Better On the Other Side

Michael Jackson tribute song from The Game, Chris Brown, Diddy, Polow Da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, Boyz II Men : "Better On The Other Side (Tribute To MJ)". Song available for download via MTV here (link)(Choose 'free user' then wait for countdown to end for download.)

Michael, I will love you forever.

I am devastated.

I have loved Michael Jackson with all my heart since I was 12 years old. In any year since, at any time, whether it was evident at the moment or not, if you had asked me I could have told you that with each breath I have taken, my unconditional love for him was within. Always. I met my husband because of Michael Jackson. And we were going to see his beautiful eyes in person, from the seventh row, in London this August. And now he is gone. Gone far, far too soon. And I have no more words. And the tears on my keyboard can't convey anything to the world. So I end with this poem. This beautiful, horrible poem that only begins to explain the pain so many of us are feeling today...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum,
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead, Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead.'

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-W.H. Auden

No Cash for You (if you have Visa)

I recently found out about a type of boycott going on with German banks against Visa cards. It has something to do with fees and savings banks and ... well, if you're good enough with German, here's one little article I found: Sparkassen sperren ihre Automaten für Bank-Kunden .

It's some confusing thing like this...

Some banks are backed by Visa (like Citibank, ING, etc) and others not. If you take a Visa card to one of these non-Visa banks, you get a charge of less than 2 Euros for using their ATM. However, if you take an EC card to a Visa bank, you get charged almost 5 Euros for your withdrawl. So the EC banks like Sparkasse and Volksbank are pissed about the big fees being charged to their customers and therefore aren't going to let you use your Visa card to get any money out of their ATMs. (I think it's just to confuse and piss off tourists, though, lol.)

Some people have said this includes debit cards with the Visa logo. My American debit/check card has a Visa logo, so we went to Sparkasse this weekend to try it out. No problem, got the cash. So it seems to be either not all Sparkassen or only Visa credit cards that are affected.

(In some ways I'm surprised I can only find articles about this in German and not in English. After all, I don't personally know one single German with a real credit card, so why would they care? I've heard a few of them do exist, but they must be very rich world travelers. Or expats.)

Wire Transfer Probs (part 2 of sucky story)

Click here for part 1 (Wire Transfers - not SO easy?)

So I could never get ahold of my actual bank branch in Seattle on Friday. It would ring, get transferred and ring again, then again, then end up on a recording that said they're soooo sorry that no associate was available to take my call. Here, let me transfer you to the main customer service number... because they can't help you (other than to give you information that will get your hopes up, only to have said hopes crushed to death at a later date).

So, a few cities away from there, my mother stopped by her branch of the same bank to speak with the manager...

The manager said that there is NO WAY TO DO THIS FROM GERMANY. PERIOD. YOU'RE SCREWED. According to them, policy (so this must be something new? or something just in WA state?) dictates that a bank officer there at the branch must physically witness you signing this effing Wire Transfer Agreement, after personally checking your identification. It can't be done via mail or phone. Only in person. "She should have had an agreement added to her account before she ever left the US." Can someone tell Customer Service this then?!

And why the hell wouldn't a bank officer at another bank (like at their partner bank here, maybe?) be good enough? Why wouldn't a frickin' NOTARIZED form be good enough? That's what a notary person (in the US or in Germany) does! They verify your identity and witness you signing the form! You can't tell me that there are NO exceptions to this! That's crazy! Are they going to make some multi-millionaire jet back to their exact branch in Seattle, all the way from Bahrain or somewhere just to sign a form? I bet not.

So, I'm going to try once again to contact my stupid podunk bank branch today. But I have to wait until 10am Pacific Time to get frustrated. Aghghghghgh!

Have any of you other expats found it hard to make calls like this in the evening or middle of the night? I know I sure do. If you have to call the bank or the credit card company or the phone company... whomever... you generally do this between the hours of 8am and 6pm. Once it's later than that, all desire to call a bank just evaporates from me. It feels too weird. It's dinnertime. Not time to take care of business. But... anyway... waiting until 7pm our time...

Wire Transfers - not SO easy?

On expat message boards I've always read that it's soooo damned easy to do an international wire transfer, gee, why is this a constant topic when all you freakin' have to do is just call your bank and, tada, it's done?! So I've never been concerned about the future moment when Germany's going to want money for taxes from my US account. It's no big deal, right? Soooo easy!

Ummm... I don't know who everyone else banks through, but WTF? I have an account through a MAJOR (like bigtime major, all over the US, you've heard of them a hundred million times, they have partner banks all over the world) bank. I called Cust Service a while back to find out how to do a wire transfer into our account here in Germany. I was given a special number to call to set it up and told they can do it easy, just give them a call when I need to do the transfer. Okidoki.

So today I gather all the codes and info and stuff to do it and then wait until 8am Pacific Time so I can call the special number (the Wire Transfers Department) and get it all going, because, um, it's gotta be going NOW. NOW now. Um, WAY now.

The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello. I have an account with you guys. Right now I live in Germany and I need to do a wire transfer from my [Bank's Name] account into my account here in Germany. I need the money transferred as soon as possible. I was told you guys could do this for me."

Them: "Ok. (type type) There isn't a wire transfer agreement on your account. We can't do it without an agreement on the account. Haven't you set that up yet?"

Me: "Uhhh....What? They told me to call you guys to set up wire transfers."

Them: "Us? No, no. You have to have a wire transfer agreement first. Then you could call us to initiate the wire transfer. You can't do a transfer without the agreement being added to your account first. We can't set that up, though. That has to be done at your local branch."

Me: "So can I just call the main customer service number again? They're the ones who told me to call you in the first place to set up a wire transfer."

Them: "They told you to call us? No. You have to contact your BRANCH first."

Me: "Ummm... you mean the actual, physical branch where my account was opened?!"

Them: "Yep. Only the branch where the account actually is can do all the necessary paperwork. Not us, Customer Service or any other branch. Once all the forms are completed and approved by them, they are then sent to us, well to one of our departments here, who actually sets the agreement up and adds it to your account. Once that's done, then you can call this number again to initiate an actual transfer. We can't do anything without the agreement being on your account first, though."

Me: "........." (Thinking: WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).....
"And so how long does it take to get this agreement set up?"

Them: "Several weeks, usually."

Me: "Several WEEKS? W.. .w... w..... WEEKS?! You mean like July or August?! I need to transfer money now, this week. I have to pay things here in Germany. Customer Service said to just call you and it could be done right away."

Them: "Well... the agreement would probably be complete by the end of July, then you could do a wire transfer at that point."

.

.

Wow, that was f*ckin' EASY. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. (WTF does one do now? Transfer huge sums with PayPal or something?!) And what kind of accounts and what banks do other people use?! This is a MAJOR bank and a standard checking/savings account. No one ever said a word about setting sh*t up weeks in advance. WTF?!!!

So, my branch back home is not a main branch, but a little pansy branch that is only open after 10am and closed on Saturdays. So now I have to wait until it's 10am there to try this. Why do I expect it to be a pain in the ass, too?

EVERYTHING that has had ANYTHING to do with MONEY (and I mean just about EVERYTHING, from bank accounts to taxes to simple credit card transactions) for the past few months has just been one constant nightmare. Can't anyone get me correct information that isn't in direct conflict with what the other guy said?! Can't anyone, in any country, get me to people who actually KNOW what the f*ck is going on?!!!! Can anyone on any continent get me info about what ACTUALLY to do in a TIMELY fashion instead of it dragging out for weeks or months?! Good Lord!!!!! AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. This seems to be a disease the past few years in large companies (let's not even talk about government agencies... in any country). No one knows what the hell is going on, who does what or where to send the customers. It was the same with the last place I worked in the US. We'd been bought by another major company and pretty soon there wasn't even anyone to go to for information. No one knew anything. I worked on things involving major corporate accounts (one of our customers was... tada... the damned bank I'm dealing with, lol) and they'd be pissed because of something "we" had screwed up and then I'd get just as pissed with my own company because no one knew how to fix the screw-up! Agh!

EU Vote-O-Meter: Find your German party

If you're not a citizen you can't vote anyway, but have you ever wondered which party you'd align yourself with if you could? The quiz at the link below lets you see how you feel about the EU and which German political party fits to your feeling. And the best part is... it's in English =:-)

Once you answer agree or disagree for 38 questions, you'll have the chance to compare your answers with tons of German parties, even some of the weirder ones. Like, I was surprised that the Pirates came in fairly high on my list. (Hehe... yes, there's a party called the Pirates. That's all good, but I want to start one called the Bunny Party. We'll probably be able to get Schnuffel onboard, which will totally rock. Someday we may even join forces with the Pirates, who knows. Who would you vote for in the end? The CDU or the BUNNY PIRATES? See? Not so bad an idea after all.)

So, start your European political journey at the

Wahl-O-Mat for European Parliament

If the link doesn't work, try http://www.wahl-o-mat.de/europa. The yellow rectangular button at the upper left changes it to the English version.