Tag: banks

I'm continuing to slowly experiment with Ukrainian banks, making purchases and transfers through them.

Alfa-Bank disappointed me even more. I've already written about the problems with CVV2 and the fact that insurance got slipped in during the registration of the card account. In situations like these, neither I nor others manage to get our bearings, so we end up taking that expensive insurance. If the insurance had been mentioned somewhere in advance, you could have prepared and declined it. They also enabled mobile phone notifications by default, which, as it turns out, cost money. The money was withdrawn after two months of use; I couldn't clearly find out which rate it's charged at — I only found the price for a single SMS on the site's search results page, but the "more details" link in the search results itself leads to a different page. I also couldn't find how to disable the mobile notifications, which means I again have to waste a ton of time talking to operators who will, on top of that, try to talk me out of disabling it — whereas at Privat this is disabled by default and is easily turned on/off through Privat24.

Besides that, Alfa-Bank takes a percentage on every currency conversion during a purchase, and for amounts over $100 it works out cheaper to use PrivatBank's virtual card, which charges a fixed $0.35 for any operation. Although maybe Privat is playing tricks and quietly skimming money for conversion, or converting at less favorable rates — I'll need to look into it. To keep comparing: an account topped up through Alfa's cash desk arrives after a few hours, while at Privat this happens almost instantly. I couldn't get proper Alfa details for an international transfer, whereas in Privat24 they're easily available through the menu. The last straw was the absence of 3-D Secure.

Got a Visa Classic plastic card at this bank. The fees seemed not too high, the service is good, the internet banking isn't buggy but isn't very functional, and free SMS notifications. Although it turned out not so cheap, because when issuing the card they also wedged in insurance for a hefty sum; I probably could have declined it, but it's safer with it, since after all the card is plastic, not virtual, and good for two years. Also, the account can be topped up without commission through iBox machines, only the payment goes through within three banking days. There's still only one cashier's office in town — also not very convenient, but there are no big queues at it and the teller knows what to do, unlike at PrivatBank's cashier's offices.

An addition to the previous post. I topped up the new card at a PrivatBank teller; in the recipient and payer fields they put me, and as a result the 5 UAH or 0.75% fee wasn't charged, even though the girl at the bank branch who explained how to set up a virtual card said the fee would be charged at the teller, while on the site, in the fees the engine cut off, it says it isn't. A typical situation for our domestic banks. Anyway, at least that's good news.

My old virtual card had expired, so I went to a PrivatBank branch to find out what to do next. They told me I needed to get a credit card, link it in Privat24, and then open a new internet card, since the old ones aren't reissued.

I know PrivatBank's service isn't the best, judging by the reviews, but I couldn't find any other option with internet banking that's as functional and free — yes, Privat24 is a pretty buggy system, but it's free and constantly being developed, and I didn't see anything better with the others. And I didn't want to deal with another bank — the staff everywhere is about the same, it's hit or miss.