Wednesday, March 14, 2007

News Update

It came
It finally came

I now have a bank account

Hallelujah!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you think that's great, wait until you get your name in the phonebook.

D18

D J E and M Huber said...

Frankly, a cost/benefit analysis of banking these days, when you consider the high fees and the low interest, means that you're probably better off keeping your $ in your mattress.

Congrats, anyway!

Chris said...

Hi Pops - been going through a Steve Martin movie phase with Mom away eh?

Hey Dezene - the high fees, no interest thing is only a Canadian phenomena. I believe there was a CBC news article on that as it got brought up in the debate in the House of Commons.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/01/25/ndp-atm.html

Over here in the UK it's almost unheard of to charge user fees and most accounts pay interest (yes even chequing accounts). And it's not some wimpy .012% but 4.5%. Also you can set up things like standing orders to pay your rent or even tithe to your church.

It was quite the shock to me when I started investigating the various types of accounts.

D J E and M Huber said...

Wow! Maybe that's why it's so hard to get a bank account there... they don't want just anyone getting good service!

The fees and interest were pathetic back in the USA, too, BTW.

Anonymous said...

Yes!!!!!!!!!

Squirmy Popple said...

When I moved to Glasgow, it took me almost three months to get a bank account. I've been very impressed with many aspects of Scottish culture, but banking is not one of them.

Chris said...

Hi Katie - well my fight with the UK banking system has dragged on for about 4 months. It is a bit ridiculous when all I wanted was a place to allow my paycheque to be direct deposited and a debit card so I can pay my bills.

But others I've spoken too have said since the whole 9/11 thing all the financial institutes have gone bureaucracy crazy because of money laundering.

Seriously, I do NOT make that much money. But that fight is over for the time being and all is right with the world.

Thanks for stopping by!