Opinion: Bank rules boggle brain

My head hurts. It really, really hurts. I haven’t had a fall or got a headache, I’m just trying to sort out some stuff from the bank.

Years ago we would have toddled into Meekatharra, sat down with the branch manager (with his pen and paper) and had it all sorted in a matter of minutes. There would have still been time to do grocery shopping, chat to friends and have lunch in town before heading home.

Move the calendar forward to 2018-19. We have one debit card for the station and felt it would be worthwhile to have a couple more so that we could avoid having to pass the card back and forth to whoever was going shopping for the station.

Step one involved hubby and I going into a Perth branch where we knew we could actually talk to a person and not have to use a phone or the internet to get the information we needed.

A form required to add two more debit cards was produced and we were advised how to fill it out.

Fast-forward to 2019, form is filled out and the other two family members sign their section. Son number 1 isn’t a customer of our bank but has a customer number because he is a signatory to sign cheques so that’s all OK.

Hubby takes the paperwork into the Perth branch on the next trip to the Big Smoke. He couldn’t see the same person as last time so talks to another staff member.

She informs him:

1. Our account name is wrong and is not connected to the correct ABN number.

2. Our trading name doesn’t exist.

3. Son number 1 is not a signatory to account.

4. We were given the wrong form anyway.

Holy hell. Hubby is a placid bloke but that lady doesn’t know how close he came to losing it that day.

So he is trying to explain it all to me. Our accountant daughter tries to explain it to me. Hubby tries to explain it to me. That’s when my head nearly exploded.

Final outcome: our account must be closed and reopened in the correct name with new debit cards and cheque book.

This requires somehow getting all three signatories in a branch at the one time.

Funny how everything worked just fine previously.

Maybe my father-in-law was right. Keep it under your pillow.

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