Beckteria

Banking

I least understand some of the banking here. It really, really sucks. ATM`s are not 24/7, you can get charged (from your own bank) if you use the ATM past a certain hour. I swear that my bank is only open from 10 am to maybe 5 pm M-F. I`m not really sure. Apparently, every bank service costs money. To get your passbook (can you believe they still have that shit?) updated, it costs.

So, I just went to make a withdrawl from the teller line for the second time. (I don`t have a cash card yet.) It wasn`t so bad. Here`s the protocal: take a number (people don`t stand in lines), sit and wait for your number (so far this has been pretty fast), tell them what you want, fill out the slip (name, account #, amount), stamp it with your hanko (name stamp), and sit down with another number so they can get your money ready. When they`re ready, you come back and collect your cash. Seems somewhat inefficient in some ways. But, I guess that it is rather quick.

The scary part is that if someone has your hanko, they can use it to withdraw money from your account. It`s the same as your signature here--it`s good that the Japanese have more honour about such things in general. Otherwise, identity theft could be a major problem.

In summary, it`s best to keep cash. I really hate that because if I have cash, oops, suddenly I don`t have cash. In other words, I spend it all too easily.

posted by Bex @ 3:45 AM