banking and a bit about the economy

Euro-zone has now officially entered into recession and the countries that are still floating above their sinking counterparts are facing significant downward pressures. While the Anglophones are not to be blamed for gloomy global atmosphere it is impossible to argue that the financial crisis that has now spread like a plague had nothing to do with it.

When I came to London few months back, I, amongst many other things, wanted to open a bank account. This rather simple process turned out to be more difficult that I could ever have imagined. As I had prepared myself mentally for another month without a salary, as it seemed unlikely that my account would be up and running before my first pay cheque was to arrive (if ever), they managed to sort things out and the rather preposterous line of events was brought to an end.

Or so I thought.

I got home last night from work and there was an envelope waiting behind the front door. From my bank. I was rather confused about this unexpected remembrance, as I had opted to do all my banking online, paper free.

It was a bankcard. It was an almost identical copy of the one I had already received weeks earlier and had been happily using since, except that the account number printed to it was slightly different.

Confusion.

I picked up the phone right away and contacted my bank. After a long list of security questions they finally believed it was me at the other end of the line and we could proceed with my feeble attempt to sort out this latest problem.

It appeared that my application to the bank had been processed twice, which meant that they had opened two identical accounts for me, but the processing of the second one had just taken (a bit) longer. If I didn’t want to have more than one account I would have to go to one of their branches to close the second account that had not yet been activated.

Seriously?

At the end, no harm done, if you don’t count the time I will be wasting by again to the bank, again, and sorting out this mess. However, the latest developments in my administrative saga have made me lose the little bit of confidence I had in the banking system of this country. I have, because of this, come to the conclusion that my money will not be safe in the hands of inept bankers. Unfortunately, with the number of burglaries taking place in this city being sky-high, I am uncomfortable with the idea of having my savings under my mattress. I am left with one option – shopping.

But surely, this will boost the flagging economy, so that in the near future the bankers have something they can bring back down – yet again.