Rant about Israeli Banks

On April 28, 2006 Yediot Aharonot and Ynet announced that the Israeli banks were about to present their annual revenue reports.

When the reports were published the next day, we also learned about the outrageous the salaries that the senior bank officials are making. Shlomo Nechama, director of Bank Hapoalim, took home a salary of over 23.2 million shekels in 2005! That's over 63 thousand shekels a day!!

What chutzpah!!

I've been banking with Leumi for over 25 years. In the past few years, every time I returned to Israel for a visit after a lengthy stay in England, I got one shock after another when I went to my branch. You see, not having been around all the time meant that whatever changes were made were not gradual for me, and no one warned me about them.

I know it sounds silly, but what put me off the most was that on top of the regular service charge I pay for the pleasure of having an account at the bank, I had to start paying an extra 1.21 shekels every time I made any kind of transaction!

And where did all my money go in the end? To pay the salaries of the bank directors. I'm sure Bank Leumi senior salaries aren't far off from Bank Hapoalim.

When I voted in the elections, I didn't vote for the Party at War with the Banks. I didn't know enough about it, and anyhow, I figured they were too small and wouldn't get in, so my vote would just be wasted. And at that point, no one knew yet about the outrageous salaries.

Well, now we know. So in addition to ranting about the cellular phone cartel, I've been ranting about the banks.

But I'm not the only one ranting. There are lots of angry people out there. But the rants aren't loud enough, or strong enough, or visual enough. Everyone is ranting in within their own little circles. On the Ynet boards you'll find a single post calling for a revolt, but as usual no-one picks up the call to arms. Oh, you get various online petitions, but no one gets off their backside to go out there and demonstrate and strike.

Even the Bank of Israel and the government don't care. It's in their interest to let this criminal activity by the banks continue.

So yesterday, I registered as a member of the Party at War with the Banks. I don't even know if they still exist. I filled in their online form and am waiting to hear from them.

This time around, as a Toshevet Hozeret, I am going to become an activist. No more sitting around like the majority of Israelis, waiting for someone else to fix things for me. The people have power to make changes, and the only way to make changes is by action!

Technorati Tags: Bank Hapoalim , Bank Leumi , war against the banks , Ynet, rant, Israel, cartel, mobile phone , cellular phone , Shlomo Nechama , Shlomo Nehama , senior directors, activist, people power , Israeli society , banks, economy, daily life, Israelis, revolt, aliyah, aliya, Bank of Israel, Israeli Government, outrageous salaries, outrageous, cell phone, chutzpah

Rant about the Israeli Mobile Cellular Phone Cartel

After we'd been in Israel for a month we got our Bezeq phone bill. The shock was that we were charged 240 NIS for calls to cellular phones!

The phone bill explains that it's calculated like this: for each call to a cell phone within Israel Bezeq charges 6.86 agurot per minute which they take for themselves, and an additional 34.59 agurot per minute for airtime which they pass on to the relevant cellphone company. That's a total of 41.45 agurot per minute.

We had about 580 minutes of phone calls to cell phones last month!

We don't really call landlines in Israel. Our kids and our kids friends are all mobile. Either they are still in the army or have rented apartments and opted out of putting in an expensive landline, so most of our phone calls are to other mobile phones.

I figured there must be a way to beat the system - I phoned HOT, the cable company that's advertising a cable telephone system. I explained that the issue with us wasn't the need for 2000 free minutes to other landlines within Israel, it was to cell phones.

"Sorry," I was advised by the sweet customer service girl, "our rates to cell phones are the same as Bezeq."

Thanking her for the information, I thought maybe Voice Over IP might be the solution for lower phone rates, so I called our Internet Provider - Netvision - to check things out. We already have a Vonage line which we brought with us from England, so I am familiar with VoIP systems.

"I need a way to reduce my phone bill," I explained. "What does your VoIP service charge for calls to mobile phones within Israel?"

"41.45 agurot" came the reply.

"But that's the same price as Bezeq and Hot charge," I complained innocently.

"That's the price," the customer service person ruled. So I thanked him and moved on.

My next call was to 012. I've been using them as my long distance call provider for years, and while listening to their recorded service I chanced to hear that they are now providing internal calling services too.

"Aha," exlaimed the girl on the phone, when I asked about the 012 internal service. "You can only use our internal phone service if you are connected to 012 broadband."

"Oh, well," I thought to myself, "if I have to change providers I will," and I asked her to tell me about the phone service.

"It uses Voice Over IP" she explained. "And the calls to mobile phones cost 41.45 agurot a minute."

"That's the same as Bezeq," I sounded like a broken record to myself.

"No it isn't," she assured me. "We are cheaper."

So I argued with her, and she put me on hold while she went to check.

"You're right" she apologised when she returned. "It's the same as Bezeq. I don't know too much about it yet. I haven't gone to the training. It's all so new."

So I phoned Bezeq.

"I'm thinking of changing my phoneline to Hot" I bluffed when the Bezeq customer service girl came on the line. "My phone bill was too high last month."

"Let's see what we can do for you," she immediately offered in a panic. "I'm going to take a look at your latest bill. Please hold the line."

She came back on after a few moments. "I see that most of your calls are to celluar phones," she pointed out apologetically.

"Duuh," I thought nastily.

"And it won't be worth your while to change to Hot. You have had this Bezeq phone line since 1985. It would be a shame to give it up. And anyhow, I've had complaints about the quality of the Hot phone lines, and many customers have returned to us after changing to Hot."

So in my most naive voice I asked: "Do you have a plan where I can save money on calls to cellular phones?"

"Make calls to landlines instead," was the practical suggestion.

"My daughter's friends are all in the army, and they are away at their bases most of the time. She needs to make calls to mobile phones," I tried to reason, knowing as I was saying it that there was no point, and it was just a dumb thing for me to say.

But the girl still made an attempt to help: "Can't she arrange for them to be in an office at the base, and she can call them on a landline?" was the creative solution.

Boy, this girl was a real Bezeq patriot!

"Yeah," I retorted meanly, "In this day and age that's exactly what a spoiled Israeli young adult will do."

So I had done my personal survey, and figured there was only ONE solution to reduce the phone bill, and help my personal economy plan.

"Anat," I knocked on the bedroom door that was closed throughout the day (she works nights).

"Huh", came the grumpy reply.

"I have to talk to you about the phone bill," I persisted.

"Later, I'm sleeping."

Of course "later" never came. For 2 whole days she managed to avoid the issue every time I tried to bring it up.

I finally got the nerve to get to the bottom of it just as she had one foot out the door, with my car keys in her hand. "Anat, about the phone bill - I can't afford to pay for your calls to mobile phones..."

"Not now, Imma..."

"I just want to say: NO more calls to mobile phones from the Bezeq phone. You hear me? That's the new rule."

"I hear you," she mumbled as she got into the elevator.

And next month we'll know.

Tags: Bezeq, Bezek, mobile phone, cellular phone, rant, cell phone, Israel, cartel, phone bill, Hot phone, landline, netvision, 012, orange, cellcom, pelephone, mirs, economy, daily life, airtime, VoIP, aliyah, aliya