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(Literal) Text Transcription of the video :
Good day! my intelligent rebels!
Guess where I am.
I am currently in the US and I just left this Chase building because, guess what?
I just got expelled from Chase which is my American bank.
So let me share with you this story because I think it’s like the perfect embodiment, like the perfect example of a company who completely failed to adapt to new ways of working and is basically stuck in 1988 and how it’s going to be completely disrupted by new services, new companies that really embrace new ways of working.
So, I created a bank account with Chase in 2015, basically because I invested in real estate in Florida, in Fort Lauderdale, close to Miami.
So just, you know, to receive the rents and pay for the expenses like basic stuff, and everything went smoothly except I received an amazing letter from Chase.
“Hey!
Hello! How are you, sir?
Well, we have great news for you. We decided to close your account, thank you, goodbye.”
No explanation at all. So, I called my banker maybe five times. He tried to dispute the decision. He tried to understand why. He couldn’t get anything. And he called me to say “I’m sorry, I don’t know why they decided to close it but it’s a firm decision. We cannot do anything else.” So, I was like “Okay, that’s fair I mean…”. And, I said, “Okay. Well, I wanted to continue doing business with you but if you don’t want to, that’s fine.”
So, I use TransferWise. You know Transferwise is a service that allows you to convert currencies with a much lower fee than what the traditional banks do. And, I opened a bank account with them through their amazing, amazing service called TransferWise Borderless Accounts where practically, you can create a bank account in Euros, US dollars, Pounds, Austrian dollars in two clicks.
So, I created this bank account in US dollars. Now, I’m receiving the rents on it and I tried, of course, to wire the money I had with Chase to my TransferWise bank account.
So, I logged onto the website to wire the money and I don’t know what happened, but it seems like it triggered a few security things and basically, they said “Hey! No, we’re not wiring your money to your new account, sorry. Oh! Hey! By the way, we forgot to tell you, you also can’t log in to the website anymore. You cannot log into your own account because it’s suspicious. Why do you want to wire all the money to a new account?”
“Well, maybe because of you, closing my account and I don’t have any choice.”
So, I called my banker again and he told me “Oh! I’m so sorry but there is only one solution for you to unlock the situation, which is to come to a Chase bank.”
And I said, “But I’m living in London UK, I will not make the trip just for that.”
He said, “I’m sorry there is nothing I can do.”
I was like “Holy cow, it’s such an absurd situation.”
And I mean, I needed to go to a Chase Bank office, just so they could verify that I was really myself but I told him, why don’t we do a Skype call and you can see my face and I can show you my passport. And then, I’m authenticated. How can I fake that?
And he said, “Yeah, but that’s not how we work, you know?”
So, guys, it’s just a perfect example of a company that was stuck in 1988. Because they rely on phone calls, or very odd ways to authenticate you, they assume you can be physically present. They don’t understand, they don’t embrace new technologies. Because, really, why can’t you authenticate someone with those Videos Skype calls? I did that with real estate in Canada with a notary from Quebec.
Recently, I opened the Revolut bank account. It is also kind of like TransferWise. They offer lots of interesting services for very low fees. And, they told me “Hey!” I mean, when I log onto my app on the iPhone, I go to message “Hey! So, you’ll be using Revolut. Thank you. Now, we need to authenticate you to make sure, you know, you’re like a normal guy. So, can you take a photo of your passport and then a selfie of yourself?” It took me maybe thirty seconds.
Three minutes later, I got a message on the App saying “Thank you, you’re validated. Thank you for being a valued customer.”
I mean, come on guys, come on Chase, why can you not do that? Why not just ask me to take a photo of my passport, and then a selfie of myself? What can go wrong? And if you’re really really suspicious again, let’s skype video call.
So, long story short. It just so happened that a flight I was supposed to take yesterday has been delayed, which means I’m stuck one day in Dallas, here in Texas which means I’ve been able to come to the bank office.
And, guess what? They couldn’t help me. They managed to unlock the fact that I can go online to my account, but they cannot do the wire payment. Why? Because my account is restricted and so, I don’t know why but it seems that I cannot take my money anymore.
It’s such a mess. It’s an absurd messy situation and it seems like the banker was really helpful, he was really sorry to see what was happening but it couldn’t help me.
So, the solution we found is: I took a check here and I will write to myself a check, and cash it into my UK bank account. That’s the only solution we can find. Because now that I have access once again to my online account, I can’t wire the money to the TransferWise account without it being triggered again and it will be a whole mess all again.
So guys, maybe I was a bit too much on the details. But, just see how sometimes, big companies like Chase, it’s a fucking big Bank. They do such absurd things as telling an honest customer that has all the reasons in the world to have a bank account with them – I have really state – and it’s a legitimate business.
So, when you see companies rejecting legitimate customers creating a hell of bureaucracy for them, and at the same time, you have companies like TransferWise that allow you to create a bank account in two clicks, they validate you entirely, remotely, you don’t have to meet anyone, it’s a very smooth and clean process.
I mean, you wonder how it’s possible but it’s happening all the time. All the time, you have these kinds of companies that are giants, that are completely blind to this kind of stuff, that are completely blind to the simple solutions like a video Skype call that could help customers and also their own employers. Because, this guy, it took one hour of his time. One hour of his time to try to help me, and he couldn’t.
I mean, think about the frustration, the loss of time, productivity, money, it creates for everyone. It’s insane.
And the fact is, my dear rebelles intelligents, is it can happen to all of us, to be in this kind of situation where we are completely blind to new possibilities, new ways of working. It can happen to all of us to become the dinosaurs of our own market.
So, how do we prevent that?
Well, I think it’s basically like a life habit, you need to continuously learn new stuff, to continuously adapt to new technologies and to understand that it doesn’t serve anyone to be stuck in a time that doesn’t exist anymore because come on, 1988, it was great but it was a long time ago. And, you don’t need phone calls anymore and the physical visits to authenticate someone. You can do it remotely without problems and all the startups of the FinTech industry prove it every day.
My dear intelligent rebels, I’m curious. Did something like that happen to you in the past? Did you stumble upon a stupid procedure that really drove you crazy and what did you do about it? And maybe, did you find a competitor that was a little bit smarter than the company that created all this business for you?
Thank you for watching, see you next week and in the meantime, don’t forget, be intelligent, be a rebel and be sure to be part of the disruptors and not the dinosaurs.
Thank you.