Paypal and Banking Woes
25 Jun 2024 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneMy new ("") bank account that I've had for six months SAYS it's registered with Paypal, but it doesn't actually work: Paypal can't withdraw from it.
I had a bunch of Paypal balance left for a long time which made it non-urgent, but now that's run out I can't use Paypal for anything and it's really annoying, because I have to get Wax any time I need Paypal, but my only alternative is wading into the bank's customer service to get it to work. (I sent them a request, but I haven't read the response yet, because it means checking an Inbox, which is already hard for me, and it's the online banking Inbox, so a BONUS Inbox besides the other Inboxes that I have to do battle with regularly. I'm afraid of Inboxes.)
My bank, Ålandsbanken, is a very small bank and they have the most personal service and highest customer satisfaction in Finland. However, they seem to have the most outages and problems in their web apps and card payments (I assume this is because they're smallest but who knows), which is, needless to say, sub-optimal.
They're the ONLY bank that has an office in our town in person anymore, and they're the only bank I know of that has tellers open without appointment twice a week, since all the other ones have downsized, pushed everything online, and outsourced customer service to the point that you have to reserve time in advance and wait in a crowded queue to get service now as if you were trying to apply for a license from the police or city goverment. That's annoying, and after I had a few months' experience using this local bank's office for work, I started to feel so much warmth and goodwill towards them that I switched. Our mortgage is through them already. Nordea's card payment system is very reliable because they're huge, but they're also big enough to have been explicitly caught being evil a bunch of times and it feels extra galling that a company raking in cash on a much larger scale has much worse customer service when they could certainly afford to be better. Wax still has a main account at Nordea and a second account at S-banken (because it comes automatically when you join the Sokos co-op for half the grocery stores in Finland and Prisma, which is like a Finnish Target) and a third account at Ålandsbanken (mortgage and home renovation loan money in that one). I suppose I could switch again now that I know it isn't too difficult, if this doesn't work out: I've heard a lot of good things about OP, I guess, because it's actually a credit union. Maybe I'll try that. Sigh.
I had a bunch of Paypal balance left for a long time which made it non-urgent, but now that's run out I can't use Paypal for anything and it's really annoying, because I have to get Wax any time I need Paypal, but my only alternative is wading into the bank's customer service to get it to work. (I sent them a request, but I haven't read the response yet, because it means checking an Inbox, which is already hard for me, and it's the online banking Inbox, so a BONUS Inbox besides the other Inboxes that I have to do battle with regularly. I'm afraid of Inboxes.)
My bank, Ålandsbanken, is a very small bank and they have the most personal service and highest customer satisfaction in Finland. However, they seem to have the most outages and problems in their web apps and card payments (I assume this is because they're smallest but who knows), which is, needless to say, sub-optimal.
They're the ONLY bank that has an office in our town in person anymore, and they're the only bank I know of that has tellers open without appointment twice a week, since all the other ones have downsized, pushed everything online, and outsourced customer service to the point that you have to reserve time in advance and wait in a crowded queue to get service now as if you were trying to apply for a license from the police or city goverment. That's annoying, and after I had a few months' experience using this local bank's office for work, I started to feel so much warmth and goodwill towards them that I switched. Our mortgage is through them already. Nordea's card payment system is very reliable because they're huge, but they're also big enough to have been explicitly caught being evil a bunch of times and it feels extra galling that a company raking in cash on a much larger scale has much worse customer service when they could certainly afford to be better. Wax still has a main account at Nordea and a second account at S-banken (because it comes automatically when you join the Sokos co-op for half the grocery stores in Finland and Prisma, which is like a Finnish Target) and a third account at Ålandsbanken (mortgage and home renovation loan money in that one). I suppose I could switch again now that I know it isn't too difficult, if this doesn't work out: I've heard a lot of good things about OP, I guess, because it's actually a credit union. Maybe I'll try that. Sigh.
(no subject)
Date: 27 Jun 2024 09:00 am (UTC)I have an OP account and aside from the shilling you have to put up with, I've never had problems with it. Outages are brief, international services work well, and it's nice being able to see both my insurances and my bank accounts with the same login credentials. Their phone services are also consistently good at solving my problems. The only time I've had to reserve for an in-person thing is when withdrawing money from my savings account.