Banking vocabulary, all you will need to know (part I)

Knowing the basic banking vocabulary will help you understand and familiarise yourself quickly on what you will need to do and what documents to collect. From the book of Dr. Reilly White et al. named ‘Financial literacy for immigrants & refugees’ has been found 8 key terms that every migrant, refugee etc. needs to know. Those are: 

1. Checking account (bank account):

A checking account is the one account that allows you to easily access your money, spend it, and withdraw it using a debit card. Usually, these do not pay very much in interest. This is the account you use when you receive your salary from work.

2. Debit card (bank card):

Banks or credit unions issue these when you open a bank account. This allows you to buy items without using cash, and withdraw money.

3. Check:

Checks/Cheques are documents that are written, signed, and dated that direct your bank to pay a specific amount of money to another person or company.

4. Maintenance fee:

Maintenance fee:
Some banks charge fees to have the bank account. The fees are different from country to country, for example in Greece the fee is approximately €0.50/month (€6 a year), in Ireland it is €6/month (€72 a year), in Spain it is from €140 to €240 a year depending on the bank and in Portugal it is €5-9/month (around €60-108 a year). These fees apply particularly to checking accounts, but they can be waived if the account has a large enough amount of money.