My finances are a little stretched at the moment. Two months without pay over the summer and then a month with very few paid hours in September has left a delicate balance between outgoings and income. Provided my October pay gets to the bank before the 6th there won't be any problem but there's the rub. Transfer money from an account in Spain to another and your money disappears for a few days. It goes from the sending bank immediately but it can take four or five days to show up in the other account.
I don't often go to a bank but, when I do it's always a pain. The queues are interminable. Every transaction seems to take an age. There are notices on the desk to say that they will only accept recibos, which so far as I know means receipts or bills, between 8.30 and 10.30 and that always makes me worry that they will send me away.
I can't complain about the charges from my current bank. Basically there aren't any but, in order to maintain free banking, I have to pay in a certain amount each month and maintain the balance above a certain amount across the financial year. They do charge astronomical amoounts to, for instance, use a cash machine which is not part of their club. One machine wanted 13€. I used to pay 2€ per internet transfer with another account and plastic cards can cost as much as 40€ per year.
I forget how it started but, every now and again, some survey organisation sends me market research questionnaires via email. Sometimes they are political, sometimes they are marketing. I earn points for doing the surveys and the points can be redeemed for goods. Every now and again I hear the results of some survey and realise that I'm one of the sample.
They sent me a bizarre one the other day. It was about banks. There were photos of different groups of people - happy smiling people, nattily dressed people, serious people. I had to associate each group with a bank. Next I had to say what I thought the people would say or think about the different banks. There was nothing negative with phrases such as "my bank is welcoming and friendly," "my bank is open and honest," "my bank is hard working and businesslike." None of the phrases said "my bank charges too much," "my bank isn't open when I'm not at work," "my bank has interminable queues and grumpy workers." I wasn't allowed not to choose at least one response and when it was all finally done and I pushed the button to send they demanded that I wrote an opinion.
There have been several bank scandals in Spain recently. The news is full of stories of bank scams and misselling; of executives with huge salaries and multi million golden handshakes meeting in Tahiti whilst their banks send the bailiffs in to ordinary people unable to keep up with their mortgages.
They shouldn't have forced me to answer. They got a piece of my mind I can tell you.
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