Shortage of bank lockers in Dubai

Dubai residents are complaining of the lack of bank safety lockers in the city. Most banks do not have this facility and the ones that can boast of, are running all full. Big names in the city like Mashreq and Standard Chartered do not have this service, their spokesperson confirmed to Emirates 24|7. Emirates NBD does offer this service but customers complain of being on their waiting list for a long time now. “With great difficulty I found out the branch that offers bank lockers (the one opposite Life pharmacy in Jumeriah) but when I went there I was told that there are nearly 10000 customers on the waiting list. The lady at the reception told me to go and try in the Burk Khalifa branch,” a customer told this website on the condition of anonymity. Habib Bank also has bank locker facility in their main branch in Deira branch but it is running to its full capacity. “Yes, we have bank lockers but there is nothing available right now,” said an employee with the bank. “I don’t have any idea,” she said when queried about the waiting list and the locker charges. “I have an account at NBD and Standard Chartered Bank. My husband has two accounts as well. In none of the banks either of us bank at, do they have any available safe deposit boxes. We have been calling all over the city and it seems that no bank has one available,” complained a customer on dubizzle.com. “I went to Citi bank and asked if I could get a locker and immediately I got a call from the relationship manager that she’d never promised me anything like that. I was confused about what was happening,” another resident told this website. However, the customer service officer said that Citi does not offer this service. Even as banks are refusing locker facilities, some private companies in the city are offering vaults but seem to be pricey. A company called JFT Lockers (http://www.jftlockers.com) has this service readily available but charges may not go down well with the average customer. “We have lockers available. There is Dh2000 one-time registration fee and after that the locker rent depends on the size. The smallest size will cost Dh1000 per annum, the next size will be Dh1500, one size up Dh2500 and the biggest size will cost Dh5000 for the same period,” a representative said.