What self-storage costs in the UK

The price you are shown is a rate, not a total

Stores advertise a storage rate. Sometimes that rate is per week, sometimes per four weeks, sometimes per calendar month. Sometimes it is the price after a discount, and the page says so in smaller type. The amount that leaves your account over a real stay is the rate, converted onto one clock, held at the offer only for as long as the offer lasts, plus protection if you take it, plus fees that are charged once.

That is the whole of the method on this site. The four-weekly explanation shows why 12 payments are not a year of four-week bills. The true cost calculator applies the method to two quotes you already have. Nothing below replaces the contract.

Size

Floor area is the first driver, and it is sold in square feet. A larger unit costs more, but not always in a neat straight line, and a “from” price is often the smallest room on the dearest week. Use the size calculator to pick a step (25, 35, 50, 75, 100, 150 or 200 square feet) before you compare money. Comparing a 50 square foot offer with a 75 square foot standard rate tells you nothing useful.

Height is part of size even though it is not always in the headline. Ask it. A low unit can force you into the next floor area up, which is a cost, just not one written as a fee.

Location and timing

A store you can reach on a bus, with a loading bay and evening access, is selling convenience as well as floor. A store on the edge of town may quote less and cost you more in time and van hire. This guide will not put a number on that gap, because it is not stable. The same building can change price when a floor fills, when a promotion ends, or when you ask about a different size.

Get both quotes in the same week if you can. A comparison of a price from March with a price from October is a comparison of two moments, not two stores. If one quote is “subject to availability”, it is not a price you can bank.

How long you stay

Length of stay changes the arithmetic in three ways. One-off fees, such as an admin charge or a padlock, are a large share of a six-week stay and a small share of a year. An introductory discount covers a smaller fraction of a long stay than of a short one. And some stores ask for a minimum term, or a period of notice, which means you may pay for weeks after you have emptied the unit.

Do not assume a longer commitment is rewarded. Ask. If it is, put the discounted rate and the undiscounted rate into the calculator for the months you will actually stay, not for the months the offer is designed around. If you are storing across a house sale, the moving guide suggests you start from your own completion dates and add only the buffer you are willing to pay for.

Introductory offers

Half-price periods, a few weeks at a token rate, and “50% off for the first eight weeks” are common shapes of offer. The detail that matters is the date the standard rate starts, and what that standard rate is. A discount with no standard rate next to it is not a quote you can compare.

On this site, a percentage offer is applied to the storage price only, then rounded to the nearest penny. Protection is left alone, because that is how these offers usually work. If your paperwork says the discount covers protection too, lower that field yourself so the total matches the paper. If the offer is “eight weeks”, enter eight weeks. The calculator converts weeks using a 52-week year (weeks × 12 / 52) so they sit on the same clock as a stay measured in months.

Billing period

Weekly, four-weekly and monthly prices cannot be subtracted from each other. Four-weekly is the one that most often gets treated as monthly. It is not. £85 every four weeks, as a worked example and not a typical price, comes to about £92.08 a month, because 85 × 13 / 12 = 92.0833…, which rounds to £92.08. Over a 52-week year that same example is 13 bills: £1,105. The converter on the four-weekly page will do the step for any figure you type.

Protection and insurance

Stores often require you to insure the goods, or to take their protection plan, or to show that a contents policy already covers storage. Those are different products. A protection plan sold with the unit may be charged every billing period. A contents policy may be an annual premium you already pay, or it may refuse storage, or cap a single item. Read the wording. The hidden costs guide says more about what to look for, without pretending one insurer’s policy is everyone’s.

In the calculator, enter protection in the same period as the storage price. If your home policy covers the goods and the store accepts that, leave the field blank. Do not invent a monthly equivalent of an annual premium unless you want it inside this comparison. You can add a one-off amount as an admin-style fee if you would like it in the total. Label it honestly in your own notes. The tool has no separate “my own insurance” box, on purpose: it should not imply a price we have not seen.

Padlock, admin fees and the deposit

Many stores insist on a lock they sell, or a lock of a type they name, because a cheap padlock is what gets cut. The cost is small next to a year of rent and large next to a one-month stay. An admin fee is whatever that store says it is. Ask whether it is charged again if you extend.

A deposit is cash you may have to produce up front. It is often refundable when you leave the unit clear and the account is paid. The calculator shows it and does not add it to the “which quote is cheaper” total. If a store’s terms let them keep the deposit for things you consider ordinary wear, read that before you treat it as savings.

VAT

The grant of facilities for the self-storage of goods has been standard-rated for VAT since 1 October 2012, under the Value Added Tax Act 1994. The standard rate at the time of writing is 20%. There are narrow exceptions, and this is not tax advice. The practical question is simpler: does the price in front of you include VAT? A price for a household is often shown including it. A price for a business may be shown excluding it. Compare like with like, or the “cheaper” quote is an accounting difference.

Put the pieces in one place

When you have two quotes, write one line for each: size, rate, period, offer and how long it lasts, rate after the offer, protection, admin, padlock, deposit, minimum term, notice. Then use the calculator for the money line, and use the contract for the minimum term and the notice. A quote that is £40 cheaper and locks you in for six months you do not need is not £40 cheaper.

If something on the paperwork is not in the tool, believe the paperwork. The tool is there so the parts it does understand are converted the same way every time. The methodology lists what is deliberately left out, including late fees and price rises after the period you were quoted.