Dnext

December 14, 2021 9:15am

I'll share a thought on the general topic of €€. Now I'm browsing the pages of german-way.com, a fine blog post collection of US-ians living as expats in German speaking areas of Europe.. about life, and living here. Amusing culture shocks included, and a few looks into mirrors. A good read. Thank you for linking there @Clarice Boomshakalaka Bouvier!

So, while we Germans were always reluctant to adapt credit or other cards in the first place, the pandemic years certainly helped push that idea. Cashless is king now (however local attempts like the Geldkarte sucked balls already 15 years ago, and never took off). To the point where normal banks, i.e. those that have both ATM and in-person service, are mostly gone (to be fair, that development started maybe a decade before, with branch closings). When I moved here there were 5 banks in easy walking distance. Now, just one is left, and its the one that requires the longest detour.

Essentially, my only convenient way to get cash now is at the supermarket. There, you pay by card, and withdraw cash while you're at it. "Ich möchte noch Bargeld abheben bitte" is what you say before taking out your card. Still we're slow at this too: technically, 20 years ago that was the way to go in the UK, called "cashback", and very common there but unbeknownst to continental Germans. Only the last few years changed that.

But abundance of the no-fee ATM has ended in Germany, so sometimes you take that extra trip to the supermarket in order to withdraw some cash. Seriously, we do that here, because fully cash-less doesn't work.

But. Supermarket cashiers only take girocards, tied to a "real" current account, for this. No credit cards, no fancy internet-only banking cards. No visa, no Amex, no Master card will get you cash. Inconvenient for some.

So, while waiting in line the other day, two American ladies probably younger that 30 waited behind me, giggling and fuzzing about how to reach the minimum purchase of 5€ to be allowed to use the cashback feature. They went for three Christmas-y chocolate santas and a gift box of eggnog in small bottles. But, the fancy internet-only newgen credit card she had wasn't accepted by the system, and the shop lady said "you cannot use a credit card for cashback, you'd need to..." and was cut off by the ladies leaving the till that very instant.

Just like that, gone, rushing past me while I was packing my things in a bag. They could have said "sorry, I didn't buy into your overly complicated scheme" or simply "Oh, I didn't know". Yes, Germany still is complicated and sometimes demanding.

#ramblings #cultureshock #cash #euro #girocard #alltag #supermarket

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