In a never-seen-before banking drama, ie Societe General loosing 5 billion euros with one simple little click of a computer mouse, I’m about to change current account. It might seem very boring, but because I’m supposed to be relocating in March I’m looking into the bank underbelly of hidden costs and services/unservices they can offer.
So far so good with Société Générale, no problems, a little pricey but they give efficient and quality service, as far as I’ve experienced it, meaning not having to deal with bank managers. Been a good boy with my pennies. Anyways thats not the point of this post. I wanted to highlight the fact that moving abroad will include having another bank account in order to be paid in UAD’s (United Arab Dollars). I will also keep my french account and wanted a special account with reduced fees for moving dosh around as much as I can, plus an international card. So Benny boy will have a MasterCard for his spendings. Why a MasterCard when you have so little money ? you might ask ! Well since I need my french account to go through the first few months of training and relocating… I need a card and a account for me to pay for living costs in Dubai, IKEA shopping for instance, without paying an extraordinary amount of banking fees. And whilst I’ll be working for Emirates I won’t be paid until another month after arrival.
So I’ve contacted the special Expatriates Department of the bank, was very surprised they even had that sort of department, and got all the info I needed from a very gentle and passionate women over the phone. I was way back in the 1920’s you could get such service ! And she advised me to go for a special expats account where you can withdraw cash at foreign ATMs without paying any banking fees, move dosh from one account to another without any banking fees etc etc. So this seems the perfect fit for someone traveling. I was happy. This, actually, made my day ! Knowing I won’t spend much in Banking fees etc is a relief. For practically the same banking fee I’m paying at the moment !
I’m in desperate need of flip flops, t-shirts and shorts too ! I’ll get round this in the next post I think !
In a more joyful subject, it was Australia Day party we went to last Saturday, us, being those french ignorant little devils, we didn’t know, so before I rant along : Happy Australia Day to anyone who reads this blog and to contacts of mine (I’m thinking Konrad, Aussie Nat and Phil Allas) living down under.
Alex, a HEC grad student, Liam, a Bartender here in Paris and myself hit up Café OZ, the second australian ambassy, not knowing what special day it was for our fellow Aussies and this is what we encountered :
A packed sweat-stinking pub with mostly australians, a few kiwis and many lost french couples not knowing what to do. Hilarious it was, pumping atmosphere, good DJ blasting cool 80’s tunes mixed with more recent crap. Nice adress, check it out as soon as you land in Parreeee
Hey there. Just to add my two-cents of an expat, my normal Bank, i.e. the CE IDF-Paris, just let me kept my normal account and stuff. No tax for withdrawing cash in foreign machines/other banks, no tax for paying in foreign countries, a nice Visa Card, and a 50% reduction overall because I’m a student and students are given cooool prices and advantages. So the total is 3,50 euros a month. Of course they don’t have a partner here, but I can just pull cash and put it myself at my austrian bank, thus avoiding the 3,53 euros fee for inter-EU transfers (trick also works outside of EU, if you were wondering). And the Visa card has nice insurances really. Hum, and I’m actually thinking about moving up to a Visa Premier (7 euros a month instead of 3,50) for insurance reasons. Hey, I’ve been a poor student without money for years and now I’m up for a Visa Premier. How ironic is that ? /// Huh, Australian pub. Isn’t that the one with the croco next to the door ?
Huh I obviously meant “let me keep”. That’s what I get for not reading through my own messages before sending them.
I am Australian!
And you can be too, Sodwee.