Cause having to book off work to go to the bank to set up an account might require a sick day. I mean, what, they open at 9 am and close at 4 pm? And it takes an hour to set up an account? And that's if you can convince them to give you an account.
We went in to set up an account this morning and we were informed that we needed to have Photo ID from this province, AND a gas or electric bill from this place.
What??
How can I get a utility bill if I don't have a bank account to pay for the bill?
And we sure don't have Alberta Drivers licenses yet.
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So we asked the nice lady those questions, and she talked with her superior who finally gave her permission to set it up if we brought in those kinds of ID within a month, or else the account would be closed.
Now I appreciate that they are more strict with setting up accounts, especially in this day of identity theft, but there has to be some way to do it when the situation requires it.
Anyway, after all that we ran out of time to set up the account, and they closed at 4 pm so I'll have to rebook it for later on this week and we will try again.
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Being known in a community is a good thing, it just takes some time to build that up.
Banks have become detached from the real world in their fear of being used to launder money and allow impropriety. FWIW It's just as difficult here.
ReplyDeleteI think that in spite of moves, my kids continue to bank in PA. Now I understand why.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more a drug/money laundering issue - to be clear I mean "in general" not in this instance :-) Have a great day.
ReplyDeleteWe too had show ID at our bank of 30 years to buy GIC's :-)
We banked in BC with Iowa licenses. Passports with visa stamps helped, I guess. Maybe we got lucky. We did do a bit of bank shopping.
ReplyDeleteWhen my Dad died we had to set up a current account for my Mum. She'd never had one before because Dad sorted out all those sort of things. Likewise all the utility bills were in his name. And she'd never learned to drive so didn't have a drivers license. She DID have a passport but that wasn't enough.
ReplyDeleteWe had no problem at all getting the bank to hand over the balance of money in my Dad's account to my Mum, but opening up an account for her to put it in was nigh on impossible!
Wow.
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned to Lauralea I suppose they are extra diligent these days because of identity theft and laundering of funds.
It just makes the distance to our old credit union where we were known, feel so great.