XXth Century Banks

I’m planning my summer holidays these days, and mainly doing it through the Internet, from the flights to the museum tickets, but trouble has come down when booking an appartament for our stay, not really because of the agency (Isabelle has been very nice and collaborative until now), but because of the pains my bank is inflicting me.

I switched my bank account to Caixa Galicia early this year, as it looked like a modern savings bank: no fees for domestic or international transfers or cash withdrawal at any cash point, automatized phone service, and what seemed, at first, a solid online banking system.

Well, today I had to place a money transfer to a French bank account in order to book the studio apartment, and to my surprise, I noticed:

• It’s not possible to order it through Caixa Galicia’s website
• It can only be made at Caixa Galicia offices or on the phone; my account belongs to “Virtual Office”, it means: it’s not associated to a physical office; I’m supposed to make any operation available to any regular customer through the web or on the phone
• In case you place the transfer on the phone, you don’t get a receipt for it, nor does the payee, until 3 or 4 days have passed; then you can access it through the website to a PDF file of the receipt. You can’t ask for a notification sent by email or SMS to the payee at the moment the order is placed.

So, what does it mean to me? That Caixa Galicia have might made an effort to stand up to their competitors by offering online banking, but it’s not truly this what they offer; they bring the possibility of doing some transactions through the web, although it shows up clearly, with situations like mine, that the undergoing processes are not “online” designed, they do things the old-fashioned way. That must be why I don’t get a receipt immediately after placing my money transfer: the girl on the phone who asked me the details for the transaction wrote them down on a paper form, then she passed it along to the in charge department whatever it is and then they do their magic with figures and bring out a receipt of it… on paper. A guy scans it and attachs the digital file to my customer account. That would take aproximately 3 days to be fulfilled.

I’m only an individual and the rent agency has been kind enough about not having a transfer receipt, and will simply wait for the money to arrive to their bank account and trust my word. But I was feeling ashamed while telling them I couldn’t give them a receipt because my bank didn’t gave me one either. What if I was a company? How was I to say a customer or a provider something like that?

This is a thumbs down for Caixa Galicia and all those banks who offer online banking just because they are supposed to, but their processes have not changed at all and keep everything as it was in the 90s. It’s a matter of honesty, after all; they call it “Virtual Office”, but you don’t get that, you just miss the benefits of going to a bank office and doing things the old-fashioned way.

Now I’m asking my friend Monica to write a complaint for Caixa Galicia, she’s better (and far more experienced) at doing that.  And I think I’m going back to ING Direct, which had always worked for me and I still don’t know why I left…