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Home > The Disappearing Deposit, a new tale

The Disappearing Deposit, a new tale

October 21st, 2012 at 04:21 am

If you read my first "Disappearing Deposit," you know that it dealt with using a broker to send money from Dubai, where I live, back to the US, where I'm going to return. Eventually, I got my money back, and sent it via telegraphic transfer back to the bank in the US.

Well, being cheap, I found that I can get a CITI account here, and a CITI account in the US, and using their online tools, transfer money between the two accounts.

To get a free account over here, I have to keep about $1000 in the account at all times. To get a free account in the US, I have to keep about $1500 in the account at all times. I decided to open the US account first, as it is a bit harder to do from a distance.

I won't go in to all of the problems with CITI and its online account opening algorithm, but I will mention one of them. To sign in to my account the first time, I had to give my account number, which they never sent by mail, by email, or by any other means. I had to call them to get my account number so I could sign in.

When I signed in, the balance was zero. The problem with that is that I had $1600 withdrawn from my Chase account two days ago, and I have an email from CITI telling me that my account deposit has been made and to go check the account.

Another phone call, and all I'm getting is "I'm sorry, but that department is closed." So much for "24 hour service" that they advertise. At least I did get to speak to a human who kept apologizing, but who had no clue what to do.

I'll call back later to see where my money is. Is it any wonder that people hate bankers nearly as much as they hate politicians and used car salesmen?

After I track down this money, I'll be opening my Dubai CITI account. I am not looking forward to my my first attempt to do an online transfer between the accounts. I hope it does end up being free, and I hope that it also is as easy to do as I was told when I asked about the possibility of doing this at all.

Posted in Personal Finance, Saving Money, Ramblings | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “The Disappearing Deposit, a new tale”

  1. Thrifty Ray Says:
    October 21st, 2012 at 04:04 pm 1350835449
    1350835449

    Its good you are figuring out an inexpensive way to transfer funds- hopefully CITI will figure this out for you. There are new rules coming out in Feb about int'l fund transfers (between different FIs) that has the potential to make these transfers more expensive on the consumer because of complexity and liability pn the sending FI...but stay tuned, like most new rules, the CFPB hasnt worked all the kinks yet.

  2. rob62521 Says:
    October 21st, 2012 at 08:13 pm 1350850428
    1350850428

    Good job on finding an reasonable way to transfer funds, but all that hassle is certainly not fun!

  3. Wino Says:
    October 23rd, 2012 at 12:32 pm 1350995534
    1350995534

    I posted an update. The deposit made it after a little less than 72 hours, over a weekend.

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