« Weekend spot | Main | Butterfly »
August 20, 2006
Banking on and on
The bank that I am with would not allow me to use my current signature for the purpose of signing cheques.
I had no problem with my previous bank but because of obscene charges and for convenience sake, I said goodbye. My current bank, however, insists that I use the signature in my passport – the same signature I used for my earlier passport I used when I was 16. 16 was the age when I left home. It was when my signature looked like a graffiti-tag most of the time, and an untidy turban during other times. It had confused and drew attention from bank officials during my university days and it prompted the change.
It had earlier caused a problem when my bank near my parent’s place refused a withdrawal request because my attempts at recreating the signature wasn’t to their standard. I had offered my identity card, my passport, and my readiness to provide prints of all my 20 digits. They took me to a corner and asked for additional samples for verification, which required 5-10 minutes each time, before they said it wasn’t approved. Finally the manager came and got me to provide samples in her office. Failing to get the desired results, she got a portable black light machine to show me my signature in my little 5-year old bankbook. She asked me to memorize what I saw and replicate it in at least one of the many withdrawal slips they had set aside for my mistakes. Predictably, I failed, again. And again. And she reluctantly held the invisible signature under the black light until I finally succeeded in replicating the perfect confused turban that held me for an hour.
Several years later, I was told to get a new passport, and the officials insisted that I use my problematic signature. And I thought had never had to use it since.
And because this is America – the land to which smart people flock, I thought people can be smart enough to look pass the silliness. But, now I dread that time of the month when I have to sign those cheques. I take out a blank sheet of paper and practice until my failure rate goes down to about 10%.
We’re moving out of the city soon, and I now look forward to closing that bank account.
Posted by quickness at August 20, 2006 03:34 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.neitherhere.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/220