6 ms·

As an Italian, I understand this... but the obvious question is: why didn’t you open it at a branch more convenient for you?

by qubex 7y ago

davidw 7y ago
We lived in one place, then moved. We got our mortgage via the one close to us prior to the move. Now we live in the US and it doesn't matter so much as trying to do anything with the bank from here is pretty much impossible. We had asked about having everything moved over to the branch closer to our home, but apparently the logistical requirements are close to those for sending a manned mission to the moon.
- jaclaz 7y ago
  I can tell you that, in Italy, there is not a "standard", in the sense that not all banks are the same, and often one that excels in something is terrible in another aspect. With home-banking these differences are even more marked, some sites have "reasonable" possibilities offered to the customer, some other have next to none (besides checking your account) some have relatively simple workflows some other are so stupidly complex that you give up. More or less all of them (the sites) have an inane amount of meaningless dashboard/graphics, and very poor tools (as an example to download some data). However, when it comes to "serious" matters things are seemingly "random" in the way they change from bank to bank, personal anecdata, a few years ago when an old relative died, to access the accounts it took the heirs (with exactly the SAME documentation): Bank #1: 3 days <- exceptionally fast Bank #2: 10 days <- I would say "appropriate" or "logical" Bank #3: 7 months (or 210 days) <- completely "crazy"
  - davidw 7y ago
    Be curious to hear the banks' names.
    - jaclaz 7y ago
      >Be curious to hear the banks' names. Ow, come on, you know the saying: [Italian] Si dice il peccato e non il peccatore. [/Italian] More seriously, as said that is single point anecdata, it is perfectly possible that today a similar test would give completely different results.
      - davidw 7y ago
        They're banks; large corporations. It's not like anyone's naming an employee there or something. And I do understand that things vary. One time, for instance, I even had a package arrive quickly through Poste Italiane.
  - oAlbe 7y ago
    In Italy there's also the problem that most banks don't allow you to receive wire transfers from outside the SEPA area. I had a hard time finding a bank that would allow me to receive transfers from the US. Some of them were actually baffled when I called for information at the idea of someone wanting to receive money from oversea. And let's not even get into keeping an account in another currency. My bank apparently never had to do anything of the sorts, and after digging for information they told me it would cost about 400€ per year just keep the account open.
    - riffraff 7y ago
      FWIW, fineco will let you have foreign currency accounts, for free, and with minimal conversion fees, it's pretty convenient.
      - oAlbe 7y ago
        That's actually very useful to know, thank you for the information!
    - smabie 7y ago
      Do Italians not invest in US securities at all? Seems kind of strange...
      - oAlbe 7y ago
        I've yet to figure that out. Personally, I'd love to be able to easily invest in a vanguard fund, or even just have the ability to put money every month on index funds, but so far from what I've seen doesn't seem to be possible.
        rocho 7y ago
        You can easily buy everything you want from Interactive Brokers. You can deposit EUR and do the transactions in other currencies. The interface is old and complicated, but very powerful. You will have to do the taxes yourself though.
TulliusCicero 7y ago
Do people not move in Italy or something? I've encountered the same thing in Germany, when I log in I use the branch number of where we opened the account? Why? Who gives a shit about that? I certainly don't. But the bank does, for some unfathomable reason. For each way German banks are better than American ones, it seems like there's a way in which they're backwards or overly conservative.
- qubex 7y ago
  Not very much, no... we call it ’campanilismo’: the tendency for people to live out their lives within earshot of their town’s church’s bell-tower (campanile). Side-story: southern Italians who relocated to the industrialising North during the ‘Italian Economic Miracle’ of the 1950s to 1970s referred to the process as ‘emigrating’. Until it was looked down upon by more modern sensitivities, they were referred to as ‘immigrants’, and their offspring referred to as first- and second-generation immigrants. It really is a rather static society, though now there’s a significant and constant flow of young graduates from the hideously unemployment-afflicted South towards the North, or abroad since the Great Stagnation set in about fifteen years ago.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  In Finland, the biggest bank is actually just a group of local banks. So if I sign up for a bank account up north, I am the customer of the bank way up there, which is a separate legal entity from the bank down in the south. Of course, if you do move and you want to apply for a new credit card, they will mail the card and paper work to any of the locations, so it's not that bad. And all of the banks in the group have an unified online banking system, no branch numbers needed. However, when I switched between the different banks, I had to get new login details for the online bank, which was kinda sucky.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  > when I log in I use the branch number of where we opened the account? Why? Who gives a shit about that? I certainly don't. But the bank does, for some unfathomable reason. In the US and Canada, you’ll have a home branch too. Usually it doesn’t come up in anything day-to-day. State laws for one thing may apply to accounts opened in a particular state. But if a bank merges or gets acquired, or fails, and some branches get sold/divested, and not necessarily to one party. One could find themselves a customer of a bank that is no longer local to them. Here’s a merger that had a divesture: https://www.bauerfinancial.com/2019/12/09/its-truist-theres-a-new-era-in-big-banking/ https://www.bauerfinancial.com/2019/12/09/its-truist-theres-...
briandear 7y ago
What’s the point of branches? It isn’t like computers aren’t a thing.

As an Italian, I understand this... but the obvious question is: why didn’t you open it at a branch more convenient for you?

by qubex 7y ago

As an Italian, I understand this... but the obvious question is: why didn’t you open it at a branch more convenient for you?

davidw 7y ago

We lived in one place, then moved. We got our mortgage via the one close to us prior to the move. Now we live in the US and it doesn't matter so much as trying to do anything with the bank from here is pretty much impossible. We had asked about having everything moved over to the branch closer to our home, but apparently the logistical requirements are close to those for sending a manned mission to the moon.

jaclaz 7y ago
I can tell you that, in Italy, there is not a "standard", in the sense that not all banks are the same, and often one that excels in something is terrible in another aspect. With home-banking these differences are even more marked, some sites have "reasonable" possibilities offered to the customer, some other have next to none (besides checking your account) some have relatively simple workflows some other are so stupidly complex that you give up. More or less all of them (the sites) have an inane amount of meaningless dashboard/graphics, and very poor tools (as an example to download some data). However, when it comes to "serious" matters things are seemingly "random" in the way they change from bank to bank, personal anecdata, a few years ago when an old relative died, to access the accounts it took the heirs (with exactly the SAME documentation): Bank #1: 3 days <- exceptionally fast Bank #2: 10 days <- I would say "appropriate" or "logical" Bank #3: 7 months (or 210 days) <- completely "crazy"
- davidw 7y ago
  Be curious to hear the banks' names.
  - jaclaz 7y ago
    >Be curious to hear the banks' names. Ow, come on, you know the saying: [Italian] Si dice il peccato e non il peccatore. [/Italian] More seriously, as said that is single point anecdata, it is perfectly possible that today a similar test would give completely different results.
    - davidw 7y ago
      They're banks; large corporations. It's not like anyone's naming an employee there or something. And I do understand that things vary. One time, for instance, I even had a package arrive quickly through Poste Italiane.
- oAlbe 7y ago
  In Italy there's also the problem that most banks don't allow you to receive wire transfers from outside the SEPA area. I had a hard time finding a bank that would allow me to receive transfers from the US. Some of them were actually baffled when I called for information at the idea of someone wanting to receive money from oversea. And let's not even get into keeping an account in another currency. My bank apparently never had to do anything of the sorts, and after digging for information they told me it would cost about 400€ per year just keep the account open.
  - riffraff 7y ago
    FWIW, fineco will let you have foreign currency accounts, for free, and with minimal conversion fees, it's pretty convenient.
    - oAlbe 7y ago
      That's actually very useful to know, thank you for the information!
  - smabie 7y ago
    Do Italians not invest in US securities at all? Seems kind of strange...
    - oAlbe 7y ago
      I've yet to figure that out. Personally, I'd love to be able to easily invest in a vanguard fund, or even just have the ability to put money every month on index funds, but so far from what I've seen doesn't seem to be possible.
      - rocho 7y ago
        You can easily buy everything you want from Interactive Brokers. You can deposit EUR and do the transactions in other currencies. The interface is old and complicated, but very powerful. You will have to do the taxes yourself though.

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Do people not move in Italy or something? I've encountered the same thing in Germany, when I log in I use the branch number of where we opened the account? Why? Who gives a shit about that? I certainly don't. But the bank does, for some unfathomable reason. For each way German banks are better than American ones, it seems like there's a way in which they're backwards or overly conservative.

qubex 7y ago
Not very much, no... we call it ’campanilismo’: the tendency for people to live out their lives within earshot of their town’s church’s bell-tower (campanile). Side-story: southern Italians who relocated to the industrialising North during the ‘Italian Economic Miracle’ of the 1950s to 1970s referred to the process as ‘emigrating’. Until it was looked down upon by more modern sensitivities, they were referred to as ‘immigrants’, and their offspring referred to as first- and second-generation immigrants. It really is a rather static society, though now there’s a significant and constant flow of young graduates from the hideously unemployment-afflicted South towards the North, or abroad since the Great Stagnation set in about fifteen years ago.
Hamuko 7y ago
In Finland, the biggest bank is actually just a group of local banks. So if I sign up for a bank account up north, I am the customer of the bank way up there, which is a separate legal entity from the bank down in the south. Of course, if you do move and you want to apply for a new credit card, they will mail the card and paper work to any of the locations, so it's not that bad. And all of the banks in the group have an unified online banking system, no branch numbers needed. However, when I switched between the different banks, I had to get new login details for the online bank, which was kinda sucky.
Scoundreller 7y ago
> when I log in I use the branch number of where we opened the account? Why? Who gives a shit about that? I certainly don't. But the bank does, for some unfathomable reason. In the US and Canada, you’ll have a home branch too. Usually it doesn’t come up in anything day-to-day. State laws for one thing may apply to accounts opened in a particular state. But if a bank merges or gets acquired, or fails, and some branches get sold/divested, and not necessarily to one party. One could find themselves a customer of a bank that is no longer local to them. Here’s a merger that had a divesture: https://www.bauerfinancial.com/2019/12/09/its-truist-theres-a-new-era-in-big-banking/ https://www.bauerfinancial.com/2019/12/09/its-truist-theres-...

briandear 7y ago

What’s the point of branches? It isn’t like computers aren’t a thing.