Going to the bank, and other fun information

So, it has been a while since my last post. The good news, is that I am still in 1st place in our NBA fantasy basketball. Secondly, it is great to report that Sarah is in the 99th percentile in her fantasy basketball March Madness college basketball bracket.

So, let's get down to business and talk about the high tech in dustry of personal banking. Let me tell you, when your grandmother said that it was better to put all your money under your matress, she was right. Especially, if your grandmother lives/lived in Israel.

Opening an account. This takes a little over a week (or 168 hours). I don't mean to get the cards, and for the account to be active. I mean to open an account. Well, actually it only takes 144 hours (6 days, 24 hours a day) because just like God, the banks don't work on Saturday. Well, truth be told, it really only takes
because the bank is only open 29 hours per week (see schedule below).
Sunday: 8:30 - 2:00
Monday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Tuesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Wednesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Thursday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Friday: Closed
Saturday: Closed

Please notice that if you have a full-time job (Sunday-Thursday), you can't have a bank account. You might not want one anyway, because the bank charges you for everything.

So, we started the process of opening an account. I think we wrote a little about this earlier. You have to sign about 2,000 peices of paper. After that, the lady says, "so you will have one card". We then said, that we would need two cards. The bank charges you per debit card which you need. Then we neede to transfer money into the bank account. In case you didn't see it coming, they charge you for the wiring INTO a non-interest bearing savings account. But 5 days later, we had debit cards with our Hebrew names on them.

However, I had cash which I wanted to deposit into my account. Every time that you use the teller, they charge you 6 Shekels($1.50). If you use the ATM, they charge you 1.3 Shekel ($.35). So, to deposit my own money into my account, they charged me. This is not even the fun part yet.

The money that was wired into the account was in dollars. However, I needed to have it in Shekels. So, one day while walking around the city, we went into another branch of our bank and asked to withdraw dollars. They said that we had to go to OUR ORIGINAL bank in order to sign a paper which would allow us to withdraw from our foreign currency account. I went to our branch, and they said that there was no such form. So, I asked to take out dollars. They said that I could do so, but that they did not have dollars at this branch. So I took the bus to another branch to withdraw dollars. As I spoke to the teller, I realized that I was going to be charged for using him. However, I did not think that I was going to be charged for taking out dollars (money which was wired into the account for a fee). Why would I pay a fee twice? Wow! Am I naive!?! Then I had to take that money to a change place and exchange it for Shekels and then deposit it at my bank (at the machine for a charge of only 1.3 Shekels. The nice lady who originally sent me on this mission which took 3.5 hours, helped me deposit at the ATM. As we were doing so, she asked "So, what are you doing here in Israel"? "I am a student" I said. She then told me that I should show them my student ID so that I don't have any transaction fees. Trying very hard not to punch her, I just smiled and said thank you.
As PopPop says "To make a long story short", DO put all your eggs in one basket, and keep the basket away from the bank.

Getting a student bank account.
So I showed them my student ID. It has a student ID number on it which is supposed to correspond to my teudat zehut (Israeli ID number). Of course, when I sent in my paperwork to Tel Aviv University, they decided to disregard the Israeli passport with my real ISraeli ID number. So, they randomly assigned me a number, which is not good, because the two ID's don't match and cannot be used to create a "student" account at the bank.
I emailed the program leader, and she said she would have my number changed. She didn't tell me which number she would change it to, or the corresponding password. The password is important, becasue you use the same ID number to log into the Tel Aviv University website, where the professors load all the readings. Too bad I can't currently do them.

I can't remember if I wrote about the professors:
Professor 1, Class 1) He told us he was lonely and didn't like grading papers. Oh yeah, he is lonely because he is single.

Professor 2, Class 1) Showed up 15 minutes late and said "how come you are all sitting here so early? Doesn't this class start at 5:30?" He also started off by telling us that it was the first class he had ever taught. Also, can't really speak English well. The class is about strategy. He interchanges vision, goal and strategy. Oops!

Professor 3, Class 1) He is professional and very knowledgeable. I love him!

Professor 1, Class 2) His phone goes off in the middle of class, and instead of just muting it, he checks to see who is calling.

So far, we are 1 for 3 in classes. However, the Mergers and Acquisitions class is truly one of the best I have taken in my two years at IBS.

Since this is a long one, I will follow it up with some more information about Ian's visit and other things tomorrow or int he next few days.