Ah, banks. How I hate thee.

[deathpixie]

So, yesterday I finally got my arse into the bank to arrange for my Australian account to get signed up as an external transfer from my Canadian one. Basically so I can Internet transfer money from here to there and from there onto my credit card since I can't pay that one directly. One problem. They don't do that here yet.

*boggles*

Something Australia (and Europe) is ahead of North America (since it's the States as well) on? Inconceivable!

Okay, I thought, try Plan B - get a Canadian credit card and use that to pay off my Aussie card completely and then pay that off.

No dice. I haven't got a credit history here, and the fact I've had one for ten years in Australia (to the point they gave me a card with a $7000 limit) doesn't count.

*grrs*

At least the lady I talked to was nice. But it means I'm going to have to wire the money to my account, which means once a month saving up $500 to make the fees worth the effort. Hopefully my tax return will cover things. Once I sort out something of an error I made on it - Dad, expect a call or an email tonight my time, Friday morning, yours.

Comments

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

You forget: we don't like them furriners and would rather keep our money in our country. Except for when we outsource our jobs to India because it's cheaper to hire tech support there than here.

...

Go USA!

[one-bat.livejournal.com]

Something Australia (and Europe) is ahead of North America (since it's the States as well) on? Inconceivable!

Like the move to a universal metric system?
Like the move to more secure non-counterfeitable bank notes?
Like the abolition of the death penalty?


Say it aint so....
:)

[cynjen]

What boggled me when I opened my account was that they don't do interest. It makes me think...why bother with a bank account, then? Keep your money under the bed! Seriously, the bank is still investing our money and making a profit off it, but they're not passing any of that back to us? AND they charge for everything in a way no British bank does - transactions, cheques, statements. It's nuts.

And! And I discovered today that you can't buy things over the internet with interac. *headdesk* It's so primitive.

[samy.livejournal.com]

I've repeatedly run into things that make me believe that North America really *is* a third world country when it comes to banking. They are insanely low-tech there.

[amyamy.livejournal.com]

Ayup. Bit of a pain, cause you also can't electronically transfer money in, either. So every six months or so I send a MAJOR CHUNK OF CHANGE to my father to put into my American bank so I can continue doing all those nice things like paying my credit card and not defaulting on my student loans.

[msss.livejournal.com]

Hmm... if it helps, I do have a Canadian credit card (apparently jobless uni students are not expected to have credit history). I use my President's Choice bank account and left over money to pay it off. Actually, I'm not sure if that would work, you want to transfer money from there to here, don't you?

[pebblin.livejournal.com]

That frickin' sucks.

I pay for checks but that's about it; the rest, they say, is free. There's interest, but it's a joke. When times are good, it's okay; when they're not... Well, it's not.

One thing, though, as soon as you're of age, they'll send you a credit card app. The interest on THAT will be, high, but.

What's interac?

[pebblin.livejournal.com]

That totally blows. Is this every bank you've tried or just one? There has to be *something* else. It's like you're being penalized even though they okay'd your being in the country.

I don't know how things work here in the States, but I would think there're ways. Then again, I couldn't open a bank account in Florida 'cause I wasn't a resident and so had to wait till I went home to do that.

Suck.

[cynjen]

interac is what we call 'debit card' in britain - you use it like a credit card but the money comes directly out of your bank account.

[pebblin.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

Yeah, I've heard of a debit card. Got one. Thanks.