As soon as I sat at the Financial accountants desk the man went straight to business.
“ Good evening Young Expert Guso, it's a pleasure to meet you. Are we here to finally make a profitable account with us?”
“Yes I'm indeed here to make an account with your Bank, only before I do so I want to know what are the benefits I will receive when I do so, how far your Bank's true influence reaches, and the rates of your currency exchange.”
“Of course I'm glad to make things clear for you, and I just want to say I'm delighted that you have chosen our Business for your future monetary transactions, now let me explain to you the benefits of joining our family. Depending on the amount of money your account will have, the benefits differ in quality, but overall here are some of the most important universal benefits that everyone gets. Upon creation of an account you will receive three items that I recommend you carry with you at all times. One will be a Universal Bank Card, that will serve as proof that you have an account with us in any of our Banks in the Country or abroad, and will let you withdraw, deposit, exchange and send currency almost without any limits or with an appropriate fee. Certain Businesses that are in a partnership with us have systems in place that will allow you to purchase items with that same Bank Card automatically subtracting the purchase total straight from your account.”
The Universal Bank Card sounded cool, but there was no way I would rely on something like that to make all my transactions.
The accountant omitted it, but I knew I would be hard pressed to find one of their Banks in certain places, and I wondered how many businesses that weren’t owned by them had actually partnered up with them.
“The second item will be this booklet of vouchers that carries our Banks Certified Seal that represents each of our Republic's Official National Currencies, in certain amounts that would be hard to carry. Right now this booklet is empty, but once you make a deposit, we will give you the equivalent in vouchers for up to half of the value of your account. Whoever accepts this voucher from you as legal tender, can exchange this voucher at any one of our Banks for the amount it represents without charge. They can be taken to other Nationally Certified Banks as well, but they will most likely charge a fee to redeem the voucher's value.”
This was actually the true purpose of why I had come here.
These vouchers seemed like a convenient alternative to lugging around my money all over the place.
The only question I had was whether I'd be able to exchange them in Will City, once I got there.
“Before you continue, could you tell me if I will be able to exchange them anywhere in Will City if ever that situation arises.”
“But of course as the Republic's main Financial Center, we wouldn’t be worthy to be called a Bank, if we didn’t have a branch that resides in the Country's Capital. If traveling to Will City is in the near future for you, you can rest assured exchanging your heavy currency for these vouchers will certainly lighten your load, and make traveling safer, with the added security that you will have valid means of wealth once you arrive to the City.”
I had a feeling this Bank would have a branch in Will City, but confirming and making sure was not something that could be considered excessive.
Operating on Completely Accurate Information, and not assumptions, was the way of the Ranker.
I nodded to the accountant, confirming that I was pleased with the information he had given me.
“The Third item will be this Wallet Transaction Card. This is a new feature our Bank and many other Banks have implemented. Within it you can set whatever amount of money you want directly from your Universal Bank Card, and directly deposit it to the Wallet Transaction Card. This card functions under any currency standard, and almost all brick and mortar businesses in the City will accept it. Once you use this card, or give this card to someone as tender, they will be able to exchange the money in the card at any of our Banks, or they themselves can use the card as legal tender until the value inside the card is completely depleted. This card has become quite popular inside the City, and it was made and established upon request and with support of the Citadel Mayor. So far it has been a resounding success.”
Since the moment I entered the Citadel I had heard and seen nonstop, evidence of how dire economic straits the City was truly in.
But I had also heard a lot about how the Citadels Mayor was doing everything in his power to fix the situation.
From what the Bank Accountant had just told me, it looked like the Mayor wasn’t playing around, and was making big economic moves to jumpstart the Economy.
All of this stuff was just interesting information I happened to notice, but that I really didn’t care about.
Seeing the attitude of some of the Citadels residents to visitors, it was no wonder to me no one really wanted to visit this Cranky City.
The Wallet Transaction Card was a cool item, but once I left the City it would be completely useless, so I decided to speed things up and finish up my business in the Bank.
“Ok all of these sound great, i'm sure they’ll be useful but i'm in a bit of a hurry, before I make a deposit and make an account the only things I need to know is how far I can go before I can no longer use your Banks services, and what your exchange rates are?”
“I'm sorry to hold you up sir, of course I'll make things quick. Im proud to share with you that Experts Country Bank is one of only 5 Banks in the Nation to have gone International, when you join our family with your Universal Bank Card, not only will you have access to all the services in all our branches throughout the country, but you will have access to the same services in the two international locations we have established. One is located in the UKM’s Red Shore Town, and the other is located in the Dominion of Enomeles Blue Mountain District. If ever you find yourself in any of those two locations you will have security in knowing our Bank is there to help.”
That was actually something I didn't expect.
I was actually quite pleased with that benefit.
I didn’t know if I would ever be in those areas, but as a Ranker part of the dream was having the opportunity to travel foreign lands.
Knowing that if ever I did pursue that dream I at least had some options was actually quite comforting.
“ As far as exchange rates go, once you make an account with us, you can take out the equivalent to your transaction value in any of the official currencies except Platinum. As far as Platinum is concerned, although the Official National Exchange rate is 1000 Gold Coins per Platinum Coin, we do charge a 70% interest charge in Gold for every Platinum Coin you want to exchange for. Exchange rates for foreign currency are dependent upon the value of that currency in relation to the Gold Standard at that particular time. If you ever come across foreign currency, and you bring it to the Bank, our Bank Clerk will be happy to tell you the exchange rate at that time.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
70 percent interest rate!
Might as well charge double.
I don't even know why they even offer that exchange, you're basically paying 1700 gold coins per platinum coin.
But if I actually thought about it, they actually were justified in charging such an outrageous interest charge.
Other Banks were probably the same or were probably much worse.
This was the Financial Institution’s way of getting around the state's ridgid but inaccurate exchange rate.
In the end although it might cost me some gold I now had another way to acquire platinum if I really needed some.
The amount of gold I had was actually enough to where I could get quite a few coins of Platinum if I really needed to.
So in the end accumulating gold coins wasn’t completely useless.
“Ok everything seems fine to me, right here I have two vouchers that originate from your Bank. If you can confirm to me whether they are real I would like to use the quantity inside those two vouchers to set up my Account. This one is for 20,000 gold coins and this one is for 2 platinum coins.”
The accountant's eyes opened wide, and with amore genuine smile he received both vouchers and scanned them with a device that he had.
After scanning both vouchers a green light appeared on the device both times.
“It appears both vouchers are authentic and valid. I will now proceed to set up your account. I forgot to mention platinum deposits aré handled differently than the rest of the official currency. As long as you don't deplete the combined value of all your currency under the Gold standard we will not subtract from your platinum deposits. If you do happen to go over the value of your non platinum currency we will subtract from your platinum currency starting at the Official National Exchange of 1000 gold coins per platinum coin. If you want to convert the value of your coins over to platinum without withdrawing currency, the same 70 percent interest charge applies, but once it is done, the converted gold will count as your protected platinum value. Of course the total value in numerical value based on the gold standard, will always be present, unless you only have platinum in your account.”
So if I understood correctly, despite the 70 percent interest charge when exchanging gold for platinum, if ever I needed to dip into my platinum funds the bank would use the Official Exchange rate of 1000 gold coins per coin.
So if ever I found myself broke, and the platinum in the bank was the only type of funds I had, I was basically losing money and running on gold coins only.
Banks really were greedy entities.
Luckily I wasn't in a position where I needed to wholly depend on them.
The fact that they treated platinum separately was the only good feature they had.
I had a feeling some Banks might not even have a feature like that.
“Thanks for the information. Do you need anything else for my account.”
“I will only need a valid form of identification.”
I took out my military reserve card hoping I could get some benefits, but the Bank accountant only grabbed it, made a copy of it, and handed it back to me.
These were the times I wished I had proof of being a Ranker, that was definitely guaranteed to get me special treatment.
“Ok Young Expert Guso, your Account has been set up with a value of 2 platinum coins, and 20,000 gold coins. Or a Gold standard value of 22,000 gold coins. Here are your Universal Bank Card, Voucher Booklet with two additional 1 Unit Platinum Vouchers, and a Set of Wallet Transaction Cards. Because you automatically qualify as a Platinum Standard Bank Member you are qualified for 2 months of only 50 percent interest charge on your platinum exchanges. Can I help you with anything else?”
“You can deposit these 1000 gold coins and these 1000 silver coins as well. I'll be coming periodically to deposit some more of my currency. I just didn’t feel safe carrying that amount of money around.”
“Of course we'll be eagerly waiting for you when the time comes. Your new account value has been updated and you can always check on its value either with the Wallet Transaction Card or at any of our Banks.”
“Thank you for your help. I'll be leaving now.”
“But of course! I wish you success on all your business ventures, our doors are always open to you whenever you require our services, Young Expert Guso.”
The visit to the Bank wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it did confirm to me why no self respecting Business Man or Powerful Expert, would rely on any of these entities to manage their finances.
Unfortunately I still had quite a bit of common currency left, and I didn't think it was smart to put it all in the same Bank.
It was going to be a hassle but I would have to visit at least 2 or 3 more Banks so that I could safeguard my money.
During the next few days before I set up my shopping stand I made time to visit a Bank.
I Visited “Martial Citadel Citizens Bank”, “Volunterra Merchants Bank”, and “Bank of the Republic”, the next three banks in order of size.
They all had pretty much the same benefits with a few differences here and there, “Bank of the Republic”, was actually pretty bad, purely operating on the gold standard, so I could only exchange whatever I had on my account for physical platinum coins, at a ridiculous interest charge of 100 percent.
Any Platinum coins I deposited into that account would immediately turn into its equivalent National Official Value in gold.
After visiting that Bank, I figured all the remaining smaller Banks would just get worse and worse.
I only deposited platinum inside Martial Citizens Bank, and Volunterra Merchants Bank, since I was given platinum vouchers that originated from those Banks in the first place.
After a couple of days I managed to deposit most of my money into each bank respectively.
I only ended up keeping my 120 plus platinum coins, 1000 golden coins, 1000 silver coins, 100 bronze coins and 100 copper coins.
Other than an increase in platinum coins, this was actually the total amount I was planning to travel with on the day I departed the City.
Once I reached Will City, I would have access to the rest of my money through the branches of the Bank they had in the City.
Hopefully by that point I could figure out how to get my hands on some sort of storage item.
All that was left was to finish selling off the remainder of my merchandise in the remaining time I had left.