Our local church, Šárka Valley Community Church (Baptist) (SVCC) has decided to open a new bank account. Our current state-owned bank is proving rather expensive in looking after our money. Only a limited number of Czech Banks offer accounts for churches, but the Czech Post office seemed to offer a good deal on internet banking according to their adverts so SVCC officers, Petra and Keith, went to the main office in Prague 6 to open an account armed with our Certificate as a Church from the Ministry of Culture, our Finance Ministry IČO number and many other records.
The liberally tattooed bank clerk was delighted to see us, but declared she had never heard of our type of account. We showed her the adverts for it – then followed 90 minutes of colleague support, phone calls to superiors, searching for the correct forms and then a debate amongst staff as to how to fill them in – after all we are a “first” – then confirmation of my Czech birth number (I was ready with shoe and collar size in case they would help), faxing of documents to “higher beings” who will, apparently, send an sms to either Petra’s or my mobile within fourteen days to say if we can have an account!
Then will begin the fun of trying to pay money in, transferring our funds from our existing account and ultimately the even bigger challenge of closing the existing account.
– Keith
3 Comments
Ruth Gouldbourne
And all blessings to you in the doing of it!!! : )
R
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franblomberg
Sounds as much fun as opening an account in England. After the bombings in July 2005, “someones” decided no accounts could be opened without 1. proof of three years of residency or 2. proof of residency by utility bill. Going with Beth to all the banks near Roehampton University was futile. The fact that we had just paid over 8000 pounds tuition, room and board mattered naught. She couldn’t produce a utility bill. So for the fist 2 1/2 years she lived out of an ATM machine attached to her US account–and our credit card.
Then she did the sensible thing, got engaged to a Brit, went through the convoluted and expensive process of getting a spousal visa, then tried to open a joint account with Jonathan…that only took an additional six months.