USD. The installation should be about $20. This might be a better option.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


Thanks, I'll look into it and some additional security. The only security I have in mind so far is digital scans and photocopies in off-site locations.
 

DRdreaming

Member
Jul 29, 2014
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Thanks, I'll look into it and some additional security. The only security I have in mind so far is digital scans and photocopies in off-site locations.
Just email yourself the scans. That way you can access them at any time if needed.

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oriole100

Bronze
Oct 9, 2005
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Most of the hardware stores have them in stock. Easy to install. The same type you see in most hotels. Make a copy of the page with your pic. Carry it with you. Take a pic. put it on your computer. Put your passport in the safe. Should be all you need. Good luck.
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
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South Coast
keep the passport in the underwear drawer.. or the pantry,, or in one of the books.. The safe is the first place the robbers go for..

It's also why we don't have a safe in DR, and don't want one. Once word gets around that you have a safe, 'they' imagine all sorts of valuables are in there. I have home invasion fears.
 

mofongoloco

Silver
Feb 7, 2013
3,002
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At the risk of repeating myself, thanks to dr1-ers for convincing me that DR is not the place for me. All retirement fantasies long gone.
 

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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Just email yourself the scans. That way you can access them at any time if needed.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

I researched the DR before my plane landed for my first visit. Based on that, I took pictures of my passport using my smartphone and copied the digital photos to another location.

I left photocopies in Canada, also.

Several times after I left my hotel to walk some place, one or more of my Dominican native friends would say, "Put the phone away!
Don't show it!," and I was only going down the block.
 

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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It's also why we don't have a safe in DR, and don't want one. Once word gets around that you have a safe, 'they' imagine all sorts of valuables are in there. I have home invasion fears.

I imagine installing a safe and keeping it empty, except for one, large color picture of my hand brandishing my middle-finger.

The problem is, I was told by a DR native the hand gesture of a middle-finger has another connotation in the DR.

(Ahem) It was to substitute for.....well. A lack of toilet paper.

Or, as it seems to be the case in the DR mountains for many people, the lack of corn husks.
 

Meemselle

Just A Few Words
Oct 27, 2014
2,841
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Most of the hardware stores have them in stock. Easy to install. The same type you see in most hotels. Make a copy of the page with your pic. Carry it with you. Take a pic. put it on your computer. Put your passport in the safe. Should be all you need. Good luck.

And then throw the box away in somebody else's garbage.
 

karlheinz

New member
Oct 2, 2006
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You know all those safes you see with the digital keypad? Well if that fails then there has to be a way to open the safe, of course - there is panel you lift off, insert the BackUp Key and easily open the safe. Now the tricky questions is where do you hide the BACKUP key? Note many "thieves" know exactly what form of key to look for - "the round type".
 

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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You know all those safes you see with the digital keypad? Well if that fails then there has to be a way to open the safe, of course - there is panel you lift off, insert the BackUp Key and easily open the safe. Now the tricky questions is where do you hide the BACKUP key? Note many "thieves" know exactly what form of key to look for - "the round type".

Every electronic safe has a installer/emergency/backup code too. I don't imagine it's hard to Google out a list of default codes and to tape it on the inside of a baseball cap.
 

ju10prd

On Vacation!
Nov 19, 2014
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Before you focus on a personal safe, make sure the place you will be staying in has sufficient security. And in La Romana that will likely mean bars to windows and doors as a minimum.

A woman was robbed and murdered in Cabrera earlier this year and they found her safe box dumped in some river nearby as I recall.
 

Domingo646

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Jul 31, 2016
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Before you focus on a personal safe, make sure the place you will be staying in has sufficient security. And in La Romana that will likely mean bars to windows and doors as a minimum.

A woman was robbed and murdered in Cabrera earlier this year and they found her safe box dumped in some river nearby as I recall.


Thanks. I'm working to get on top of that. She has a metal something on her door, but I want more. I want windows, bars or roll downs, etc.
Can anyone tell me their thoughts on flood lights, cameras, alarms (louder than a disco.....?), dogs, guns, weapons, etc?

And what if the people who break in are cops?