We are a private children's day nursery.

We purchased the Alpha A180BKD Deposit as a solution for storing customer fees securely before processing through accounts.

A member of staff can place fees, cash or cheque, in an envelope and then deposit them in to the safe with ease through the slot. Thus, saving time on unlocking, opening, closing and locking any money box/safe. Also, the risks of misplacing fees, fees falling out of the box and even theft are reduced considerably as only the accounts manager needs to hold the key, and open the safe less frequently,only when he/she is ready.

Overall, the Alpha deposit safe is really great value for money. The walls and door aren't especially thick (being made of the same average thickness of steel that you'd get in a cheapie local DIY shop safe), however that's not a problem if you're not intending to leave it full of cash for long - which you shouldn't! The safe is heavy-ish (you'd certainly see someone hauling it off from your shop, market stall or church) but you should probably use the supplied fixing holes to screw or bolt it down anyway, just to be sure. I've rated "ease of use" and "build quality" down slightly because of the lock and key - unlike a slightly more pricey Chubb safe of similar quality that I own, the keys are rough and unfinished, meaning that they will scratch you and any fabric, table tops, etc that they come across but also they tend to stick and jam in the lock, requiring a lot of fiddling to get the key to fit in properly. That said, the inside is spacious and the security seems pretty good - no-one is going to be picking it in a hurry and these locking mechanical safes are much harder to bypass than equivalent digital safes. Obviously the walls and door could be cut easily with a dremal or angle grinder but that would be a bit conspicuous! In short - if you want a cheap day-safe for your market stall, church/fete/school event, etc where you'll be taking payments/donations during the day and emptying it before you go home, this safe is the perfect balance between cost and effectiveness. But don't expect it to protect your valuables overnight or against a burglar with tools.