Hi
I am looking for a reasonably priced company who supply a monitored alarm service to your house , my casa is on the CDS in Fuengirola. I have been quoted 53E per month, this seems expensive, but I have no experience of this so I do not know if it is.

Any thoughts on price and maybe a company offering a better deal.

Thanks in advance!

regards
Al

That's very expensive. We have a monitored alarm from Securitas Direct. It has cameras in the detectors and we also have two perimeter camera/alarms outside the house.

Just over €30/mth. It can be controlled by a Smartphone and you can receive pictures from the detectors on demand.

http://www.securitasdirect.es/

Hi Fred,
Excuse my ignorance but how does this work? do they install a new alarm then monitor it for a fee or is it a case of take over the existing?

regards
Al

They install a new system to your specific requirements. You pay for the equipment and then pay a monthly monitoring fee. The fee is €28 for the basic kit and you pay a couple of Euros extra for any extra detectors you need over and above the basic kit.

All the kit is wireless so installation is easy. The only wire in sight is from the movable control centre which just plugs into the mains supply. It communicates with the control centre via the GSM phone network so there is no risk of telephone cables being cut.

If an alarm is triggered it starts taking photos which are immediately sent to the control centre. They then call you to check that it wasn't a false alarm and if you don't answer they call the police.

I have exactly the same system as Fred. I've had a Securitas Direct system for about 5 years, and last year upgraded to the new video system. Its particularly good if you're away from home, as, if you have a smartphone/tablet you can can request a picture (I think its about 10 cents), and also, if you have a power cut, for more than a couple of hours (I think its a couple of hours, maybe 3), they send you a message to tell you.

Does anyone know if Securitas Direct will monitor an existing video system?

I very much doubt it. Apart from compatibility with their control units I doubt that they would take responsibility for any problems caused by equipment they hadn't provided and installed.

You could always ask them.

So let me get this right.....

You set your alarm when you go to bed.
You get up in the middle of the night to go to the loo and you don't usually wear anything to bed because it's so hot.
The alarm goes off and starts taking pictures and sending them to the security company.

Am I getting this right?

Then the GC turn up and arrest you as a Flasher

Nice, you can not only hear when your house is being burgled,but you can watch it as well.

Unless a capable person is already on site to deal with the thieving barstewards I'm not quite sure what the point of all the expense is ?

I've spent next to nothing on fancy gizmos, but without going into details, anyone approaching what were the most vulnerable parts of my perimeter could be forgiven for thinking they were entering a war zone.

I discreetly watched three guys begin casing the joint a few months ago.
They shook their heads and moved on,..........

......to another house in the next street with some sort of alarm system though I never heard it go off.

As they broke in I phoned the cops.
An hour later they were still in there, it came in dark and the cops never turned up yet.

I think the idea is, if someone attempts, or succeeds in braking into a property secured by video, whatever they manage to take with them, there is evidence for the police to work with. if truly valuable items are secure and a thief can only get away with the TV, Laptops, Games etc, there is no danger of confronting a desperate thief and the police can do their job (when they get out of the local bar).

It's a deterrent rather than a physical reason for not thieving - like a big dog.

You have to be pretty stupid to try and break into a house with big signs on it saying that it is alarmed and there are video cameras to film you.

With a bit of luck they will go somewhere else.

If you talk to crime prevention officers they will say the same thing.

I'd agree with your first sentence but certainly not your second.

If your security system does not deter thieves from entering the property then basically it has failed and you have already lost, at least in 9 cases out of 10.
Once they are inside they'll take whatever they can within a reasonable timescale regardless of alarms and cameras which will by then make little difference anyway.

If they are professionals they'll be wearing masks and gloves and have a good idea how long they can hang around before there's any response, if indeed there's any response at all.

Such ppl usually rob a great many properties before they make a slip or are caught purely by chance, by which time any property stolen is usually long gone anyway.

Now,to go back to the deterrent issue, do you make the expensive system
highly visible as a deterrent and if so is that a wise move ?

To a professional thief an expensive alarm system simlpy passes on one message only.
Money and Valuables !
Why would anyone spend serious money on such a system unless there is something of quite considerable value in there to protect ?
It's simply a positive message of encouragement to the would be thieves, along with expensive cars in the driveway and an expensive well maintained property.


Now I'm not saying forget he whole thing altogether, ......only firstly make them wonder if it's a worthwhile property to turn over in the first instance........and secondly be prepared to be ugly enough and unconventional enough to get them thinking what further extraordinary dangers they may face even if they get through the first few highly unpleasant lines of defence which I mentioned in my previous post and which have worked quite nicely up to now, despite several other properties in the neighbourhood receiving unwanted guests.

In short,if they get the impression that a mad dastardly and dangerous psychopath without a single penny to scratch his arse owns the property, then that suits me just fine.

may I say that many people see the box on the wall with a flashing light the ultimate deterrant, which is why there is a reasonable market for dummy boxes.

You can go for a system that is overt (visible) or covert (invisible). both have their advantages.
But you can also go for an alarm that is active (sounding) or silent (not sounding)
You also have to consider if you are to be connected to an alarm receiving station or remain just a house with an alarm. (the authorities hate those because in the past they have caused much anguish going off for no reason and if you are away for a few weeks......)
But for the former you must have a working telephone line as reporting is carried out by modem.

perhaps the best system is the one very few can afford - the one that lets someone in but then stops them from getting out, locking them into a safe area.

putting in an alarm system is not really something that can be resolved by buying a box from Brico and installing yourself. Few central receiving stations will want to connect to these because of unreliability.
as indicated above there are many things to consider, and there are a number of other things as well not covered.

Or - like one of our colleagues here, get a doberman or two. They usually hate dogs as they are an unreliable item.

Some people swear by metal grills on windows that are common in Spain - but even a basic 4x4 with towbar will soon pull them out of the wall.

The only safe place is the bank - but then you can't drool over your bling every day.

The Securitas system doesn't need a working telephone line (we haven't got one), because it uses a mobile sim card in the control unit.