Services

Services are an important part of a national economy and show a maturity of each country. The availability of services makes people´s lives easier. Services include health service, educational system, trade, tourism, traffic, small services (manicurists, hairstylists, craftsmen,...), etc. Instead of preparing our food at home we can have it at a restaurant. We can have our clothes cleaned at the dry cleaner´s, our shoes repaired at the shoemaker´s, our coats, skirts, blouses or other pieces of garment mended or made-to-measure at the tailor´s, our TVs and other appliances repaired at a repair shop. It has become quite natural to use these services.
The other service is for example the emergency dialling service. In Great Britain the phone number is 999. You can connect the police, the ambulance or the fire department. In USA is also the emergency dialling service which has a number 911. In our republic the police has the phone number 158, the ambulance is 155 and the fire department is 150. This emergency dialling service is free of charge. Bank services

London is one of the world´s most important financial centres. There is the Bank of England. It is the central bank for all banks in Great Britain and it issues banknotes. Commercial banks, such as National Westminster or Barclays banks have about 12 000 branches. They offer a large number of services for business and private customers. For example, they provide loans and help exporters and importers to transfer money either to other countries or from them.

Commercial banks hold also current and deposit accounts for their customers. A deposit account is for people who want to save. Money are given to the account and while it stays there, the bank pays interest to the customers. Current account holders give money to the account, but they can withdraw their money again and again to pay bills or to buy things. A current account holder gets a cheque book to help him with his different payments. Of course, if you are a holder of a credit card, you can move practically without a penny/cent/heller in your pocket. During the last few years, more and more people have been using the bank services. In addition, the bank can do many different financial transactions for you. If you have a special bank account, you can have all your monthly payments paid automatically when they are due.


Postal services

In all towns and almost in every village there is a post office.

We go to there whenever we need to send a letter, telegram or a parcel, to buy stamps, or pick up our letters, etc. Stamps can be bought either at the post office or you can get them from a slot machine. In England they don´t sell stamps at the tobacconist's. We take a letter to the post office to send it or we can drop it in the nearest postbox. Every postbox has a tab indicating when the letters are collected. From the postbox letters are taken to the post office, where they are sorted through and marked. Then they are transported in mail vans. Some hours later letters are delivered.

If we want to send a telegram, we take a telegram form from the desk, fill it in and hand it in the telegram counter. The clerk counts the words and says how much we are to pay for it.

When we are sending a parcel, we have to get the well-packed parcel weighed, fill in a form, and stick a label on the parcel and then pay for sending it. If sending something valuable we can have it insured. In Britain postboxes are in the shape of red pillars. In major towns each pillar-box has a tab with information, where the nearest post office can be found. The postal vans are red too. The main post office in an area is called the General Post Office (GPO). The mailboxes in the USA are placed on street corners and have a blue colour. The post keeps us in contact with relatives.