We are banks' prisoners - Thought Leader

On reading Charlene Smith’s two recent blogs on her utter nightmares with Standard Bank while in Italy, I immediately remembered narrowly escaping a bank and travel incident when living in China that still has me shuddering with the possible consequences. Years ago my wife and I were about to go on holiday from Shanghai to Xi’an, which was very, very far away from our home base in Shanghai. I happened to put my Bank of China card into the stand-alone ATM machine at the convenience store downstairs from our home, then in Shanghai, a store I have written about a couple of times, and the machine inexplicably swallowed my card. Now this is how many banks work in mainland China, and hopefully their complete lack of service will change. (At least they don’t lie to you about giving magnificent service, as Standard and MasterCard did to Charlene.)

In some banks if you lose a card, well … that’s it. You cannot draw money for love or money (forgive pun) until you get a new card. Period. The bank, which owned the ATM I used only got the card returned to Bank of China eight days later, which I was told by Chinese friends was normal. Until then we had no money, and it just so happened that our British Halifax cards had expired, and the new ones were still on their way. Some Chinese banks will allow you to draw money (such as Bank of China) if you have a little booklet that comes with the card and you produce your passport, and others just won’t give you any cash, regardless of what documents you bring. You have to apply for a new card, which with some banks can take two weeks to be ready. This was no problem as one of the companies we worked for advanced us money to tide us over, but we had to cancel our trip to the relatively remote city of Xi’an. Tip to anyone wishing to open a bank account in Shanghai while working there: go with Shanghai Pudong Bank. We received excellent service from super-friendly people so much so we dearly wished to treat them out to dinner or something, but that would have been a breach of bank staff code.

The point to shudder at is what if the card had been swallowed in Xi’an? We would have been penniless in a very foreign, faraway city and in those days my Mandarin was very poor anyway. Very few people in those days in China could speak anything remotely near adequate English (except for some university students) and I hasten to add that that is not entirely their problem. It is their country, massive, largely insulated from the outside world and has their own languages (Mandarin is just one). But it is not really their problem that an outsider cannot speak their language. In European countries like Italy, Charlene would have at least had access to English-speaking bank officials. Given the unsophisticated, bureaucratic, government controlled nature of the banks anyway, I don’t know what we would have done. Here are some predictions of what commentators might advise. There were many commentators who sympathised with Charlene’s horrific plight. Like them I agree that the unspeakable manner in which Standard Bank and MasterCard should be made as public as possible. But I could not believe some of the callous, idiotic remarks as well. But that is Thought Leader for you. Here are some predictions of what commentators might say or ask here, and none of these are idiotic at all.

“Just use the return ticket back to Shanghai from Xi’an. Have the return date brought forward,” some commentators might say. Reply: you can only buy single bus or train tickets in China, not returns. That is now starting to change.

“Go to the local embassy,” other commentators might remark. There isn’t one. Only ones are in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai. (For some reason Charlene does not mention if she tried this in her blogs, though commentators suggested it.)

“Why didn’t your bank issue a separate card to your wife on the same account? You could have used the other one in the meantime.” Answer: you don’t get joint bank accounts in China and therefore two cards for both partners. That may have changed now. I have never been in a country that is rapidly changing so fast and at such a seething rate. When we were there it was always one person, one card.

“Why didn’t you have your salaries deposited in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, seeing you recommended this bank near the beginning of the blog?” Whatever company you work for as a rule will ONLY deposit salaries into the same bank the company is with, depriving you of customer choice. “Well … once you receive your salary, why not just transfer the money from that bank account into a Shanghai Pudong Development Bank account, say, by internet transfer?” No, for the same reason. China Banks will not allow inter-bank transfers. Why? I don’t know. (Or rather, I would not come up with the lengthy theories as to why here.) The above presentation of some bewildering banking facts in China is why some people feel I have a patronising attitude to the Chinese. Nope. I am just presenting the facts.

“Go to a police station.” The last thing on earth I would ever do is go to a Chinese police station, especially one far from Shanghai, as suggested in the blog when my wife’s handbag was stolen, where she went to a Shanghai police station, which is more used to dealing with foreigners, but are still very unhelpful and can’t see past bureaucratic paperwork. (Outside the places where foreigners hang out in certain places in Shanghai etc, anyone non-Chinese is stared at. After living there for a few years, you start to understand why. Westerners look waayyy different). I do not trust Chinese police. With regard to New Zealand immigration requirements (we now live in Auckland), a copy of a document certified by the Chinese police is unacceptable. Which speaks volumes. I know of someone who tried to use a 100 RMB bank note in a store in Hangzhou, China. It turned out the note was false and the shop phoned the police. He was arrested, put in a police cell and had to pay a fine. He had no clue he was even given a false note. No attempt to track down the con artists. The extra conundrum is that the 100 RMB bank note is the largest note and is only issued by banks and their ATMS. Hmmmm. But, no, no no. Do not go to a Chinese police station.

“Don’t go to China,” some commentators might advise, “unless it is with a well-organised tour, including tour bus and decent hotels”. Excellent point. But by the way, you will not see the real China, just the one put on show, like the current World Expo.

Sure, somehow we would have eventually got back to Shanghai. We would have had one helluva adventure, but it’s one I would rather do without.

China was a five-year, fascinating experience, but we really had to learn the rules. But a final point about banks and us as customers, bearing Charlene’s story and mine, which are just two in the ocean.

We really are banks’ prisoners. And we pay them for that.

To misquote from King Lear: “Let anarchy thrive!”