I don't like banks

Image via CrunchBase

This kinda doesn't belong on this blog but I need a way to vent.

I wanted to buy a certain laptop. But no Slovenian company is selling that specific model. Or anything like it. Guenstiger to the rescue - luckily I had German classes in high school and I remembered enough to get by.

So I find this company(computeruniverse) who has it by good price, would ship it to me and even offers a (mostly translated) english page. Awesome. Not to the painful part - payment. I usually do business online through PayPal and on rare occasions directly with my credit card. But no can do. Limit exceeded. I quickly fire up my online banking portal but I can't order a higher limit because I don't have a premium account(I refuse to pay my bank for something that's mandatory today).

The bank

So I make a trip to the bank. Luckily it's just 15 min away using public transportation. First time being there(I moved to Ljubljana for college less than a year ago) I'm kinda impressed. It looks modern and stylish. And best of all, a good-looking well-dressed young lady sits down next to me to service me. I think "This is what a bank should look like". She fills out the application for me and is really nice over all. Props to you lady, sadly I forgot your name.
But here comes the first strike: she told me my limit will be raised starting next week - in 4 days. Reason: I opened my account at another branch. I'm like "wtf? it's the same bank?" but okay...I can hold another four days.
Let me make this clear. I explicitly told her I want this for one-time online payment.

Four days later

I try paying with PayPal. Failure. Oh heck...let's try credit card. Limit exceeded. They didn't raise my limit for single transaction.  Strike two.

I'm tired of credit cards and waiting games. Luckily computeruniverse accepts advance payment by wire transfer. I do a bit of research and choose to trust them. Another trip to the bank. Grrr.

I get there, a bit angry and ask the teller to do the transaction and give her the details on my smartphone.   She gives me a patronizing look and a form to fill out. Now listen to this. I needed to copy the details from my phone to the form - same data in many places(banks had high replication and eventual consistency before NoSQL :P). And she then typed the data into the computer. Putting my form into the drawer. And PRINTS out the same data on another form and asks me to sign it. Now I'm puzzled. WHY IN THE WORLD I HAD TO COPY THE DATA FROM THE PHONE TO THE FORM IF YOU COULD JUST TYPE AND LOOK AT MY PHONE!?!??!?! 

Strike three. 

Aftermath

I paid for my laptop successfully. But I also made an account at another bank. They gave me electronic banking for free and I'm in process of transferring my income to that account. 

disclaimer: the bank at fault is NKBM. And for the record, my father has their online banking and it's quite bad.  

Related articles

• Fake bank websites growing in number and sophistication
• Online Bank Accounts Make Accessing Your Money Easy