"Adio" to Dubrovnik A tale of two refugees Full Monty Parlor Games Share My Fire Car - the relationship-saving device Going Straight West A year to expirience, a lifetime to understand Meeting Vuk Cultural insensitivity Sex in Serbia Buvljak experience What's news in Yugoslavia? part II What's news in Yugoslavia? Trust issues: Yugoslav Banks Hosting, Serbian style Flat-hunting Staying legally in Yugoslavia Welcome to Belgrade Border crossings The Paper Chase: Single - entry visas

But when I started asking around about places to store my hard currency, the situation appeared more dire. The best answer I got was not to put foreign currency in the bank -unless I never wanted to see it again.

The experiences of the recent past, in which hard currency savings of citizens suddenly disappeared in pyramid schemes or became irretrievably blocked from access under the embargo is still stinging. If there's any hard currency to save at all, many prefer to keep it in a hiding place rather than in a bank.

These fears contribute to the failure of most banks and since the beginning of the year, several banks have gone under, unable to pay their annual fees to the Yugoslav National Bank. Failing banks leads to lack of public confidence in the whole system.

What to do then when faced with the need to send or receive money from abroad? The closest American Express office is in Budapest. If you are traveling there often enough, you may prefer to deal with your finances at one of the banks there such as OTP, which doesn't charge a fee for transactions. But if you aren't leaving the country often enough and rely on a steady income from abroad, you will have to deal with a local bank. The ones that offer the foreign transaction services subtract at least a fee of 3%. Yikes!

Since you can't do much about that, you might as well find a reliable bank with international affiliations. The best you can find department is Karic Bank. This private bank is linked to other commercial activities of the Karic financial empire. This means when the National Bank of Yugoslavia comes knocking for it's annual share, the bank can remain afloat.

Now, the way of actually getting the money may seem a little archaic....

Karic's accounts abroad are in New York, with Citibank, Frankfurt, at DeutcheBank and in London at MiddleBank. When your party sends you the money, they send it to Karic's account in your name. Since this process isn't fully computerized, mistakes can happen. Thus, like practicing the rhythm method, you should keep track of everything. Know exactly when the money was sent and how much it was so it can be traced easier. Count six days from the time the money was send and make the call to bank to check your account. Since foreign currency leaves the bank almost as quickly as it comes it, you usually have to call a day before you plan to come in and arrange an time to pick it up before other transactions gobble it up.

Your interactions with the bank should stop right here. Take the money and run to your local black market dealer, private shop or friend to change it into dinars.

by Jennifer C. Brown    

To click here...            Talk back index...

Your previous talk back on the subject above:
Sending $ to Belgrade - Bernard Levine
Average Salary? - Neall Ryon
Using the banks - a comment - Mark Daniels
information on the currency of yugoslavi - M.Gnan vrath
who the what? - Edward Martin