Bank account

After getting a SOFI number, my next step was trying to get a Dutch bank account. As it is not possible to do it if you do not have a SOFI number, before I did not have it and was able to obtain it only now.

Bank No. 1 - As I have ING card from Belgium (where apparently you do not need anything apart from the passport), my first idea was to get ING bank account also here, but a colleague of mine told that ING here are not "expat friendly", so this option was left out.

Bank No. 2 - ABN/Amro. As I have heard that one needs an appointment to open a bank account and you can't just walk in the bank, I called to their customer service line to make an appointment. Unfortunately after trying a couple of times I gave up as it seemed that nobody in the customer service line wanted to speak with me...

Bank No. 3 - Rabobank, suggested by the same colleague. They picked up the phone immediately and were kind enough to make an appointment for me. In the end of the conversation the guy was explaining me all the documents I need to take with me for the appointment.

- ID / passport - no problem.

- SOFI number - no problem.

- Employment contract - wait, wait! I do not have it! (I thought that my internship contract will not be taken into account)

No contract - no bank account in Rabobank. Damn it!

After posting the situation in my Facebook status, I got several suggestions, so I decided to try my luck again and go to ABN/Amro myself. That seemed to solve the problem as they were kind enough to give me a bank account just with my passport and SOFI number. Thank you!