Monday, March 29, 2010

NBK

Is it just me or has anyone noticed how NBK charges for every and anything? I went to the bank last week and as usual I'm stopped at the front desk and asked what I needed am I the only one who knows how to go in and get my ticket and wait in line without needing directions? Ticket in hand I went and waiting for the tellers to help me. Let's see there are 4 tellers working and only one guy taking customers? The other chicks just sat around counting money and I knew they were feeling the stares of the customers. When I worked in retail we knew serving the customers was more important than anything else.

Finally after standing there for 15 minutes the chick decides to help me. A new item with NBK is charging you to make a withdrawal if it's under a certain amount. In order to avoid the charge you can do your transaction and go outside to the ATM to retrieve your money. So what's the point of hiring a bunch of tellers? If you have a normal account and you have less than 100 KD they will charge you each month a 2KD fee for being under that amount. What if you run into hard times and can't afford to keep that much in your account? Should you be penalized?

Has anyone ever thought the bank tellers here look like they are about to walk the runway at a fashion show? I mean some of the guys are eye candy but dayum I wouldn't think a salon visit would be necessary to go to work for females. I'm waiting for NBK to start charging entrance fees soon. I had that Jawhara account for years and never won anything either. With all the hidden fees I know how the bank avoided problems during the recession.

I went to Kuwait Finance House in Sharq to try to open an account. This is a religious bank in which the females and males are usually separated, no problem. The guy who helped me was religious and he looked frightened of me. I felt totally uncomfortable in that bank. Everything is in Arabic, some people speak English but I left without opening and account because I felt like an outsider.

5 comments:

  1. thats a bank policy that all banks follow here, penalising you for dropping below the limit, but it normally does not happen if you have a salary account.

    but if you compare nbk to gbk, trust me, ur getting a lot better services. i have a saving account in gbk, and i transfer a part of my salary from nbk to gbk (like warren buffet said, save then spend), so one time i wanted to transfer it the other way, and gbk wanted to charge 1kd for it, whereas from nbk its free. i was told because its not a salary account they will charge money.

    why on earth would u want to open an account with kfh? they dont offer anything special; what kind of account are u looking for, perhaps i can be of some assistance =)

    shame about the moving; unfortunately u cannot turn off peoples "american-eyes" (that spells like americanise, lol) anyone sees a foreigner in kuwait, they immediately think ur loaded. comes with the territory.

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  2. I went to KFH to oepn a salary account so I would get my salary the same day instead of waiting for it to be transferred to NBK. That's ok I will wait.

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  3. geez.. so I ain't the only one that has money in their Jawhara account and hasn't won a dinar yet ! i feel a lot better now..

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  4. oh! your company's bank account is in KFH, and you have an NBK account! I get it now. Why dont you try changing your account to Mostaqbal (future), they do not have that 2KD deduction clause.

    Fun fact (if you have accounting humor), did u know that inter-bank salary transfers cost the company 2KD every month? same bank, 500fils! Also, if you pay using K-NET, the PoS pays 0.5% of the amount as bank fees, whereas VISA & MASTERCARD are 2%, AMEX is 2.75%.

    Again, i reiterate, the company pays, not you!

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  5. I have worked in NBK IT Dept; Noone can tamper with the application that randomly selects the Jawhara winners... so just like me, if u havent won anything thru ur jawhara account, blame it on bad luck.... :)

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Comments are welcome! Personal attacks are not. Thanks!