Again the thing with the 22 digits of the IBAN and digitalization in administration
About two weeks after I agreed to trumpet lessons for my son at the youth music school, which I had arranged over the phone, a lot of pre-filled forms and documents arrived. They just have to be signed by me and sent back. Apparently they already have our address from the registration forms on the waiting list that I put my son on for classes about a year ago, very nice. No problem, sign everything, look for the envelope, handwrite the electronic stamp code on it, send everything back.
Before I send everything off, it occurs to me: Wait a minute, but how do we actually pay for trumpet lessons? Somehow it doesn’t say that anywhere. Just what it costs. But not how we pay for it. I google the youth music school to find out how I can contact them, find out the phone number on their website and the rare times when the phone is occupied and make an entry in my calendar to remember to be there at one of these times to call.
My calendar entry reminds me of the phone call, and I find out over the phone: If we send everything back signed, we should receive the fee notice from “Kasse.Hamburg” a little later. Everything would then be stated on how the bill works. “Kasse.Hamburg” carries out “commercial accounting for authorities and many state institutions, [wickelt] the payment transactions of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and [ist] Enforcement agency.”
So we send the signed paperwork back to the music school and wait for the fee notice. That comes about three weeks later.
Again in a letter. On paper. There is a form for the possibility of issuing a direct debit mandate. This will then be debited from my account, which I find very useful. All I have to do is fill out another paper form: with my name, address (although this all reaches me by post and the data is apparently also known to “Kasse.Hamburg”, the automatic pre-entry doesn’t seem to work here), and – and This is exactly where it becomes problematic: the 22-digit account number (handwritten), plus the BIC (11 digits – is actually only needed for international transfers, but has to be stated here), and my signature. The IBAN: 22 digits. And the BIC: 11 digits. Handwritten. A total of 33 unrelated numbers and letters. Into a tightly electronically pre-printed form. The whole thing then goes back into an envelope and again into an electronic stamp and then into a mailbox.
I really hope that someone at “Kasse.Hamburg” will be able to read my handwriting correctly and correctly transfer the account number into the appropriate software.
Or, as it says on their website: “In addition, we not only digitize all of the city’s incoming invoices in our central invoice receipt, but also many other documents.” (Source: https://www.hamburg.de/kasse/12151514/grusswort-jan-schoenrock/)
Yes, I can vividly imagine that.
(Molinarius)