Jak's blog
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I don’t often get paid in sterling these days. Mostly it’s US dollars. Recently Alevtina, who edits the European Journal, has been trying to pay me in euros. It’s turned into quite a saga.

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First she asked for bank details and a TIN number. I’d never heard of a TIN so I asked Jon about it as I knew he’d already been paid by the EJ. It turns out to be a tax number, which is required in some countries but not here. So I just had to tell her that. I also asked for the funds to be paid into my paypal account and she agreed.

A week or so later another email from her said paypal could not verify my account so I’d have to send my bank details. I was a bit miffed but did as she asked.

The next email said what I’d sent was not what she needed, which was the details of my international bank account with an IBAN and BIC number, more numbers I’d never heard of. This time I googled IBAN and discovered that this is a system set up to facilitate the movement of euros across borders in the EU.

Next I checked my bank’s website and got the impression that I could only do this on a business account. I do have a pretty dormant internet business account, with another bank, from my marketing days. I’m only keeping it open in case anyone sends me a cheque in my business name, which hasn’t happened in the last couple of years. There was no mention of IBAN numbers on that bank’s site so I phoned the help number. The good news was that I didn’t have to open another account and they could give me an IBAN number, but it was a different matter when they discovered I was talking about a business internet account. They would transfer me to the correct department – and they promptly disconnected me.

By this time I was feeling pretty fed up. It had taken me ages to get connected to a person I could speak to in the first place. I wasn’t inclined to go through all that again. Then the penny dropped. They had thought I was a personal account customer but were still prepared to give me an IBAN number.

I phoned the bank that has my personal account. Within minutes I had all the details I needed copied onto an email and whisked into the ether. Or I thought I had.

This morning came a plaintive reply. The number didn’t work. Please could I send another. This time the error was mine. I had typed two 6s instead of 5s.

I was just putting together some ideas for queries to send to Alevtina. Perhaps I should wait a week or so.