I was glad to grow up and become an adult, and I don’t miss my days at school or university at all. They weren’t bad times, but I like the freedom of being able to run my own life and make my own decisions. I also hate wearing uniforms, although in Australia there’s no such thing as uniforms for university students.
One thing that isn’t so cool about growing up, however, is the increase in the number of bureaucratic institutions that you have to deal with to get anything done. About my least favourite of these unavoidable organisations is banks.
In most walks of life, it’s almost impossible to exist without a bank account. There are few jobs that pay in cash these days, so you need a bank account to receive wages. And everything else in modern life, from renting to paying bills to dealing with tax, requires a bank account. You would think that since dealing with banks is such an unavoidable necessity that the process would be made as easy and pleasant as possible. Unfortunately, in my experience, that usually isn’t the case.
For one thing, despite everything being done these days with computers and the Internet, to use any of a bank’s services for some reason seems to require mountains of forms, photocopies and paperwork. I’m sure my passport has been photocopied about a thousand times by various Thai bank branches over the years. And I long ago lost count of the number of forms I’ve had to fill out on paper, only to then have to sit and watch the staff re-type everything I’ve just written into a computer.
The other thing about banks is that they always seem to give the impression that they’re doing you a big favour by allowing you to give them your hard-earned money — money which they then make a nice profit out of. On the other hand, they love nothing more than to give you money in the form of a loan, as long as you pay it back with plenty of interest of course.
I should balance my ranting by saying that the staff who actually work serving customers at banks are usually friendly and as helpful and they can be. They don’t make the rules, but who ever does sure likes to make things complicated!
Ben Edwards
Editor
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