Online banking?
- Posted by Magda on December 22nd, 2006 filed in Financial services
Opportunity - more flexible banking tools
Banking capabilities in Romania are still a challenge for me. Lately I was in the strange situation to not be able to use my own money immediately. I opened a personal and a corporate account in Constanta. At the time I did not think that the physical location of the bank could be so important. I came to Bucharest and one day I ran low on cash so I am thinking I should take some out from my bank account. I stopped by the first bank office I saw, and the circus started. – Do you have an account with us? - Yes. - What’s your account number? – 123xxxxx. – This account was not opened here. – Yes, I know I opened it at your bank’s office in Constanta. – Aaa, then you have to fill in a form and we need to fax it to Constanta and wait for their answer (you can guess where I am going with this…..).
What a frustration. Sometimes I am thinking to myself that they are looking on purpose for ways to make it more difficult for us. Eventually I understood that the easiest way for me was to get a card and add to it as much flexibility as available. Or I can open a bank account at each office of this bank, so no matter where I go, I would have an account and I’d be considered that office’s customer. In US you can open a bank account at a 100% virtual bank which means just one location. I wish I had that option here. Can you imagine a life with no bank tellers? Wouldn’t that be great?
Written by Magda
December 28th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
… and you have to pay an arm and a leg for this banking “service”.
A few weeks ago there was a news report in the U.K. about Romanians being behind 80 or 90% of all ATM (cash machine) crime there. So far…the only criminal acts I have witnesed in Romania are the fees charged by my bank - whether using the ATM or in person. I am hoping some serious competition rolls in from the E.U. and puts the smack down on what Romanians and ex-pats have currently on offer for financial services.
January 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
New surprises from my bank! Initially, when I opened my accounts, due to the limitations of dealing with other branches then the one where I had the accounts, they encouraged me to open more accounts with more branches, so I have more flexibility. Specially, since it costs nothing to open or maintain an account. So, I did open several, in all currencies that I though I may work with at some point in time.
The other day my bank clerk called me (they have good customer service, by the way) and said there are new fees that have been introduced and because of that I owe them some money. So, I went there and found out that now they have a maintenance fee for each account. So, I think to myself, fine, then I will close the accounts I do not use for now, and open them later as I need them. Explained the clerk my rationale and she said fine, but there is a fee to close the accounts.
Now, shall I feel cheated? They encouraged me to open accounts as it was free to do so, no matter if I used them or not, but now I have to pay for having those accounts. And I never used most of them. And if I close them, I also have to pay. Does this seem like a trap to you? Don’t they have any business ethics?