Dec 29 2008
Problems with the bank
I have some real problems with today’s banking systems. They are all about charging the customer and not at all concerned about solving the customer’s problems or making the customer happy. Didn’t the government just do a bank bailout? Am I wrong to think that I will be taxed to support this? I do think that will happen, don’t you?
I shopped around for a new bank when Wells Fargo seemed to be all about “how much can we charge her this time?”. It took me quite a while before I settled on a Credit Union that did seem to be willing to take a reasonable fee while at the same time at least making an effort to keep me happy.
I have a granddaughter in Scandinavia. She lives there with her new husband. Like most new couples they don’t have a lot of money, so I like to send her a check for her birthday and Christmas. Doesn’t that sound like something grandparents like to do? Well, this loving kindness is causing me problems.
My granddaughter tells me she can’t cash a check in her country. Money has to be wired to her bank. Not only that, but the check I sent her in her married name (I thought) cannot be cashed. Because of the problems involved in changing her name to her married name, she hasn’t done it. She has good reasons. She also tells me her new country doesn’t use checks so she can’t cash the one I sent her.
This is beginning to sound to me like she hasn’t figured it out yet. However, the banks have figured out that they have me right where they want me - with their hands in my wallet. I wanted to send her $100.00 for Christmas, which I increased to $125 to cover the fees her bank will charge her.
My bank tells me they do not wire money abroad. That leaves me stuck. So today I opened a savings account with a well known bank, one in which I also have stock. Then, having stocked it well with money, I wired some to my granddaughter. I am still in shock! They charged me 36% of the amount I wanted to send as a banking fee. This is to cover the little incidentals, I suppose. Things like banking over the internet and processing the one sheet of paper I gave them with all the information on it. That’s $45.00! It’s outrageous! It’s not substantiated by the amount of trouble it causes them to send it.
So, when her birthday rolls around again next December she isn’t getting cash unless she can come up with a cost-effective way for me to get it to her. I can mail her the cash in a postal box for less money than that. Of course, then she’d have to pay conversion fees at her bank.
I have an idea. I’ll have to talk to the bank again to see if it will fly. If not, and if I don’t get any other glorious ideas, I may just put some money in an account stateside for her to use when she visits here. There has got to be a better way to do this.
Marilynne 
