Gain work/life balance, sacrifice cheap cost of living. Increase personal safety, decrease living space. Potential weekend hops to the cultural capitals of the Western world, but forget modern conveniences. This was a country, after all, that couldn't figure out basics like water pressure or tumble driers. I accepted that I was stepping back decades on the technology front.
Imagine my shock this week as I discovered that America is practically in the Dark Ages in comparison to Europe when it comes to the banking system. In the years I've been on this side of the Atlantic, we've jumped ahead while the USA doesn't seem to have changed much at all.
This discovery came as a consequence of renovations on Mom's house in St. Louis. Almost 14 months after her death, and we're finally putting the finishing touches on the work needed to make the place sellable. It's been a painful process. Unlike England, where there's generally less housing stock than shoppers, and people quite like buying a fixer-upper, St. Louisans evidently won't consider a place unless its interior is like a new build. Even in a gracious, old neighbourhood. Thus the need to put more than $35,000 of work into what I thought was a nice house if I expected to sell it. I said it was painful.
This is the month in which most of the cash is going out. Aside from the pain of watching our life savings disappear, I thought this would be easy. Transfer cash from our British account to my American one, get on line, pay people.
By the time I got the fourth refusal to share bank details or accept electronic transfers, I started to suspect things worked differently over there. People were asking for cheques. Or, since they are Americans, checks. PAPER? I don't think I've written a cheque off my British account for at least a year. I should explain for my American readers ... pretty much everyone banks online here, and all but the most archaic of businesses put their banking details on their invoices.
Most of these American firms were terrified to give me any details, claiming security issues or problems in the past. But bank security is excellent here. I've never known anyone to have their accounts hacked into; these details allow you to pay in to an account, but you need far more to get anything out. No deal. All these guys wanted paper checks in hand. And, of course, they won't start work without one.
I suppose, had I thought about this, I shouldn't have been surprised. I remember my mother dragging her heels about using a debit card to get cash, then learning her reticence was because all banks but your own charge for the withdrawal in the States. (All our bank machines are free.) Use of debit cards in general seemed to take much longer in the States. And, of course, there's America's oddly insecure habit of still using swipe and signature for credit cards, but rarely checking the signature. Allowing any thug to steal your wallet and go on an unfettered spree in the hours 'til you can call in the robbery and the bank can block the number. Here. we've had chip and pin for years. All cards require your personal, secret code for use. So unless you're stupid enough to write down pin numbers, a lost card is a useless card.
One of my builders was finally enlightened enough me bank details. Delighted, I set him up in my American account and ordered an electronic transfer. Which the bank web site promptly told me would take place in six days. SIX DAYS???? Transfers here rarely take more than 24 hours, and often go through in one or two. To add to my amazement, the builder reported getting payment six days later ... not as cash transferred directly into his account, but in the form of a paper check from a third party bank. Huh?
It was at this point that I gave up the idea of modernity and dug out Mom's old check book. From now on I'll write checks, put them in an envelope, whack a pound and ten pence worth of postage on it and walk it to the mailbox. Whilst listening to Seal and Hootie and the Blowfish on the iPod. Just to complete that mid-'90s mood.
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