174. Speaking of Pins...
So I wrote in no. 166. about the number of pin numbers you must memorize here for all your cards, along with the 11 digit telephone numbers (which is why I am getting a headache here)...so I called my German bank to tell them my bank card (debit card, they call it EC card) didn't work anymore so they said they would send me a new one and that I would not be able to use mine, mine is no longer valid. It would take at least 3 days to get it, in the meantime that leaves me with no license to drive and now no money either. Hmmmm, this would now require me to carry wads of cash (are you reading this muggers!?!?) with me at all times, in fear of not having enough money out there in the wilderness, I mean Germany. Well funniest thing happened today, we didn't have time to go to our specific bank (and going to other banks and withdrawing money will cost you around $8 USD bank fee to take out $20 while you pay $3 Euros to park) so we decided to chance it. We scrounged up our coins had enough for parking in Munich (whew) and my husband gave me his bank card just in case. Having 2 hrs to kill I went shopping and lo and behold he gave me the wrong pin number. So here I was in a store in Munich, trying to use my husband's card to pay and it's not working! I tried 2 more times and finally I told him I would be back in 2 hrs when my husband was done with his appointment. 2 hours later, we come back and my husband realized he gave me the wrong pin, we pay with his credit card and proceed to go eat. Then he tells me that in Germany if you enter the wrong pin 3 times, they take your card. Ok, I understand security, so we had one more chance to try out his pin number. Well, he forgot and the atm ate his card. Hmph! We asked the bank teller and they said it would be sent to our German bank. Ok, now we were both out of our bank cards! What luck! and most places in Germany don't take credit cards, it's a weird thing here, they really like cash most of the time. So we took out some cash from his credit card (and will be paying the $8 fee) ate lunch and headed to our German bank. We took out wads of cash and that's when he told us, we would have to order a new card for my husband (who hasn't memorized half his pin numbers and still doesn't know our home or cel numbers by memory either, but really I don't blame him there's just too many to memorize!) and that it would take 3 days to get the card and 3 days later to get the new pin number and now we are both out of our cards for a week, fun! Now I understand this can happen anywhere, but in Germany it's just scary not to have enough cash!