Cash Only

Shopping, eating and drinking around Amsterdam are not too difficult however most places prefer you use cash or this neat thing called a chipcard which requires you to have a Dutch bank account. Since the banks are only open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm opening an account here doesn’t really coincide with the job I was brought over to do.

Alas, paying in cash was not a problem for me during my first week here. I successfully withdrew euros from a variety of ATM’s around the city and was using my debit card as a credit card where I could (the international withdrawal fees can be hefty). But during my second week, the cash started to run low and I kept forgetting to go to the ATM. On Friday evening, I left work a bit frazzled and decided a nice dinner was in order.

I found this adorable spot to eat, place my order of brueshetta, crisp wine, and baked salmon. While enjoying my brueshetta I noticed the menu said "CASH ONLY". Panicked I explained to the waitress that I needed to go and get cash. Much to my dismay my ATM card wouldn't work despite trying 5 different ATMs. Distraught and not really knowing what to do, I headed back to the restaurant. I must have looked just awful because as I was explaining my situation the waitress calmly smiled and said, “Just give me what you can.” What I had amounted to 5 euros and $5 which did not even put a dent in my 30 euro bill, however she insisted I sit and eat the rest of my meal. I explained that I would go to an ATM near my apartment that I knew worked with my card and promptly pay her tomorrow. She basically said don’t worry about it so I sat down and ate my meal filled with guilt.

The next morning, determined to pay off my debt, I marched to the corner ATM where just a week earlier I had successfully withdrew a decent about of cash. Much to my dismay, my card was rejected yet again! At this point I phone my bank figuring something had to be wrong. Yep, something was wrong all right; my bank had frozen my account!! My bank thought that someone had stolen my card and was making purchases in Amsterdam. Now I’m all for the fraud protection but look at my records… for the past 12 months I have made purchases (all quite similar I might add – spas, clothes, home accessories, shoes, you know the girl basics) in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bali, San Francisco, Aruba, NYC, St. Louis, Chicago, Naples, West Palm Beach and Atlanta. It doesn’t take a genius to realize I travel a lot! I politely explained to the bank representative that I was indeed the one making purchases in Amsterdam so could she please release the freeze on my account. She eloquently replied with, “No, I can’t but someone from fraud protection will be able to if you can verify the charges.” Then she put my on hold for another 15 minutes. Bear in mind I’m on my cell phone where the average per minute charge is $.29 – this call was costly me just under $10 at this point. A solid 40 minutes later my account was unfrozen, euros were in my hand, and my bank knew of my travel plans for the next 4 months.