Just had a bit of a WTF moment.

Doorbell rings and I open it to find the postman with a few packets for us. Nothing special there as we have 2 birthdays this week and Christmas just around the corner. He hands me the packages and then says 'I have some money for you.' (or more precisely for my OH)

He holds up a plastic bag containing 134chf and says he needs to see my ID card, fills in the details, I sign the form and he gives me the money.

It turns out this is reimbursement from the medical insurance as we recently made a claim. Do they normally send it by cash in a plastic bag? I've never seen anything like it before and the postman was quite bemused by it too.

Not normal at all. Could it be that you didn't give them your account info or that the info you gave them is wrong?

Usually, firms do this if they cannot send money to an account.

Not sure if they have the account info or not as OH set it all up but surely it would be easier to send a letter asking for it if that's the case. They owe us quite a bit so I can see myself getting to know the postman pretty well if they send everything by post in little plastic bags.

They don't physically send it, they send a post order, and it's the post office that gives the cash to the postman to deliver.

Tom

Happens quite regularly in our house but it was very much a WTF moment the first time! Got used to it now and it's rather nice being given cash first thing in the morning by the postie

Interesting. We got a slip in the post box telling us we had a letter to pick up against ID and signature. It was our 200 CHF (one bill) rebate from Brother and it was in a sealed envelope with Brother's return address.

Never had that from the health insurance...

Be aware that you may be being deducted money to cover the costs of getting the cash to you.

Had it happen last year with my gerance (remibursement of heating charges). I was a bit miffed as they'd written to me saying I could either give them my bank details and get the money via bank transfer, or in cash minus costs. I phoned up with my bank details... got the money by post (minus costs). So this year when I got the same letter I rang up, gave them my details again and asked them to make sure they paid me via bank transfer this time - which they did.

Goes the other way too. When my OH's naturalisation papers came through, the Postman held on tightly to the envelope until we paid him the cash, signed for it (cash to be then paid by transfer to the relevant GVT department).

I guess you sent the claim without thinking about giving your bank details. Make sure you send them details with the next claim.

I assumed we they already had the details when I sent all the stuff off. This is only a tiny part of the claim and came from the complimentary insurance so I'm hoping that the rest will come via the bank. The health insurance was set up by OH via his company but they are such a bunch of complete incompetants that anything is possible.

Not so many years ago the Swiss postman used to deliver peoples salaries in cash; that must have been bizarre - especially that the postie knew what everybody earned....

Told my wife the Postman was here with a bill for her.....

that is true, they usually deduct a fee (around 15 franks I think) if a "Geldanweisung" (that's what sending money is called) has to be made. Would be worth giving them your account number