I wish there was a nicer way to say it: I hate banks. I cannot believe that they treat their consumers so poorly. It took a few years to get to this point, mind you. But when you have been thousands of dollars in debt, flat broke, and in need of a solution, you start to hate banks very quickly.

The irony of banks is that they never give money to the people that really need it. You see, banks are a business - not a service. The bottom line is they want to earn a profit.

Banks are one of just a handful of ultimate businesses. Most businesses sell products. A bank, though - it sells money and services. The services rarely cost what they charge, and they also reap the benefits of getting to borrow lots of cash from people that only ask for a two or three percent return on their money.

If the bank can earn a 10% profit on hundreds of millions of dollars, the numbers get very big very quickly. No wonder they can afford such nice buildings!

For some reason, banks are always trying to screw me over. It’s like going into stock option investing without any knowledge! When I had lots of credit card debt, no home equity, and a low income, I could not even get a bank to talk to me. I had to beg and plead, and, eventually, I got my bank to provide me with a signature loan to pay off two of my credit cards.

But the loan was at a whopping 11%, just a few points below the credit cards themselves. (I was hoping for half that rate.) And they made it clear they did not trust me– they asked for the details and paid the cards off directly, as opposed to writing me a check and giving me the honors. They didn’t even treat me like an adult!

In my opinion, the day you really need a bank is when the bank is least likely to help. It’s not personal. It’s business.

If you have plenty of money, things are different. When my wife and I recently bought a condo, for example, we had planned on paying cash for it. We had been saving for several years, and did not think we would get approved for a loan. But the bank was glad to help. Because when you have enough cash to pay for it outright, as was the case for us, most banks will be happy to lend you the money, even if you live in a different country.

I swore I would never borrow from a bank again. But this time, I changed my mind. Because if we paid cash for that condo, we might not have enough to start a business. And with no money, no job, and no prospects, what bank would help me do that?