Swiss Banking

On Monday I opened a personal bank account in Lausanne. It is similiar to a US checking account, but the Swiss don't write checks. All invoices are either paid online, at the bank, or at the post office. From what I can tell, most people pay all bills online.

The bank, UBS, was just what I expected from a Swiss bank. It is a large building in the middle of town and you walk into a large room . There are a few tellers on the either side of the room and one person sitting at a desk in the center. He called the person I was scheduled to meet with and he took me to a small room with a computer, two couches, a desk and chairs. I got a little worried when my relocation coordinator\translator got kicked out of the room, but all went well.

I got lucky and picked a bank where they can put all my information into English. As communication will be in English and as soon as the atm reads our cards, the text on the screen switches to English. One of my new coworkers picked a different bank and it sounds like everything is in French.