'Dirham dilemna - Why does everyone guard their change?'
Why does nobody seem to have any change in this town? Why do the few who do have smaller notes and a few coins dislike sharing the dirhams?
Last night I got a taxi home from the office and only had a Dhs500 note. My cab fare was Dhs60 and unsurprisingly the cabbie didn’t have change. Why they don’t carry a ‘float’ of smaller notes is beyond me. Anyway, with cabbie looking at me blankly I decided to go to my corner shop to buy some things so I could get change for the cab. The things I needed only came to Dhs15 and I knew what was about to come. As I handed over my Dhs500 the shop owner want bananas.
‘This is crazy, you can’t do this’. After much dummy spitting he gave in and opened his till - and it was full of change! OK I was going to be eating into a lot of it, but this was at 9pm and he was due to shut up shop at 10.30pm. It wasn’t like it was first thing and he was going to have to get through the rest of the day. OK so I had a large note, but that’s all I had. If I’d had smaller I would have handed it over, and there was no ATM close by.
Also, surely it would give him less to count at the end of the day. What’s the problem? Dubai, let’s share the love and the dirhams. Or, should we be writing cheques for everything? We seen the stories in this paper to see what happens if you do that…
Lawrence, Dubai
Comments
by DubaiExpatMom
Wednesday, May 16 2012, 5:58PM
“Anytime I use the ATM I just know I will be making a stop at the nearest exchange center to ask them to change my 1000 AED or 500 AED notes for smaller bills. Most exchange places will change out at least one per visit.”
by djoanes1
Wednesday, May 16 2012, 3:01PM
“I wish cash machines would dispense a mix of AED 100, 50 and 20 notes. It would make life a lot easier.”
by ExpatEddie
Wednesday, May 16 2012, 11:15AM
“Yep, you are greeted with bemusement when presenting a 500 dirham note to even the biggest supermarkets buying things over 50 dirhams. It's really not that different to giving me change for a 100 ... with 4 extra 100s thrown in ... you don't have 4 extra 100 dirham notes!?
Don't get me started on 1000 dirham notes, may as well take them out of circulation!”
by FatBhoyTim
Wednesday, May 16 2012, 9:05AM
“Mainly because there's a distinct shortage of 50 dirham notes.”
by JLT_Resident
Wednesday, May 16 2012, 8:01AM
“This situation is entirely the fault of the banks. The whole reason change is guarded so closely is because nine times out of ten, the lowest note people have is AED100. Why? Because as we all know, the smallest note the cash machines give out is AED100.
It's a stupid situation that causes huge problems for shops and taxi drivers out here. You could give a taxi driver a float of AED1000 in AED10 notes, but if the first 11 fares are only AED10 and each passenger only has a AED100 note because of the stupid situation with the cash machines over here, then the 12th passenger isn't going to get change.
Let's look at it another way. The closest note to the AED100 in the UK is the £20. Imagine the chaos that would cause if that was the lowest note available from the cash machine.
The only way this situation is going to change is if the Government forces the banks to stock AED20 and AED50 (the latter at the very least) in the cash machines and restricts the dispensing of notes over AED100 to a special request at the ATM.
Which brings me to my last point. Did you seriously expect anyone to have change of what is essentially an £85 note? Next time a cash machine gives you that note, redeposit it and carry out five requests for AED100 from the ATM.”