Banks

[DaveM]

I called in the Garanti bank in May on a Monday, they said it would take seven days to obtain.  I explained I was only here for a week.  They asked me to call on the following Friday.  I went up to the first floor in the Garanti bank and collected my card.  They sorted my pin whilst I was there, very helpful.  Transferred cash from gbp to tl account, went outside to the hole in wall and bingo millions of tl's seconds later.

[Anne]

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to open a/c with a cheque?
We don't want to carry large amounts of cash and it looks like our final payment will be due while we're over there.
Anne

[cenk]

I am sorry but I dont agree with the words about Garanti.I can't say they are not safe but they give one of the worst service.
As a local I can reccommend Akbank , Finansbank ,Kocbank.There are some more safe banks but their service is not good.

[teresa321]

I opened an account with Finan Bank and the lady who deals with the accounts (English speaking) is Ayse, she was recommended to us.  We turned up 5 weeks after originally opening our account in order to collect our ATM cards and she smiled, said hello and knew who we were by name - amazing!

Ayse is always busy and you will probably need to wait whne you get there, but I class that as being a sign of good service.  You can always chat to other buyers while sitting there.  We had intended to use Garanti but when we went to the bank the lady did not speak English (our problem not hers) and they also required a tax number and Finan did not.  Heidi uses Finan and sent us their way and we do not regret it.  

Ayse did all the form filling for us, explained everything very patiently and is a lovely girl - I hope you pay her well Finan Bank - she is worth her weight in gold.

Teresa

[lindacarl]

We bank at Finansbank - Ayse who deals with our account speaks really good English & we think we get a pretty good service.

I suppose it's like over here Cenk, down to personal experience. I personally HATE Barclays bank because of the really poor service they have given me. Having been a customer for nearly 30 years - a pretty good customer too as I usually kept a good amount in the accounts - they refused to acknowledge our USA marriage certificate - the manager of the bank - a complete prat - even told us we would have to get married over here!

Strange as Immigration, Inland revenue, other banks etc. had no problem whatsoever.

My reaction was go next door to Lloyds - where we had no trouble opening an account & to take all our money out of Barclays, leaving just the minimum possible in & run ALL of our many direct debits from Barclays - therefore costing them money. Serves them right!

Linda

[Anne]

Teresa
Does Finan have internet access to your accounts?
Anne

[teresa321]

No it doesn't Anne but it is possible to send Ayse a fax and she will move money about for you. I think she has an e-mail address as well for contact although I do not have it.

We had to go to Vakif Bank to pay our site fees and the lady took all our details and as we stood there with the money to pay she put on her coat and went to lunch.  We had to go through the whole procedure with someone else - not recommended by us!!

Teresa

[valentine]

I agree with everything Teresa has said about Finansbank, Ayse is lovely and she remembered us too!
Val

[skipking]

Also bank with Garanti bank have turkish lira account and english sterling account have had no problems with them yet. Over here we bank with hsbc they charge £21 for transfering money to Turkish account. Have not heard of any problems with an American marriage certificate as we also got married in America 3 years ago and have had no problems with it not being recognised. Thats new to me.

[lindacarl]

Was new to us too Skipking. It's only Barclays bank manager that has a problem. Maybe it was because Hubby has an American accent? Get married again - PLEASE! Such a prat! Still riles me - Barclays has had the privilidge now for 5 years of sorting out all our many direct debits + if I have to write a cheque for a few pence or pounds I always use Barclays. Still it makes me smile when I write a cheque. :-)
Linda