Banking

The following post is about setting up a bank account. Boring. Unless, of course, you are thinking of setting up a bank account in the Czech Republic. Then the information may prove useful. Whenever we post such dull, but practical information, it will carry the label "practical."

There are two money questions that we faced (once we knew we could actually save enough to pay the bills): 1) How to pay the rent, 2) How to get money from the American bank to us in CR.

A few months ago we started studying how money is transferred between people here. We had always used cash and knew that credit cards are very commonly used, but would a phone company or the landlord take a wad of bills each month? It turns out that instead of checks, people fill out a form at the bank (or online) authorizing the bank to transfer funds from their account to the payee. It seemed we would need to get money into a bank.

There are four common ways to get money from bank in US to bank in CR:

1. Cash - take it out as cash and carry it along.
Why? No withdrawal or money transfer fees.
Why not? Too risky (imagine the look on the face of the pickpocket), fee for bank deposit

2. Travelers' Cheques
Why? Safe, simple system that we understand, changing them is never as easy as they would have you believe and it results in good stories
Why not? Costly (2% of purchase), fee for bank deposit

3. ATM
Why? Safe, simple system that we understand
Why not? Fee ranging from $3-7 per transaction, fee for bank deposit, you don't know what the exchange rate is until after the transaction (though they say they are typically good rates)

4. Wire Transfer
Why? Safe, money then available in bank
Why not? Large fee for transfer (up to $100), complicated

Although an ATM would be cheaper, we chose to go with the wire transfer because of the security. Part of what we have had to adjust to is the idea that we will have to pay to get our money.

Interesting thing about wire transfer - it has to be initiated in person by one of the account owners. We overcame that by adding someone to our account. Jerry seems like a nice enough fellow, was right there behind us in line at the bank, and was willing to be added to our account.

Well, which bank in CR? That was easy. Our friends have a friend that manages a branch for Ceska Sporitelna here in town. This is one of the most ubiquitous banks in the country. Most importantly, a connection to someone who can get things done is worth a lot no matter which continent you are standing on.

So, we went to the bank and opened an account. Had our friend Jan (who served a mission in London and is fluent in english) not accompanied us, this would have been difficult. As it turned out, we worked directly with the manager and it was smooth. Our only difficulty was when he asked how much we wanted to deposit to open the account. We pulled out a stack containing over $1,000. This branch, however, was not outfitted to change money. Between Jan (director of the mental health unit at a hospital) and us we scraped together 200 Czech Crowns (about $11.75) and opened the account.

We now have no fee ATM withdrawals, no fee check card, internet banking, the ability to pay the rent, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing our money is safe with this guy named Jerry, a large number of operatives between the US and here, and the staff at the local branch.