money makes the world go around, well really it's thermodynamics but let's go with it

Dough, moolah, readies, drinking vouchers, dosh, greeenbacks.
No matter what you call the stuff it has a habit of disappearing, at least for me.
When we moved here, we applied for Canadian credit cards. Credit history checks, a letter of recommendation from my old bank and statements from my 3 credit cards (with a combined credit limit of about 20 thousand Pounds) meant little here. My credit limit was to be $1000 (about 500 Pounds) and only if I supplied the bank with a term deposit of TWICE that amount for them to hold on to, paying next to no interest for a year. The same for Mr. eh.
So a total of $4000 for both cards.
Everywhere else we went we had to pay deposits or extra premiums because we were new to the country. Despite BUYING our house the electricity company wanted a deposit, as did the phone company and don't get me started on the house insurance. Even our mortage broker got in on the deal. He wanted us to have 50% of the purchase price, yes that's 50, not 10 or 20 AND have a combined income of at least $60,000 AND be Canadian citizens (a process that takes at least 3 years btw).

Anyway, to get these deposits back I have to ask for them as the companies tend to 'forget'.
I finally got half (don't ask) of the credit card ransom back, just in time to start paying it out for house insurance and getting the furnace fixed....