I had some great comments on yesterday’s ‘Tee-hee Tuesday’ post – Women Drivers. Thanks, Elisa, JoAnn and Sam! 🙂
Two of them were about drive-through banks. Which got me thinking…and gave me inspiration for today’s post. Here in teeny tiny Denmark we don’t have drive-through banks. We don’t have drive-through anything. Unless you count Macdonalds, but we’ve already mentioned them and their (teeny tiny European) drinks in another post [my goodness, have I really written so many posts..?!] called Food (Inc.) for thought. But, as usual, I’m already digressing! 😉
I was wondering why we didn’t have drive-through banks. We still have a few banks in our ‘village’ but lots of local branches are closing down. And then it hit me. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was in my bank! I’m thinking it must have been last June – 2009 – when I was in getting some Euros for our summer holidays in France. You see, almost all Danish banking is done over the internet. Our bills are set up and paid over the internet. Bank statements are sent to our electronic postbox. And on the rare occasion you do have documents for the bank, just pop them in a special envelope – provided by your bank – and send them by post. The bank even pays the postage…
The last time I had a chequebook was when I worked in Luxembourg in the 1990s. People in Denmark don’t use cheques anymore. So I have no Danish cheque book. Goodness, what would Miss Dorothy think?!
Enough of the Gotham National Bank and back to Denmark and Danish money… Not that I ever carry very much of it around to be honest. Everybody uses Dankort to pay for things – a type of debit card. Shopkeepers don’t blink an eye if customers use it when paying small amounts such as 20 Kroner, about £2.20 or $3. The largest coin is 20 Kroner and the smallest coin is 50 øre, about 5 pence or 8 cents. And now a word of warning. Prices in Denmark are often marked as 9,95 Kroner. But we no longer have coins that small… So if the sign says 19,95 Kroner and you hand over 20 Kroner, please, don’t stand there waiting for your change! [Been there, done that, got the pink embarrassed cheeks.] However, if you pay with your card – electronically – you will be charged exactly 19,95… Go figure! 😉
Lastly, please don’t worry if you don’t manage to spend all your Danish currency when you’re here on holiday. I know the banks back home won’t take your coins, they’ll only change banknotes. But just lookey here, see what you can make – Danish jewellry! 😉
Have a wonderful Wednesday! 🙂
You're reading my mind! I was looking at your coins with the holes & thinking "Wow, those would make a great threading work in the classroom!" I think you may be a Montessori teacher at heart 😀
LOL. I haven't been in a bank in a while either. The last time was…2008 and only then because it was inside a local Walmart. I don't have an account anymore, but my guy does all his stuff online too. His work paychecks are direct deposited and we use his debit card.
Why do we have banks again? lol
And I don't know if you've ever seen any, but Antarctic money is GORGEOUS. Would make great wall art. 😉
Are there malls in Antarctica? Why do they have money?
Digressing…you can send me money jewelry anytime. I was just thinking…the only "jewelry" I have are my plastic ID bracelets from when Abigail was born. :/ (Talk about cheap jewelry!)
I have NEVER seen the movie. I've sure heard about it though, so I'm excited that you posted it and that I can watch it on YouTube. Maybe a little pamper session tonight…
On a different note (neither of these are actually related to the post, though it was interesting): How do you get that bar at the top of the post that has the "share it, comments, like, tweet it" ?
That's crazy– cheaper to use your debit card than cash sometimes LOL!! In larger stores here (WalMart, Target, all those big names) they won't look twice if you use a debit or credit card for a small amount either. At some of the smaller locally owned places, they may ask that you spend $10 (62 Kroner, or almost 7 UK Pounds- my keyboard has a € but no Pound symbol!) or more to use a card because the credit card company charges them per use of their card machine or something like that, and it can get expensive. It's more of a courtesy thing, and the shop can't *technically* refuse to accept it. When I worked in a shop I remember there was a guy that would come in and buy a loaf of bread once a week with his American Express card, and AmEx charges the most expensive rates to the shopkeeper, and my boss was NOT happy about it! Is it like that in most places of the world? (That's it, I must get money and a passport so I can travel more.)
There's been some call here to do away with pennies (my neighbor when I was a kid thought they were so useless, he would throw them into the street, which was great fun for us kids!), and to switch from dollar BILLS to coins (makes sense really. Our pennies are mostly made from zinc now (I think), with a slight overlay of copper to give them a "penny look." But with the price of zinc, I think it costs more than a penny to MAKE one! Those Crazy Americans! 😉
In France in the late 1990s, it drove me NUTS that the Franc notes were all different sizes and didn't seem to fit in anyone's wallet well.
I was getting right into that clip. Will have to go watch it now too.
It sounds a lot like AUS. I haven't had a cheque book in years either, so the only time I go into a bank is when I need a bank cheque…. which they charge you $8-$10 for. We also got rid of our 1c & 2c coins years ago but stores will still price items eg 9.98 or 9.99. If paying by cash you round it up, but if paying by eftpos or credit you pay the exact amount. I know a lot of stores here won't let you use amex because they don't like paying the extra, or they pass on the costs to the customer. We all hate those hidden fees.
This is so interesting. We have 2 banks with drive thru service and 3 without in our city. During certain times, the banks without the drive thru have no access to the ATM for their customers due to safety concerns so we rely on debit cards. Still have a chequebook, go into the bank for services and do some internet banking but cannot go without some cash in hand. There are simply too many places where we travel that aren't set up to accept any electronic payment.
We might have to start wearing our money like jewellery. It's either that or stuffing my bra with it. At least I'll have a fuller front!
Thanks for the second installment of the movie! I watched all of yesterday's segment and skipped ahead and watched half the second segment too! When the girls woke from their naps, I added it to my Netflix queue so I can watch the whole thing without interruption. Honestly, I don't know how I missed Thoroughly Modern Millie. I'm a HUGE fan of Julie Andrews – especially The Sound of Music. Can't wait to get the DVD in the mail! Thanks, Diane! 🙂
You girls are fantastic! 😀 Lots of wonderful comments – yet again! LOL I love hearing about things on your 'sides' of the world too – even though we share the same language, things can be so very different.