The bank account

After living here in Chile for almost a year, I decided that it was time to try and open a bank account.

With cédula, my Chilean ID card, in hand I trekked to bank after bank, practically begging them to take my money.....and was rejected by all.

Why? Each one had the same excuse. I am only a temporary resident of Chile, not permanent.

A friend, who has lived here a few years and already been through this, decided that his bank could help me. I had been turned down at a branch of that particular bank. So I was skeptical, but he insisted that his banker-lady was more open-minded than the folks at the other branches.

He went with me when I took in my pile of signed, stamped, notarized, authenticated, copied, certified paperwork that I had used to get my temporary residency visa. Sure enough, the banker-lady seemed willing to try and open an account for me. Just like when buying a car in the US, she trotted off with all my papers to speak with some higher-up. When she returned, she told me that she thought they could do it.

A week later, I got a phone call from her. I still have a hard time understanding many Chileans over the phone. About the only thing I understood was aprobación, approval.

Now, here's the crazy part. Don't I need to put money into the bank to open an account?

After the "approval" phone call, I received a little slip of paper here at my apartment building. It's the size of a check, but worth a ton of gold apparently. It's the verificación domicilio. "Verification of domicile."

After they knew for sure that I actually live here, I received a bunch of phone calls whose connections were so bad that I could barely hear anything. Just a voice cutting in and out that sounded like it was speaking Swahili and calling from the moon.

I wrote to the banker-lady to ask what was going on and got back one of those automated responses. She had gone on vacation! Of course, I heard nothing for 2 more weeks. On the date that she was supposed to return, I wrote her another note asking what's going on.

The next day, I received an email from her. Just to make sure that I understood it, I asked a Chilean friend to translate it for me:

There was an inconvenient with the delivery company, they couldn't contact you by phone to deliver it to your house. I am asking for the account so we can deliver it here at the bank, I will let you know as soon as we have it so you can come and pick it up.

Huh? My question is, deliver what to my house? And how can one "pick up" an account?

Then, there's the matter of money. I haven't put any into the account. Not one peso! How can I open an account with no money in it?

I have no idea what's really going on, but I guess there's something, somewhere, at this bank with my name on it. I just hope that it's not already incurring fees!!!



p.s. Getting a Chilean bank account is not easy. I am eternally grateful to my friend and the banker-lady. Thank you!!