Uncertain Changes

Financial???!!

Ok, this week I would touch on banking issues.

I am very sure that, this is a topic which you will be very interested in and will have many questions about it.

All of the students located in Essen had an account with Sparda Bank West. Of course you can choose the bank of your choice when you arrived in Germany however in our case, we made our accounts on the very day we arrived and everything was pre-arranged (this is only valid for the students in Essen).

One can open an account in Germany without any minimum deposits in it aka. 0,00€.

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Note: The numbering system in Germany is a little different from the numbering system used in Malaysia

For example: one thousand = 1.000 (Germany) and not 1,000 (Malaysia)

zero point five = 0,5 (Germany) and not 0.5 (Malaysia)

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However in the case of my bank, Sparda bank, I was later deducted 52€ as non-liquid deposit. This means that should you have 100€ deposited, only 48€ are liquid.

In the case of ATM cards

In Germany, as a safety procedure one will recieve your bank card by mail and one week after that, your pin number also via mail. It is important for you to know that you are not allowed to change your pin number. The pin mailed to you are fixed. This is only in the case of Sparda Bank.   

The rest of the students in Duisburg opted for Deutshe Bank.

As a safety precaution, for Deutsche Bank you will recieve 2 separate atm cards. These cards have different withdrawal limits. Sadly, I do not have more information as I do not have one myself.

The pin for your ATM card can be changed by your own free will.

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Note: International banks are not directly connected.

Allow me to illustriate further, when you have an account with bank A in Malaysia and went to bank A in Germany, you will still be charged as a foreign transaction.

Should your transaction be in Euros or in Malaysia Ringgit, the charges will be different base on the type of financial facilities you use (exmple: travelers checks, bank draft, atm withdrawal and etc.)

So pay attention to the transaction charges when  you choose your method of transaction.

That is all for this week

Disclaimer: These information are only meant as reference

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.