Is that really the best you can do? / Banking in Korea

I just spent 2.5 hours at 3 different banks.  Not a happy Korean resident camper.  I closed an account at one bank because they are just rude to me every time I go in there.  I cancelled a credit card at a different bank because they told me there was no way to set up withdraws to be able to pay my monthly bill from a different financial institution and would need to physically go into the branch EVERY month to pay it off.  AND I didn’t get any point from the card which is pretty useless in this point crazed banking world that we live in.

The 3rd bank was KEB which was the doozy.  I use a MAC and so can’t do any online banking with them since they hate anything non mainstream in this country.  I also tried to ask about investment options.  It is so annoying the was people have such a strangle hold on information in this country.  I really wonder what the experience is like for Koreans – I can only assume that they too want to bash their head against the desk repeatedly in a vain attempt to get some answers.  I was patient until the first 45 minutes passed and then started to get annoyed as I was moved to another desk and told “customers are waiting”.  Umm, hello?  I’m a customer too.  Moron.  I’m asking about locking in my money with you – which in the world of banking generally means that a client is going to stay with your institution and you should try to sell them more crap to lock them in even further — when clients have the majority of their banking at one institution they are less likely to close their accounts.

I still can’t get over how much PAPER is used at banks here.  Such a waste of resources.

There is no foresight here.  Banks have the opportunity to offer their services to international clients and get them to actually do something with their money.  Ridiculous.  There is so much money to be made for them and yet the comments I got were things like

“It so hard to explain banking things in English”  – so you mean, to do your job?  Correct me if I’m wrong, you work in a self proclaimed “Foreigner Friendly Branch”

“Maybe you know, that the stock market is not so good these days” — Jesus H Christ, do you think I’m a moron?  Of course I know that, but your measly 2% interest rate would be better than the, oh what’s that, yes that’s right, the 0 rate you’re currently offering.

“You’re not a real professor so you can’t get a loan” — FUN!  Can you at least tell me what your rates are?  ”You’re not a real professor so you can’t get a loan” – yeah you said that already… FUN!

“You should use online banking” – YEAH, I’d love too but alas your freaking bank only believes in PC’s.

UPDATE: haha read this article, obviously they haven’t actually talked to us about what we want/need/currently feel.