Success, Maybe, I Hope

OK, another Saturday, another trip down to HSBC bank in my epic quest to do something as simple as open an account - and something not so simple: wiring money back home. Some successes, theoretically: 1) wiring 25,000 AED (dirhams) back to my bank in Burlington. Syed, the very nice young Pakistani gentleman who was helping me asked if I wanted to send $25,000 back, and I could only reply, "I wish." Now, again theoretically, I could do this all online less expensively, but I like the idea of a bank official doing it and me having an official record. Even though I wired the money today (and put it in the bank a week ago, and was originally paid on 27 September) because of various holidays across two countries the funds might not make my account until Thursday - so I still have to wait to see if it works. 2) Raising the online limit for me to wire my own funds from 3680 AED ($1000) to 35,000 AED (an amount I will probably never actually wire, but I had to put something) - again, until I actually try and wire funds online myself, which I may never do, I won't know the success of this venture either. 3) Take money out of an ATM with my new HSBC debit card. This proved the easiest, with the exception that I had to choose a 6 digit PIN, which I had trouble wrapping my brain around since I have always had 4 digit PINs. It led to this question - so then I can't use this debit card in the US or Europe? The answer - of course, the ATMs in the US and Europe will just stop reading after four digits and all will be OK. Yeah, right. Still, it seems like a successful day. . .