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I would go for decent locks and - presuming you have half-decent internet/wireless - a smart doorbell and/or an outdoor IP camera over that. Then maybe also a dummy alarm box. But then I think conventional burglar alarms are pretty useless really as well as expensive.
It might be an 18 month contract but you'd need that £40/month monitoring as long as you kept the system and it's not going to go down is it...
Fox
Our house is at a reasonably prominent spot on a new build estate. The other day a salesman came around from ADT security offering us a deal on a home security system. The deal is that they fit the system for £50 (down from ~£400), and then we pay a £40/month monitoring fee (I think 18month contract). The idea is that given our prominent position, having an ADT burglar alarm box on the outside of our property might encourage other people to buy an alarm too.
The question is, are these forms of monitored alarm systems worthwhile?
I may just be naive but I never previously considered getting one, and being a country bumpkin means I'm not even particularly convinced about locking our doors, but I know there have been thefts recently - the building site portion of our new build estate was apparently burgled a while back and recently the village manor house was burgled for agricultural machinery.
But £40/month seems like a lot of money and if the salesman is right that that a burglar alarm box reduces the risk of getting burgled by 90%, then why don't people just stick a faux box on the wall?