David's Blog

In most Western European countries if you go to withdraw €200 from an ATM you get 2 50s, 4 20s, and 2 tens. You don't get any big bills and that's convenient. Most places don't like to give change. It's as if it was the most tedious chore in the world. If your need to pay 10.24 and you give 11, they look at you like handling 76 cents is the hardest thing in the world. The European cashier would much rather wait for you to find 24 cents. I If not 24 at least something to reduce how many coins to give back. The same applies with paper money too. So when you withdraw €200 from an ATM in Austria and get 2 €100 bills, you know that the first place you go won't be happy to see your form of payment. It really shouldn't be that big a deal. But it is, and it becomes a psychological game for me. You (the cashier) don't want to give me change and I don't want change back. So I'm forced to carry around change so that when my bill is 10.03 I'll have those three cents or otherwise risk getting back 97. But when my change starts running low... on one hand I'm happy to not have to carry around change but on the other hand I know I'm only one transaction away from getting another boatload of change. And then the game continues. If on the last day of my trip I have minimal amounts of change, I win! Most countries are now rounding off to the nearest five cents. I rarely see one or two cent coins anymore, fortunately. And hopefully, the US can get rid of the penny too. Don't even get me started.

Labels: austria

Posted by David on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 10:25 PM | Share this post on:   facebook   del.icio.us   digg   StumbleUpon     | Permalink