MacDill FCU: Not a Real Bank

On my list of things to do today was to deposit some extra pounds into my bank account. No, not those pounds…British Pounds. It’s money. So I wait patiently in line and finally get to the counter and ask to change my British money to American money and deposit it in my account.

The teller looked at the colorful money and said, “We don’t do that here.” I gave her a puzzled look which prompted her to ask the teller next to her, who confirmed that they did not, in fact, change foreign currency.

My teller then told me that I needed to go to bank to make my transaction.

I said, “This isn’t a bank?”

“No sir, this is a Credit Union. You’ll have to go to a real bank to change currency.”

“A real bank?”, I asked, still not convinced that I wasn’t standing in one.

“Yes, a real bank. You know, like Wachovia or Bank of America. This is a credit union. We can’t do that type of thing here.”

So apparently dealing with foreign currency is a pretty big deal around here…One advantage to Austrian banks is that you can walk into pretty much any of them and trade currency. That might actually be the only good thing about Austrian banks, which are open daily from 8:00-3:00, taking an hour and a half lunch break. That’s right, the banks are closed at any and every moment you aren’t working. Thursdays they stay open late…til 5:00. Weekend hours? You must be joking.

I suppose I can’t complain too much, though, since the $5 I needed to open my credit union account is the minimum balance I have to keep in there.