lunedì 22 dicembre 2008

Banking Part 2

I arrived back in the UK on Saturday. I had very little money in my wallet so I went to the nearest cash machine, and took out some money. They didn't charge me because it wasn't my own bank. They didn't charge me because it was the weekend. Getting my own money from the cash machine was free.

While I was at the cash machine, I topped up my phone credit. This was not one of a limited number of transactions that I could carry out at the cash machine over a 3 month period. The phone company did not charge me £3 for the privilege of buying a service from their company. It was free.

Then I made a phone call. When I had finished, the phone automatically told me how much credit I had left. None of my money had been eaten by the invisible monster that secretly ate 30 euros of internet credit in Italy.

Then today I went to the bank again. Despite the fact that it was Monday and despite the fact that it was lunch time, the bank was open. Ten minutes and one signature later, I had deposited my euros in my current account. The ease of the operation left me smiling almost as much as the exchange rate.

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