Mutations

This may be something that is normal everywhere else in the world -- in New Zealand and the UK bank statements consist of 'transactions' -- but here in the Netherlands they consist of 'mutations'!

It seemed very odd when I read it the first time -- I'm not sure if it's a direct translation from English or if that's standard financial terminology that I've just never come across before, perhaps someone out there knows?

Either way, it's still funny to look up my mutations for the last week as in English it has somewhat different and negative primary connotations :)

Bank Account

Signing up for a bank account was very easy. I needed to take my SoFi/BSN, proof of employment, proof of residence and my passport but it was yet again a simple matter of making an appointment and signing a few forms.

I decided to go with ABN AMRO as they have an English Internet portal. They offered me the 'expatriate package' which includes a current and savings account, a debit and credit card, and phone and Internet banking, all for €8.25 a quarter!

How the credit card works was a bit of a surprise. You get a monthly limit which you can spend up to within that month and then at the end of the month the entire balance is automatically debited from your current account! You can arrange to pay offf the balance over a fixed term, but you must set that up manually and that is when you will start paying interest like a normal credit card.

My debit card arrives in 3-5 working days and my credit card a few days after that. I'll need to activate the debit card at the bank and assign a pin but will be able to activate the credit card over the phone as normal.

So, all in all, a very straight-forward and efficient process -- as expected!