The reason: comes from LIVING ABROAD!! and decades of *frustration* NOT BEING ABLE to transfer money from my OWN DUTCH bankaccount, easily, if af all!!
Brief Anecdote:
And these days hard to believe: 30 years ago: I had to WAIT * S.I.X.* MONTHS, before an amount of then Dutch florins (Ngl) 1000 arrived from my Dutch bank account INTO a LOCAL Turkish Bank.
Having written that: omg 😲, those Ngl. 1000 (say about $1000 to compare, give you an idea:) were for just SIMPLE LIVING EXPENSES. Just for paying for FOOD, public transport, and a tiny rented 1 room appartment IN SOUTHERN TURKEY 🇹🇷
In those days, and of course *way into the 21st century as well*: NO INTERNET, NO MOBILE PHONES, ie nothing I had been used to living a normal life in my own home-country The Netherlands: a.o: PAYING EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY, all my life.
In the Turkish city where I was staying: FETHIYE, Mugla, there was one FAX. There were several PAY PHONES, IF they were working, needing plenty of COINS to feed the apparatus, in the street with also then unsavory creatures *lurking*, standing next to you even.
Okay, I survived all that, which really is a miracle! NO HELP from *loved-ones* back home, NO BACK UP from the office, as a businessman, no *friends* locally to *help me out* until I GOT THINGS arranged, BY PHONE, BY FAX, to my DUTCH bank, plus ALWAYS insisting whilst on the phone to my bank in The Netherlands TO CONNECT me there to THE MANAGER, (or else….also there… things might go wrong)
Having just landed myself in Southern Turkey 🇹🇷 50 years old, (ie not a backpacking student or hippie, one call away from Daddy to help), because I liked it there for a while: the weather primarily of course, as a tourist, a foreigner, just needing some money TO LIVE.
Note: before you even think: was that smart? was that clever? was that well-planned ??? NO!! NO, and not recommended, even NOW.
YES, I survived that, miraculously, somehow: as in SURVIVAL, just plain basic survival, for DECADES 😅 and by the way: I did have *money*, my OWN, a monthly regular income, and KNOWING that: kept me going, also alive.
= NO MONEY, NO HONEY!! And that still is a hard-core reality!!
Note: over the decades: people often asked: why are you living here, HOW COME you live here, and I have usually said: long story, or: you don’t want to know, or: *it is complicated*. So… that has not changed, except: I LIVE HERE, meanwhile as a LONGTERM resident, with *all* legal requirements *done*, dealt with, over the years.
Also: as I have experienced the hard way: you need STRENGTH, robust health, endurance, and NERVES OF STEEL, away from home, out of your *comfort* zone, and stay alive.
HOWEVER: when it comes to !!! N.O.W. !!! to transferring MONEY, cheap, fast, efficiently: http://www.wise.com is FANTASTIC.
Note: because TURKEY is NOT in the EU: That has to go through the SWIFT transfer (banking) system, which does take longer than the NOW *normal* (by APP) seconds transfers, (in the EU).
So: by SWIFT transfer, which has been in use for decades: max 7 hours http://www.wise.com *warns*, however: my January transfer took less than 3 hours AND: http://www.wise.com confirms transactions by email too!
IE NO WORRIES, NO HASSLES THAT YOUR MONEY GOT , gets *LOST*, (somewhere in outer space) using http://www.wise.com 😀
Note: Below btw is what http://www.wise.com has programmed on their customer page, mine, asking to share/recommend them. ABOVE: my own words to recommend them: 👌 ✨ HAPPY 😊 to do so.
(Hey, I use Wise to send money abroad. Really easy and a lot cheaper than the bank! Give it a try with a fee-free transfer of up to 500 EUR. https://wise.com/invite/ath/w-a-c-s)
Willy Holmes-Spoelder.
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