Job Discussion Forums

teacherdude · Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 260

The Dude deals with Fortis Bank and I am not too happy with their service.

Their latest shinnanigins is to only transfer some of the money I asked for, and their Customer Service Department, seems to think I was charged two "commissions" although they don't know why.
On top of this there they decided to keep an extra 50 dollars in my account, instead of transferring it.

Will have a face to face with them tomorrow.

Anyway, can you recommend a bank that you are satisfied with here in Ist.

I've been told that Yapi Kredi and Garanti are two of the better institutions here.

Regards,
'Dude

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

I mainly use a UK based internet bank account but have also had some successful dealings with IsBank.

Heard this of Garanti recently: friend phoned up for some info about her account, in order to verify her ID they asked where she was born. She replied "Edinburgh", they asked her for more information so she told them "Scotland", they said it didn't agree with the information they had so she volunteered "Britain" and, when that failed, "United Kingdom". That still didn't match their records. Finally, in some disgust, she said "I suppose you've got England written down!". That was indeed the case!
I hope their money management is better than both their geographical and diplomatic skills!

molly farquharson · Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 839 Location: istanbul

i've been dealing with koc bank, now koc yapi kredi for several years. I go to the branch on istiklal cd. they are polite and helpful and have screwed up only a couple of times-- the last one a couple of months ago when they sent my money to azerbaijan (!) instead of the us. They got the money back and sent it free of charge to my bank in the us. some of them speak english, even. i used my atm card in the us to get money out of my account here, so they seem to be pretty modern.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Before the days of internet when I sent the odd letter I used to have to write Scotland, England on the envelopes- used to make me angry.

Banks in Turkey. They are all crap and screw up on a regular basis. IF you ever ask them to do something unusual like an international transfer, it confuses them. Even HSBC which is reliable in most other countries is unhelpful. Actually I shouldn't be so mean as 80% of my work is with banks.

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

I've always been all right with Garanti-- their customer service is good (and with decent English speakers), and online banking is is easy. Plus they've got ATMs all over the place.

Similar problem with the telephone banking security stuff though-- they asked my father's name and I said 'William.' They asked how to spell that, so I did, and they told me it was wrong, sorry, they couldn't help me. I said, 'I think I know how to spell my father's name,' and we argued a bit. Turned out they had spelled it with a V. Of course.

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:05 am Post subject:

A few years ago, when my first Istanbul school set me up with a Garanti account, I had to call that special number on the back of the atm card to activate the account. They asked me for my phone number, and I gave it, and they said it was wrong, sorry, goodbye, click. I tried my school's various numbers, the number of my landlady, and quite a few other numbers until I finally found out that the school accountant was using her own mobile number when opening accounts for staff and never thought to tell any of the teachers who spent days trying to activate their accounts.

dagi · Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Posts: 425

I am having wonderfull experiences with Akbank. ATM is in Turkish only to start with and their "buttons" are differently arranged than any other ATM. I ended up standing in front of the ATM with a vocabulary list. At least it helped to learn some turkish.

Their internet banking is fab, too. After a turkish colleague volunteered to set it up it looked quite ok. Except that during the semester break I noticed I am not allowed to make any money transfers. Could not pay my rent and when I got home I found a nice letter from the crazy landlord. One more time and I am out....

Fine, so with the internet banking I can look at my account but not do anything. Actually I can't even figure out if they really do all my automatic debits, it's so confusing.

I love Akbank. Maybe my turkish language course will help to understand their system.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

has anyone ever seen the Terry Gilliam film "Brazil"?

yaramaz · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:39 am Post subject:

Wasn't that filmed in the Ziraat bank on Istiklal?