Een jeugdherinnering over bankzaken. Een beetje nerdish weer.
Geschreven in een etiquette-nieuwsgroep naar aanleiding van de vraag
van iemand hoe het bankieren in Nederland in de jaren 70 ging. De
draad begon met het bij je dragen van cash. De posting eindigt met de
Sinclair ZX81 en cyberspace in het algemeen.
------- Begin Forwarded Message -------
Subject: Re: should I carry a lot of cash on me? (Re: Money Issue)
From: ReindeR Rustema <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.miss-manners
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:00:21 +0200
meirman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Are you old enough to
remember the financial aspects of the 70's?
I was born in 1972 and I got my first bank account somewhere in the late
seventies. The present from my bank for opening an account with them was
a purple porcelain pig to save my cash in (it is no more). There was a
square small lock in it's belly with a very simple key. The lock posed
so little of a problem that I didn't pursue a lockpicking carreer from
then on.
But anyway, I found it much more fun to run to the bank and deposit my
cash there. I now realise why the tray under the bulletproof window of
the cashier appeared so big, I was just a kid at that time after all,
and my nose was hoovering just centimeters above the coins I dumped
there. The cashier took the tray and emptied it in a machine that would
make a lot of noise for many, many seconds. The amount would glow up on
a red display. The cashier wrote this on a piece of paper (specifying
how many coins of each the machine counted) and asked me to sign for it
(the pen was on a chain). I knew the amount by heart because I would
have counted it approximately every evening during the weeks prior.
I would then receive mail! A bank statement with how much money was in
my account. I still have the first one saying 0,00 (computer prints by
the way, already at that time!). The corner is torn because I was so
anxious to open the envelop and I yet had to learn how to open an
envelope without damaging the contents.
In the welcome kit from the bank there was also a chequebook to make
transfers to others. You could fill in an accountnumber, the amount and
put your signature (at school I spend weeks if not months practising my
signature, in my early signatures you can already see an emphasis on the
R's). There were also envelopes to send the transfer commands that
didn't need stamps (the bank paid! that was magic). So for years I was
waiting for an opportunity to do a transfer. Just like my parents would
transfer my pocketmoney to me every week or month. I would then receive
mail from the bank with my bankstatement (I think I already said I still
have them all somewhere in the attic, I should put some on my homepage).
Actually, they told the bank to do it automatically every week (or
month? I don't remember). My father and my brother still use this method
to pay me for their e-mail addresses because I organise the "family
domain name" (in the old days people would only have a familyname). The
payments are well timed, just before the ISP has to be paid.
I can't remember ever going to the bank as a kid to withdraw money,
because I would then have destroyed my patiently build capital based on
my pocketmoney and my cash deposits (note the frequent use of the word
'my' in this posting, it's fundamental, the kind of vocabulary banks
teach little kids). When I was old enough to start washing cars for the
neighbours the amount would really jump significantly. That's why I
quickly set up a carwash service for the whole street. I would wash
three cars at the same time on a Saturday. Some early Taylorism also.
Somewhere in the early eighties I made my first transfer. I can't look
it up now (I am in Paris), but I think it was not with somebody else
(like my friend who was playing chess with another friend by
transferring 10 cents all the time) but rather to my _second_ bank
account. There was a savings account where you would get a good interest
rate besides the normal account without any interest. At first I was
upset when the bank stopped giving interest on my money that was there
for 6 years or so (like 10 guilders a year of interest?). But when I
read the leaflets I understood I had to open a special savings account
to get the interest, which I promptly did. I also remember that on the
accountstatements it was always clearly stated how much was interest, in
other words, how much money you got from the bank for free just like
that, without doing anything!
Strangely enough, there were no penalties to transfer money from the
savings account to my first account, so I was happily transferring money
all the time, organising my money forever with ever increasingly
complicated organising schemes, permanently relabelling money, usually
based on whatever overpriced toy I wanted to buy (but never had the
money for). And I would get mail from the bank every two weeks listing
all my transactions! I had a huge pile of documentation from toyshops. I
would usually aim for the priciest toy in the catalogue and then start
saving maniacally.
I think I lost interest when I got my first Sinclair ZX81 (with 1K
memory!) so I wouldn't have to play with the computer of the bank
anymore. In 1991 I got an internet connection. Cyberspace is
interesting.
--
ReindeR
-------- End Forwarded Message --------
--
ReindeR
--
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