22 September, 2006

swedish bureaucracy

Coming from a country like Austria usually means hating bureaucracy because it is as it is. But living in Sweden demonstrates that we should be VERY(and I mean VERY-VERY-VERY-VERY) happy to have our bureaucracy as it is. In my opinion it sucks 10 times more than the Austrian. It seems that the Swedes follow every law, no mather how stupid it is. Of course I am a little bit angry right now and not that kind of objectiv, as I should be, but I don't care about this right now :). I just tried getting into a nation-club and they don't let me in, because I only had my LTH(university)-card and not my nation-card with me.
The nation card is something you(should) get, when you join a nation and it is the key to all nation-activities(which are way-cheaper than the normal pubs/clubs/whatever) and the only(!) valid identity card to proof you are a student. I already have joined one nation, but I guess my card has been lost by the post, because I haven't received it during the last 3 weeks. If you don't have this card you need your letter of acceptance with you every time you wanna get into a nation. In my opinion, wearing the letter of acceptance with you all the time is the stupiest thing you could do because it is the only official document that you are allowed to study in Lund. If you lose it you have a problem. So this is as if you would wear your passport with you all the time. Anyway, the security didn't let me in, with my LTH-card and even my Austrian student card has not convinced them that I am a student.
But of course that's not the only example. When I tried to get a swedish banking account I had to visit 5 different banks to get one. First I was told I need a swedish personal number to open a bank account. After I found out what to do, to get one I went to the tax-office and applied for it. I had to lie and tell them I will stay for one full year (allthough it is almost 1 year - 11 month) to get it. After this, happy like a little boy, I went back to the same bank to open a swedish bank account. I told them my personal number and guess what?! She asked me about my swedish identity card. What the hell is this, I asked her. She told me that if you have a swedish personal number you need a swedish identity card too, otherwise they can't accept you. I showed her my passport, the most international and most secure document in the whole world, to prove one's identity. But no way, you need those identity card too. After carefully asking her how to get her, she told me I have to apply at the post-office. After saying the word "post", the rest of the sentence was cut of by my inner filter. Considering the fact how the post works in Austria I don't want to make the experience of a Swedish-post-officer in action. I am sure this would drain even my last vital force. At this point I was short before exploision. I can't see why they don't accept a passport as a valid legitimation to open a bank account. I could understand if they would not allow me to overdraw my account, this would reduce the risk of loosing money to 0.
But having a no bank account and no personal number is a vicious circle, without personal-number you can't order an internet access or anything else. And if you have your personal number as I have right now you can order it but then you need to have a swedish bank account otherwise you pay(for example):
50SEK(5.5 euro) for the internet
25SEK(3 euro) if you have no bank-account for sending the bill
75SEK(8 euro) for paying the bill in the bank! ->unbelievable

So as you can see, if you don't have one you are fucked :). Well, finally I found a bank that accepts me as I am, with my passport as legitimation but charges me for every service like there is no tomorrow(for example, I paid about 25 euro to get my money to my swedish bank-account).

Well as you see Sweden is a very rule/law-based country :). Next time there will be some more positive posts, the overall experience is very good right now, even still there are some drawbacks which I don't wanna hide from you.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry dude :( I didn't realize it had been 3 weeks since you joined a nation. That's what we refer to in canada as "re-fucking-goddamn-diculous".

02:43  
Blogger Axel Schlagenhauf said...

We also don't have our own bank accounts in the US, although it would be very easy to get one. Fortunately we haven't been confronted with bureaucracy this far and we can use our Austrian credit cards everywhere.
I hope that you can solve all these initial problems by circumventing "rules" with your cleverness :)

17:54  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

kein böses wort über die post :D

20:16  
Blogger Felix said...

hehe :) Du bist natürlich der Besteste

21:02  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi felix,

du hast bei der überweisung auf dein schwedisches konto hoffentlich nicht auf die IBAN/BIC nummern (internationale kontonummer/ bankleitzahl) vergessen. dann kannst du vom konto in österreich via onlinebanking geld nach sverige überweisen ohne dafür spesen zu zahlen (stichwort: freier kapitalverkehr und so). :-)

liebste grüße,
nico

11:33  
Blogger Felix said...

ne hab ich nicht vergessen, auch wenn er angeblich nicht richtig war und sie mir deswegen 5 euro extra abzogen haben für "manuell kompletering"! Die schwedische Bank verlangt einfach 6-7 euro, da es kein Euro-Transfer is. Ziemlich Scheisse, aber is halt so. Als ich se gfragt hab für was sie die Gebühren kassieren hats mich angschaut als ob ich grad an Elefanten reintragen würd und für erm a Limo haben wollt ;).

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