2023-09-10 00:45:16
Sunday, September 10, 2023, 00:45
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There are more and more virtual methods at our disposal to pay for purchases: we can make a transfer, pay with a physical card, or with the one we have integrated into our mobile phone. But there will always be a time when we need to have hard cash in our pockets.
That’s what ATMs, or bank offices, are for. But what happens when we don’t have one or the other nearby? There is a formula, not yet very widespread among the general public, that allows cash to be available in these circumstances.
It’s called ‘cashback’, which translated into Spanish means something similar to ‘money back’. It works as follows: if we go to a supermarket and in addition to purchasing a series of products we want to have, for example, 20 euros in cash, we will let the person serving us know. If the purchase amounts to 40 euros, they will charge us 70, which we will pay with the credit card, and the rest (30 euros) they will give us in cash.
At no cost to the client
This is a service at no cost to the customer, provided that they do not use a ‘revolving’ type card to pay for the purchase, as highlighted by the Bank of Spain (BdE) on its financial customer portal. For its part, the merchant pockets a small commission, and the bank offers an additional service to its clients.
A study by the European Central Bank (ECB) from 2020 indicates that citizens of the Euro Zone obtain 2% of cash through ‘cashback’. The countries where it is most used are Belgium (6%) and Ireland (5%). In Spain it has not reached the general public, although little by little more and more banks offer the service through agreements with certain businesses.
The Bank of Spain warns that this ‘cashback’ should not be confused with rewards websites, which reimburse a small percentage of purchases made at participating businesses. This refund can be in cash, but also through a program of points accumulated by the user and which can later be exchanged for other products, or through a gift voucher.
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#cash #ATM