. . . And the Big Bad Bank.

Trying to submit payment to reserve my spot as a volunteer at Khaya has been a pain; partly because I’ve never done an international transfer before and partly because I don’t have a bank located within an 8 hour drive of where I live.

Correction: My bank.

The problem is that my primary bank is about 400 miles away from me since moving. And thanks to SunTrust deciding to charge a monthly fee for anyone who doesn’t maintain a minimum balance, I no longer have a SunTrust account.

Since the project is overseas, I’m forced to transfer money from my bank; unfortunately, I don’t currently have a bank. Not within reasonable distance. So a new challenge has presented itself:

Finding a new bank that doesn’t charge a monthly maintenance fee for simply keeping my account open when I don’t average a designated minimum balance. I hate banks.

(It’s funny, as I was searching for a maintenance fee bank I came across so many people blaming the US government for these new fees. Why? Because the government did us a favor by restricting banks from charging $30+ for every time you overdraw your account. Am I the only one that realizes it is 100% the bank’s greed and not the government who was acting in our best interest?!)

Anyway. Banks.

On one hand, I could go with a local bank that charges absolutely no maintenance fee regardless of my minimum balance. The downside is the lack of these banks anywhere outside of where I live. All the big banks seem to charge some sort of maintenance fee, so I have to wonder, is it beneficial when traveling overseas to have a large (even internationally recognized) bank?

If anyone has had any experience with accessing their bank from overseas, I’d love to hear. I know the smaller other bank has traveler’s cheques, but I don’t know much about money options overseas since the last time I traveled overseas I was 14.

And my dad gave me cash and a credit card.

Not exactly relevant to the current situation.

I suppose I’m just thankful that I submitted my application about 4 months in advance.

94 days.

I hate banks.