Jim Mellon says that the Greeks should build a statue in my honour as on Friday I opened a bank account in Greece and made a deposit. Okay it was only 10 Euro, I need to put in another 3,990 Euro to get my residency papers so I can buy a car, a bike and a gun, but it was a start. But the scenes at the National Bank in Kalamata were of chaos, you could smell the panic and they were being replicated at banks across Greece.
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Comments
Gateway
Interesting article Tom – thanks for your ‘view from the front line’. Are you going to put the other 3990 Euros into your account to get the residency sorted or are you hanging fire for the moment?
TW - holding fire until I can get a 2 day window to desposit get residency and withdrawJ P Spaghetti
Really quite a sad tale and I truly feel for those old and confused who are scared beyond apprehension at what’s to come, but I couldn’t resist a titter as your depositing cash there in the present climate reminded me of the time Spike Milligan’s request to Irish officialdom to become a national of that fine land was met with intense but incredulous gratitude!
Lonster
Interesting, but surely on the last Friday of the month and just before a bank holiday weekend then people would naturally be withdrawing funds and not depositing? People had their pensions and salaries paid and people want cash to spend during the long weekend. Is it not the same in the UK, especially at a local village cash machine?
TW: It is the scale of withdrawals I note. And on a Friday in the UK businesses are depositing cash before the w/e. Not in Greece!Daniel
Very interesting. Having personally called the Grexit for may 9th (how wrong I was), friends in Thessaloniki moved money out of country before that weekend. Apparently the bank manager kept telling them there were other options, and that as the money was all tax paid, why move it. “Just move it” he kept telling the bank manager. Finally, while finishing the transaction, the bank manager asked him “this doesn’t have anything to do with those exiting the Euro rumours, does it?”. When done, my friend drove home and told his wife “done, no stop pestering me”. But he is sleeping much more soundly.
So question – when to buy in Greece, and what is your guess as to property pricing over the next 3 – 12 months?
J P Spaghetti
“what is your guess as to property pricing over the next 3 – 12 months?”
Seems Derek Hatton’s been the man to ask in that part of the world for a good few years now – grrr…!