Opening a bank account

What an adventure opening up a bank account. If any of you can recall the last time you opened a bank account or applied for a bank card, it's pretty easy and quick, right. Well, not so easy and not so quick here in France or at least here in Vittel.

First we had to make an appointment with the bank-understandable! We were in the bank for 1.5 hours just applying for a checking account and a bank card, ugh. I don't recall our application for a mortgage taking that long. Lots of paperwork to document this event and lots of signatures. You would think maybe two signatures, one for the checking account, and one for the bank card, but it was alot. OMG, we were so glad when it was over, my patience was running thin, we have no idea it would take so long! In about 10 days we'll get our checks and bank card.

So 10 days has passed now. We make another appointment with the bank to pick up our checkbook and bank card. George wanted to get a credit card for his job so we applied for that, we discussed obtaining rental property and car insurance, (a service the banks provide here) and one last thing, a money wire transfer from our US bank to the French bank (which required the French bank to give us some account numbers). This time we were in the bank for 2 hours. The guy helping us had a slip of the tongue and said it would take 5 years to get our passwords, enabling us to withdraw funds from an ATM. We burst out laughing and that was truly the joke of the evening...5 years, he meant to say 5 days. I don't think he quite understood why we found that so hilarious.

George reminded me that we had been in this French bank longer than any US bank, in our entire married life.