Cash is withdrawn, but only out of confusion
I have to go to the village supermarket to buy new credit for my UK prepaid SIM. With the mobile phone provider EE, this is still the only way, at least for me as a foreigner, just like with the Tesco SIM that I had before. I’ve been making contactless payments with my cell phone most of the time in this supermarket lately and I’m not sure if this will work if I don’t have internet. I don’t have internet because my mobile phone doesn’t have this top-up voucher. (I looked it up later: You can probably pay with your cell phone even without internet.)
That’s why I go to the ATM first, I haven’t been there for a long time anyway (last in September 2021 and before that in October 2020). But when I’m already holding the cash in my hand at the supermarket checkout and waiting for the credit voucher to be printed out, the idea of paying with this cash makes me uncomfortable: It’s probably annoying and cumbersome for the cashier. Until a few years ago, I thought the opposite of cash registers: I have to pay in cash, everything else is too annoying and cumbersome for the cashier and everyone waiting behind me.
It’s only at this moment that I remember that I could use the card I just used to withdraw money to pay directly in the supermarket. Contactless even. I’ll do that too.
Aleks says he was surprised that I wanted to withdraw money, but didn’t ask. I say, “I probably largely skipped contactless card payments and that’s why it didn’t occur to me,” but I’m not sure if that’s true.
(Kathrin Passig)