Banks!

I have found a gap between the teeth in the ever-so-flashy smiles of the Danish system: The Danish state requires me to have an expensive banking product that the Danish state’s laws do not require me to have nor guarantee I can purchase. Let me explain.

When you have a sole proprietorship business in Denmark, many will tell you you must have a business account. Now, these business accounts are expensive in Denmark, like everything else around here, and there is a process to acquire such an account.

The bank where I used to have my business account, until today, kept raising their prices, 50 % one year and 33 % this year. So I decided to take my business to my private bank, Nordea, where I used to have my business bank account until I closed it shortly and then realized that to get it back, there was an up to eight weeks evaluation period as well as the price had quadrupled since I closed it the year before, because I left the country.

Despite that, I bowed my head and called Nordea because having my business and private accounts in the same bank would be more straightforward. Prices were still absurd, and there was still a long process to get an account and the possibility of being rejected, but what are you going to do? Well, nothing.

When asked, the nice bank guy informed me that no law requires me to have a business account with my business structure, but the bank has principles. That is, my bank requires me to pay for a product the law does not require me to have to run my business. I quickly saw an opportunity to save more than 500 € a year for a product I don’t really use nor require.

I checked a bit further online and am collecting information from state organs – and so far, I have had no answer stating that yes, you must pay more than 500 € a year plus various extra charges for a bank account to run your sole proprietorship business. However, my bank will not let me use another account as a business account, even though the law does not require me to have a business account, and I get no extra services attached to my business account.

The only thing that truly separates a business account from any other bank account for a sole proprietorship is the price. And the only thing requiring me to have such an account is banking principles that seem very tied to profit.

Or so I thought. Because there’s a twist: Danish law does not require a sole proprietorship to have a business account, but the Danish state does. – I understand if you are confused; living Danishly is rarely logical. Why do you think something like 10 % of the adult population pops sunshine drugs as if they were candy?! I have a theory!

The absurd situation is that while the Danish state does not require me to have a business account, it does require me to have a Nemkonto for my business, which, in effect, is the same thing, given that banks will not let you use a regular bank account as a business account; you have to buy their expensive product, if they allow you to do so.

“Banking is necessary - banks are not. ”

— Bill Gates

The bottom line is that the Danish state, in effect, forces me to buy an expensive banking product I do not need - and the law does not require me to have - because the state requires me to have and connect a business account to my sole proprietorship, and the bank will only allow me to use the expensive business account product as my business account, even though the law does not require me to acquire this particular expensive, and to me, useless banking product, nor does it guarantee me that I can open such an account!

Kafka did not live in vain!

So, for now, I opened another business account, a way cheaper online one. But to have or not have a business account that seems to be the very tricky question. The law says one thing, but the bureaucrats say another.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found it valuable and worth your time! Until next time, remember to get your facts straight and that whatever good times you have will never come back as bad times,