Live: Banking and Finance in Chile (it´s gottta be done)

Now, I know this topic may be a very boring for some, so i´ll keep it short and sweet (and mostly as informative as I can)

The Cost of Living

Santiago is also one of the most expensive cities in South America. Although travel is fairly cheap $620 pesos (1USD) to enter the metro! Food and luxuries such as restaurant meals, travel abroad, clothes can be very expensive.

In an average week, I would spend:

$10.000 pesos on travel

$20.000 pesos on food

$20.000 pesos on going out/social

Excluding rent, I would spend…. $80.000 pesos (100 USD). Santiago is actually an incredibly expensive city, especially when you take into consideration that the average chilean wage is $250.000 pesos per month (300USD). With my wages, If I was careless I easily went over and had to use my backup debit card with my student loan on it. But Chileans don't have this luxury so I´m not really sure how they manage.

Banking

I really don't get on well with banks in Chile. They open at 8am and close unbelievably early in the day at 2pm. And if you are a foreigner with a visa like I am, an account with BancoEstado (the state bank) is your only option. As the only state bank in Chile, every Chilean is entitled to an account there. So of course, whenever I went to the bank it was always crammed full.

My day trip to the bank: It was a wednesday in the last week of the working month. I had just been given my paycheck by the institute so I went to cash it before the long weekend we were about to have (thursday to sunday). As I casually strolled into the bank, I bumped into some people waiting in a line at least 60 people long. I thought to myself ´it must be awful having to wait in such a long line like that, I wonder what it´s for´. I arrived at the reception desk and explained that all I wanted to do was to cash a check.

They uttered three dreaded words... ´espera en fila´ (wait in line)

Oh god, please no! The idea of having to join this queue gave me the horrible realisation that I would not be leaving this bank any time soon. And guess how long I had to wait in that line just to cash one check? 4 hours… it felt like the whole day.

Definitely not my idea of fun!