Wednesday, April 04, 2007

4 April 2007

I went to the bank to pull out some dollars in preparation for my upcoming trip back to the States, and while I was waiting in line, I started thinking about Swiss banks. Swiss banks really make quite a business of holding onto your money, moving your money, converting your money, and making money off of your money.

Unlike American banks, which only accept foreign currency in bills, Swiss banks also accept coins. Money is money, and change adds up, especially if they skim off a percentage on the exchange. Swiss banks also keep an impressive array of foreign currencies on hand, so that you can walk into a bank and immediately withdraw money not only in francs, dollars, and pounds, but also in baht, forint, and lira. Euros are even easier, since they are dispensed at ATMs just like Swiss francs. It’s great for last-minute people like me, since American banks typically require a week’s notice for ordering foreign currency.

Although there are the usual hurdles for opening a new account at a Swiss bank, the usual forms and identification verification sort of stuff, once you’re a customer at a bank, they make it ridiculously simple to open additional accounts. I walked into the bank one day to inquire about opening an account in dollars, to make it easier to transfer money from Switzerland back to the US without dealing with fluctuating exchange rates. I expected to fill out at least one form. Instead, the man at the counter swiped my ATM card, had me enter my PIN, typed a few things, then looked up and said that the new account was ready and waiting, just like that. And, of course, that it would incur a small monthly fee.

Ah, yes, the fees that come with Swiss banking. “Free checking” and credit cards with no annual fee are foreign concepts here. Free online banking? Nope. Looking at how much money I’m charged in fees here, I have to wonder how American banks can compete, if they’re giving everything away for free.

Then again, maybe it’s a cultural thing – if America is the land of the free, then Switzerland is the land of the surcharge. Even customer hotlines for orders, complaints, questions, or service are toll lines. That’s right, you have to pay to listen to hold music while you wait to order a computer, or if you have trouble with the computer and need to get it serviced. That doesn’t really add up for me – why charge people by the minute for the privilege of buying your product? And if you have a customer who is dissatisfied with a malfunctioning product and needs service, do you think that charging them byt he minute to listen to Muzak is going to make them any happier?

Anyways, back to the banks. One thing that always impresses me is that the bank tellers always speak at least three languages, if not more. How many bank tellers in the States can speak anything other than English? I think there are some American tellers that I’ve come across who didn’t even speak English all that well. It’s sobering to realize that I don’t even have the qualifications for one of the most basic jobs here. That holds true for a lot of people working in public positions in Zurich – the people running security at the airport, the ticket sellers for the tram, the police – most of them speak two, three, or four languages pretty fluently, even though their jobs aren’t necessarily the ones that are generally thought of as requiring a lot of education.

I leave Friday morning for San Francisco, where I’ll stay for a week and a half, so the next update will be in about two weeks.

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