Carrier pidgeons and personal checques
@ 7:19 pm *rant* eBay and Internet shopping, what a novel idea. If you could pay that is. This is for all of you who live in the medieval ages - go to your bank and tell them to bloody wake up! It is a novelty called an IBAN number and BIC/Swift in Europe. Now give your bloody account number and recieve a payment - as easy as that. Or is it? “payment by Personal Check”. A Check? We do not live in the dark ages, when you had a personal check and strung it to a carrier pidgeon to recieve your money off a moneylender. Those days were past in the 1960’s when you got a giro system already. In Finland banks stopped issuing personal cheques in about 1993 - do you wish me to go to a bloody museum to get one???
This is just a rant for the people with retarded banking systems - if you can not take PayPal for religious reasons or give an IBAN and BIC/SWIFT, then do not sell you crap off eBay internationally. Like I would be going to stuff gold bullion in a carrier pidgeons arse for your benefit. *end rant*
Now this Europe-wide banking system really is nice, but the advancement has then killed everything else like International Postal Money Orders. Well, there are services like Auctionchecks that seem to have filled in the niche. Fair enough, its a big world. In some countries it may be a problem to pay in the internet trying to stuff goats into the modem…
BTW anyone interested in a Zenit-3 reflex camera?
if you can’t pay by check why consider that item?
Comment by passer — Sun, Jun 17th, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
Yes, cheques are outdated. But it doesn’t seem like we in Europe have yet figured out how to pay for things when traveling throughout the continent. I usually use credit cards. But without them, how should I pay?
Banks in Finland don’t seem to issue any type of debit card that’s accepted internationally. I don’t think that any banks in Europe issue such an instrument.
But all things considered, it is rather strange that one can’t pay for things with IBAN number when ordering from the states. Is it possible to buy a traveler’s cheque in Finland and send it by mail?
Comment by Kristian — Sun, Jun 17th, 2007 @ 8:28 pm
I was sent a check a couple months ago and went to my bank, Sampo, to cash it. Co-workers were consulted, phone calls were made, shit was being typed into the keyboard.
After 20 confusing minutes, I was finally told that the check was too old and there’s some expensive fee (like 40% of the check) to cash it. I asked her how quickly a check needs to be processed before it gets “old” and she said two months. Fuck!! The next time I’m going to be asked that I get paid in cartons of cigarettes or something.
Comment by Phil — Sun, Jun 17th, 2007 @ 9:07 pm
(Smaller) American companies seem to be completely confused when you try to pay at times. Only last week a company refused to process my payment because “my street name was illegible”… i.e. it has an ö and ä in it. They asked me for a photocopy of my bank statement with the address showing so they could work out how to spell it! Quite amusing (I just told them to use an o and a and everything would be quite ok).
Yes, I agree with Hank. Cheques are old hat and old fashioned. Good riddance to them.
And Kristian, I have a debit card from both Sparbanken Aktia (Finnish card) and Handelsbanken (Swedish card) that seems to work quite happily abroad… to date in any case. I can recommend Aktia as a bank, they’ve always been very good for me.
Comment by JG — Sun, Jun 17th, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
Finland get out of the dark ages!
Introduce PIN machines in supemarkets and other stores for debit card payments, then you wouldn’t have to carry your Finnish ID card/passport
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, Jun 18th, 2007 @ 1:23 am
Well, the new Euro system thats being implemented apparently introduces the paneuropean debit card. And we are getting out of the dark ages, if you have a chip-card then you will be given the PIN thingamajingie, I’ve used my newer card in several stores already like that. I think they’ve not issued ‘regular’ cards for a while, but it takes a couple of years to phase out the old swipe cards.
Its going to take over quite quickly, just if anyone remembers when the chains and coin deposit slots came to supermarket trolleys?
Comment by Hank W. — Mon, Jun 18th, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
The ‘new’ system that you refer to has been in operation for 5 years in the UK!
Stop bragging; Finland’s backward
Comment by Anonymous — Tue, Jun 19th, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
A question: I wil be sent an American cheque and need to cash it in Finland. Does it matter where I cash it and if it doesn’t get ‘old’ will I be paying the 40% fee that Phil talked about?
I would be very grateful if anyone could help me! Even thinking of going to UK or else to cash the cheque…
Comment by Angua — Thu, Mar 6th, 2008 @ 4:33 pm