On Patriotism

I changed my bank today. My old bank, nicely named after my home town, a bank I have been loyal to for the past 10 years, lost a client. Final nail in the coffin was when I needed a report on my previous earnings and asked for it nicely at my bank, after standing in a queue for 15 minutes. They sent me to another one of their banks, as my account wasn’t open at that particular bank. Yes, the worker could see the earnings on the computer, but before you ask, she was not authorized to print it out. OK, another bank then, other side of town, same process, same queue and same 15 minute wait. Only to be told, yes mister, you are at the right bank; however you’re standing in the wrong line. You see, just because this one is named account management doesn’t mean we can actually help you with your earnings printout for your account. Yes, we do see it on the computer. However we do not deal with the complicated operation of printing this out. You have to go to another line, which is for taking loans, since they deal with such print-outs. Breath in, Breathe out. Another queue, you know the drill by now. I get the earnings report. Guess what, they dare to charge me 10 € for it. One silly A4 printout. As you can imagine, I freaked out.

So I went and checked competition. Half price compared to what I was paying for managing my account. I get free cash limit extensions, no insurance costs, free personal insurance, free Master card and free internet banking, no ATM machine commission. Furthermore I’m kindly escorted to an office from the info desk, and as I explain what I’d like to do, they ask me nicely to wait in the chair with a couple of brochures about my new account, while they fill in the forms for me. Just sign them, thank you very much for choosing our bank.

That’s my story on how I switched a Slovenian bank for Austrian competition. The price of my patriotism was about an hour of my time and a free Master card. All in all I save about 40€ a year due to this, about 4€ a month. I never did consider myself particularly patriotic. Still, I never realized my loyalty to “domestic” companies is quite as cheap. I went to check the ownership structure of my bank, though. Owned by another Slovenian bank, 33% of which was bought by a Belgian bank and their share is likely to increase. I’m feeling a bit better already. I’m only 67% guilty of being unpatriotic.