Canada and America pass billions of dollars in cheques/checks but in Switzerland they are almost non existent. Although I still have an American checking account, with a credit union of course for American bills, and my Canadian clients pay me in cheques much to the amusement of my banker, I've been living almost checkless/chequeless for 18 years.
How do I pay my bills, you may ask?
First all bills arrive with a standard format pink slip--nothing to do with being fired. A corner of the pink slip is in the lower right hand corner of the photo as it gets ready to be read by the Multimat. On the pink slip is all my account information with all the account information of the biller. From there I have three alternatives.
1. The most old fashioned way. Take all the pink slips and the amount owed to the post office. The postal clerk takes over (a slight alternative is to transfer money from my postal bank account, but I use that account just for savings of coins collected) registers payments, stamps one tearoff part as your proof of payment and sees the money is transferred to the proper person or company. And the postal account does offer a variety of interest rates, mostly dismal, and a debit card if you want to use a postal account in place of a regular bank account.
2. Use the Multimat machines like the one pictured above. They are in all bank offices and now in various grocery stores. I can use the machines to pay my bills by inserting the pink slip and transferring from my account directly to the account of the person/company I owe the money to...I can also get account history, set up standing orders, send money to other countries, etc. It doesn't iron, make lunch however.
3. The most modern way: do it on line from my computer.
Switzerland became the world's banker centuries ago mainly in Geneva because it was at the crossroads. Even the French King Louis XVI had a a Swiss bank account. There are some 300 banks in Switzerland. Before I ever thought about even dreaming of living in Switzerland, I, like many others, assumed meant having a Swiss bank account meant you are rich.
WRONG!
Still, rich or poor, the system's effieciency is as good as the country's chocolate.
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1 comment:
I"m still always fascinated by the way things which you think would be standardized around the world, are not. Like how to pay your bills. When I first moved to the UK nearly 20 years ago, I was amazed to find that when you bought an electrical device, it did not come with a plug. You had to buy that separately and then attach it yourself! Ok, so that's finally changed, but still, as much as we think the world is shrinking all the time, there are still these weird unexpected anomalies. But maybe that's a good thing.
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