Fleet as in bank, not as in swift

Fleet Bank is the 7th largest banking institution in the continental United States which would lead one to believe that international banking would be a familiar concept to them. When the head of wire transfers asked me what currency Finland uses I was not filled with confidence that leaving any substantial sum of money in my Fleet account was going to be a wise choice. She gave me a packet of rubbish for a reqular wire transfer PIN and such but I think that I'll go down to the Harvard branch sometime before I leave where they have to have people who know how to deal with international banking with all the students around.

When she noticed the balance on my account she asked if I would take some time and talk to the investment rep so that Fleet could invest my money for me. She didn't seem very appreciative when I noted that it was recently announced that Fleet had some large losses due to some Enron investments and that I wasn't interested in investing in the US Stock Market or with Fleet at this time :)

The catch-22 is that I cannot open a bank account in Finland until I get a national ID and I don't want to leave a largely uninsured bank account in the US where a war with Iraq could seriously devalue the dollar at best and wreck this antiquated 'banking' system at worst. I could take a giant bank or traveller cheque on the flight to Finland but that seems risky although it may be the easiest and least pain in the arse way of getting most of my money out of the country without having to fly back to Boston in the summer after they've jerked me around for 6 months.

It may be amusing to note that "Fleet" is also an enema [ yes, really :) ] and considering the quality of 'customer service' I received today it's not really much different.

13 Jan 2003 at 20:29, Helsinki