Good Riddance to Bank Rubbish
March 12th, 2008 - 1:17pm - No Comments »
After fifteen or sixteen years with the same account, I have finally closed my first “real” bank account.
On Saturday, Justine and I ventured to our local Commonwealth Bank office to close our five accounts (an account each, a credit card each and a combined account) with the bank. However — and not to our surprise, the bank refused to close our accounts on a non-weekday. Additionally, even though they offered to let us fill in the paperwork and do it on the next business day (Tuesday, of course, since the Monday was a public holiday) they couldn’t close the credit cards as a payout figure could not be retrieved. Forget the fact that we owed nothing on both cards and hadn’t for months.
So, yesterday, we returned to the bank at 9:30am. Why do banks still operate 9:30-4:00 (or 4:30) hours? Everywhere else has extended hours, why not have the staff start at 8:30 so they can open at 9:00? It can’t be too hard to have people there working until 6:00pm as well, so they could close at 5:30pm.
But I digress; the line at the bank was close to a dozen people. Luckily there was no crush to enter as the place opened. We were directed by a loud man to a small Malaysian lady who promptly closed all our accounts. We weren’t asked for any ID, other than the ATM and credit cards we provided to close the accounts, which makes me wonder how easy it will be to close someone’s account and take out all the money should I find a wallet in the near future.
The lady helping us didn’t even bother to try and stop us closing the accounts, as per policy. Mostly because we explained the situation where my credit card was blocked while we were overseas last year and she’d experienced a similar, but not as dramatic situation previously. She also told us that though Justine’s card had a notification she’d be overseas, mine didn’t. After I called twice to confirm. If that’s the case, it makes me wonder why it took over three weeks for the card to be locked.
An even better reason we’re no longer with the Commonwealth Bank. Good riddance, I say.
