A Broader View of Atenas Banco Nacional than the last image |
Okay, I go back to the bank this morning hoping the line for a cashier won’t be as long as the 37 person line on Monday. Well, it was shorter! Only 24 people! But I kept moving my little butt into all 24 chairs until after chair #1 it was my turn! I not only paid for the “token” (electronic device for security when using online banking, giving a new code number each time I use online) for 3,000 colones (sorry I said 300 yesterday) which is about $6. But I also made a deposit of a check received from Nashville for the sale of my dining room table and chairs. Finally! AND I paid my electric bill which was the equivalent of $32 that included using the a/c in my office almost every afternoon. Not bad!
Then I get in the shorter musical chairs line to see Ricardo (7 chairs this time). When I finally get to him with my little receipt for the electronic token thing he is supposed to give me now, he says, “Oh, you were suppose to log on to your account first and create your secret password before I can give you your token.” (No one told me that and I didn’t know how or even the web address.) I tell him, “I don’t know how.” (He speaks broken English but better than my Spanish!) Then he says, “Oh, I will help you.” He leaves the other people waiting and goes to the public computer and logs me into my account where my ID # is my passport # and a bunch of other IDs and address and email, then their secret code I got when opening the account and then a place for me to create my personal secret code. Thieves beware! I’ve never seen so much security! Once that is finished (he had left to help other is the line) I go back and I am 4th in line this time, hoping he didn’t decide to break for lunch before me, like yesterday.
Finally I am back to Ricardo (an indispensable person for this bank) and he helps me log in my online account again on his computer to the point when the little token’s number is needed. I type it in from the token he has given me. Then he says “Wait a few seconds for a second code to go in the next box online.” Sure enough, the first code number goes away and a second one appears and I type it in. Then the account is officially set up! Everything on the web page was in Spanish, so I ask, “Is their an English page.” “No.” Oh, I’m going to have so much fun! AND, before I go online I am to call this phone number for instructions and he said there might be an English-speaker for that. My online banking could be limited for awhile! 🙂
And to think, I paid an attorney to make this process easier! Well, she did write a reference letter and introduce me to the first desk where we stayed for nearly 2 hours and got me past that one. But it is Ricardo I’ve spent the most time with since! I have a bank account here now. My primary bank is still in Nashville, but I can use my new Banco Nacional Debit Card at the Super Mercado or a restaurant! And once I learn how, I can pay my electric bill online! And once I am in the Caja, the national medical plan, I can pay my monthly fee for that online. So this account will grow more valuable for me.