Well my story had begun with me intending to move to Australia to study. I live currently in London but am originally from Eastern Europe which- as later I'll explain- is the root of my whole problem here. For my move I needed all my savings to be converted to australian dollars. This is when it all started. For me to get a better rate I had converted all the money via an Internet based currency exchange firm. They were happy to do business with me, and naturally they've sent the currency back to my in cash, because this is how they operate. This is quite a large amount now, since this was ALL my savings. I have worked hard and had a pretty good paying job. Well, what happened is that I have opened a Citibank account for the purpose of holding the converted australian dollars that I had now in cash. The Citibank supervisor at the cashiers had refused to take the money. Her reasoning was that I haven't had all the bills form the Internet exchange firm. I had these receipts at home and I told her I would bring them in the next day. She called me the next day and told me not to bother with it because they are just refusing to let me use the account altogether. There are other aspects here I am sure for their discrimination. First of all my nationality. She said to me during this phonecall that she had looked at my application papers and seen what I did for a living; and how much I made. She predicated her opinion of me based on stereotypes. I had worked in a restaurant- as everybody thinks all the eastern europeans do- and nothing else- I suppose. I had saved more money in this job than other people which was a result of long years's hard work and leading an austere lifestyle. The best part of the story is that now I have run out of time. I am moving in 10 days and cannot get the money transferred beforehand. So if I'll get mugged on the way I will have Citibank to blame. For that I am going to go all the way with my complaint until I will get a solution or at least acknowledgement form Citibank. Not to mention compensation.
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