03/17/1997   English German

  Edition # 2  
San Francisco, 03-17-1997


Money Business

Angelika The American banking system is quite different from the German system in that recurring debits ("Lastschriftverfahren") are virtually unknown and wire transfers are complicated. That is most likely because Americans want to decide by themselves when to pay their rent, their electricity bill, telephone bill and so on.

Consequently, you have to write several checks a month to pay your debts. Those checks will be sent via mail and at some point the receiver will cash it. Since American banks don’t offer overdraft loans, you really have to keep in mind when and whom you wrote a check. If a check can’t be cashed in because there is no coverage, you are seriously in trouble. So you have a booklet to fill out all in- and outcoming transactions, so you know the current balance in advance.

Actually, you could simply get your account statement but it only shows the current balance and not the sum that will be on the account when all checks are cashed. That sounds a little complicated and kind of pedestrian and I tell you one thing: It is! At some point, you are going to lose track of your balance and you are desperately looking for a missing asset because you made a miscalculation in your booklet or you forgot to fill in something.

As a last resort, you ask for the last bookings via phone banking. Phone banking is quite popular in the U.S., since it saves writing a check. On the other hand, this kind of business sounds fishy to Europeans and doesn’t make you keep track of your finances. Michael states that the cost of mailing a letter in the U.S. is only as cheap as it is because there is an enormous number of checks being sent via mail every month.

Generally, Americans are jugglers concerning their finances, they barely pay in cash, but with a large variety of credit cards or personal checks. Also, it’s getting more and more common to use ATM cards. They often lose track of their balance at the end of the month and have to revolve charges by paying one credit card with a different one. Many are in debt because of this.

By the way, it’s not possible for a foreigner to receive an American credit card instantly. That’s because they don’t have a credit record yet. The credit record tells if you’re trustworthy and if loans that have been taken once, have been paid back as planned. Even if one owns a German credit card you don’t have an American credit record due to the fact that both the American and the German system aren’t connected to each other. So we have to deal with the fact that any 18-year old American has a bunch of credit cards but we have to wait for a year to get such a plastic card. After a year we’re going to be residents of California and are thus trustworthy. Why is that? To be honest, I can’t tell you.

Thanks to Boris Kleinbach, kleinbach@ymail.com for translating the original German text to English.

RSS Feed
Mailing Liste
Impressum
Mike Schilli Monologues


Get announcements for new editions

New editions of this publication appear in somewhat random intervals. To receive a brief note when they're available in your mailbox (about once every two months on average), you can register your email on the 'usarundbrief' Google Groups list.

Your email address



All Editions:
2024 153 154 155 156 157
2023 148 149 150 151 152
2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
2011 91 92 93 94 95
2010 85 86 87 88 89 90
2009 79 80 81 82 83 84
2008 73 74 75 76 77 78
2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
2006 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
2005 54 55 56 57 58
2004 49 50 51 52 53
2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0

 

Send us a comment
We'd like to hear from you, please send us feedback if you want to comment on the content or have suggestions for future topics.

Simply write your your message into the text box below. If you'd like a response from us, please also leave your email. If you want to stay anonymous, simply put 'anonymous' into the email field. This way we'll get the message, but we have no way to respond to you.

Your email address


Message

 
Contact the authors
Latest update: 24-Dec-2012