This morning I was held hostage by Banksys, the system that allows people to withdraw cash from terminals in the streets. I had some time in between two classes and wanted to go buy a newspaper, but I only had digital cash with me. So I went to a terminal near my school (a ten minute walk) to get me some ‘real’ money. I arrived there safely, but coudn’t access my bank account. The service was temporary disabled. Since I don’t live in Mechelen (the city) myself, I started thinking where I could access my account through another terminal. The only one I could think of was at the central railway station, so I walked all the way over there. (15 -20 minutes of walking).
Alas, same story at that terminal. No money available. I asked the employee of the station where I could find the nearest KBC (my bank). He couldn’t really give me an answer, but pointed me in the direction of the ‘Grote Markt’ (central market place in almost any Flemish town). Another 20-25 minutes of walking. Meanwhile my free time was melting like snow in the sun. After 15 minutes, I was at the first terminal again which is on the way to the central market place, but from there it’s still a 10 minute walk. Since I wasn’t sure there was a bank at all (I was passed the point already the railway employee pointed me to), I decided I’d take my chances in a different way.
I then entered a supermarket and decided to withdraw money from the cashier, but that required me to buy at least one product from the store. I bought chewing gum and withdrew a 20 Euro bank note. Okay. I was half way through this. I had cash, but the supermarket didn’t have any newspapers, so I went out in the streets again and went to the book store/newspaper store in the ‘Vijfhoek’ (street), it was a ‘Press Shop‘. I entered, grabbed myself a newspaper (cost: 1 Euro) and wanted to pay, but the lady refused my money. She said she would only give me change if I bought at least for 2 Euro in total. Store policy. I then was obliged to buy two rolls of mentos (.70 euros each) to arrive at a 2.40 Euro total. I normally wouldn’t have done it, but I already slipped the 20 Euro note over the counter and she held it in her hand, looking at me in a way only my high school teachers did. Pretty firm and very ‘waiting’. There were people behind me too, so…
I was a bit tired of walking around, frustrated about the entire money-thing and really looked forward to reading my newspaper in the little free time that I still had left, so yes, I played her stupid little game, bought some extra candy and finally got my change so I could go into the park and read my daily portion of news.
There’s something else I would like to point out, besides not being able to access my bank account at the time that I wanted to.
The store policy is : we don’t accept notes of 100, 200 or 500 Euro. I can understand that, because of the counterfeiting issues, although they do have a blacklight scanner and they do scan every bank note they receive. But okay. I never carry around that much cash anyways, so that’s no biggie. Continuing the store policy : we also don’t accept coins (small change) of .01 Euro, .02 Euro or .05 Euro. That’s maybe logical to the store keeper but in my opinion money is money. The coins are part of the European payment system and officially in use in this country, so I can’t see a reason why a store could refuse to accept this. Then we arrive at the most wicked part of the store policy : in case you pay with a 50 Euro note, you need to buy at least for 5 Euros, and if you pay with a 20 Euro note, the grand total must exceed 2 Euros.
What kind of a store would do this? How bad is it if you have so many rules before a purchase can be made?
To finish this off in style : the lady in front of me (the customer before me) wanted to buy two packs of smokes and payed with some coins (the ones that were still accepted) and a 5 Euro note, but the storekeeper refused the note because it was dirty and used, and she advised the customer to go around the corner to the bank and exchange the old bank note for a new one.
Then I have only one thing to say : WTF ! I’m never going there again ! If you’re ever in Mechelen, be sure to bring a lot of small change in pieces of 1 and 2 Euros, because it just might happen you can’t buy anything, even if you have money.
So in fact, getting a 20 Euro note costed me 20.70 Euro (including chewing gum), and getting a 1 Euro newspaper costed me 2.40 Euro. And that is considered to be normal? I wonder how much Banksys or ‘my’ KBC are going to charge me at the end of the year for using the credit card. Boy, I suddenly understand old people who keep their money in a sock on the attic.