Banking at the Post Office

And now a brief discussion of Norwegian banks.  Most banks in Norway have one person standing at a desk with a computer-- there are no tellers, no money, and definitely no ladies waiting in line to deposit  large pouches filled with pennies. After speaking with the school and the billing agency, I was told that I could simply go into a Norwegian bank and pay the bill with my visa.  Apparently, if I've learned anything over the last year, nothing in life that deals with papers, bills, and service personnel is "simple."   After being led to two different "shell" banks downtown (i.e., no money), I finally found one that actually had thick walls, large glass doors, and lots of bank tellers.

I took my numbered slip like at the DMV and when my number came up, my friendly teller said I couldn't pay with an American visa but I could do so around the corner at....hold your breath...the post office.  Yes, the bank at the post office is apparently the place to change foreign money.  On the left side of the post office is where you can mail packages.  The rest of the post office is filled with tellers that exchange money.  After taking a number again, I approached my post bank teller and after a bit of effort, we still had no luck paying the bill with my foreign visa.  So, strike 4.  She told me to get cash from the ATM and I patiently explained that the limits of my cash withdrawal, in weak dollars translated to strong Norwegian Kroner, would not enable me to withdraw that amount of money unless I was at a casino in Connecticut.

The only redeeming moment was that the nice lady, suffering from a slight Parkinson's tick aka Janet Reno, was able to look online to give me the name of the Bank and location that the account belonged to (Sparebank Midt-Norge).   Armed with this knowledge, I then proceeded to pay the bill via my online banking.  I found a website that gives S.W.I.F.T numbers and I got the IBAN number from Sparbank website.  The only problem was that I couldn't find Sparbank Midt-Norge on the list of Norwegian Banks provided online.   My breakthrough moment was discovering that this bank was listed as Sparbank SMN (with the M being Midt and the N being Norge -- no idea what the S is for unless it is Sparbank, but Sparbank Sparbank Midt-Norge seems a bit redundant to me).  Yes, miracle of miracles, after calling the school, calling the bill processors, visiting 4 different bank branches, and one nice post office employee, I was able to actually pay the bill.  My children can stay in school.