Comment by jeroenhd

Comment by jeroenhd 3 days ago

One Dutch party in the previous government tried to outlaw carrying more than €2000 in the street. As far as I know, that law didn't pass. Plus you can keep as many cash reserves at home as you want (but good luck getting any back if that gets stolen).

However, there are rules that make cash less useful for large payments. Cash payments over €10000 (€3000 starting in March) are outright banned without involving the government.

There are more practical problems than "I just really want to buy a car without giving out my bank account", though: more and more Dutch stores have stopped taking cash to reduce the risk and losses of robberies. You can still carry cash, but spending it may require some research ahead of time, and not every business is interested in the overhead of going through the money laundering prevention system when normal people usually just buy >€3000 stuff through their bank accounts.

If anything, the Dutch government has been telling people to have cash available in case of emergencies after "geopolitical tension" (read: the Russian invasion into Ukraine). Not that anyone seems to listen, but they encourage having cash reserves. They're still working out an exact amount to recommend, but a couple hundred euros seems to be most likely.

ethbr1 3 days ago

Can we note the absurdity of one part of the government banning too much cash, while another part of the government notes that some cash is essential?

Also, prepper realism: a week's worth of cash at hand goes a long way towards handling the most likely disaster scenarios (which are all well short of Road Warrior).

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OJFord 3 days ago

Is that absurd? It's not inconsistent.

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danudey 3 days ago

1. Having spare cash around is important to be able to acquire necessities in case of a temporary failure of electronic banking.
2. Making a 3000 euro cash transaction in this day and age is suspicious and we'd like to know about it if it happens to ensure everything is above-board.
I don't see the absurdity. They're not saying don't have cash, they're saying don't use cash for large purchases but keep some around for necessities. Even if you have 10k stashed under your bed in case of ~situation~, you're unlikely to be making a 3000 euro purchase in an emergency situation.

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- GoblinSlayer 3 days ago
  
  Electronic banking also has preferences which cards it handles.
  
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soco 3 days ago

Let's not omit that a large reserve of cash will be very unlikely spent all at once, so we are talking different use cases here. You won't buy a car (probably) in a disaster scenario, but water and food from here and there.

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tivert 3 days ago

> If anything, the Dutch government has been telling people to have cash available in case of emergencies after "geopolitical tension" (read: the Russian invasion into Ukraine). Not that anyone seems to listen, but they encourage having cash reserves. They're still working out an exact amount to recommend, but a couple hundred euros seems to be most likely.

In that scenario, it seems like that would be an insufficient amount to really do anything except handle very basic needs for a week or two.

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reaperman 3 days ago

My assumption is that this is being recommended for a situation where Russia might hack the banking system, and the Dutch probably expect they'd be able to get the banks/ATMs working again within a week.

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- jncfhnb 3 days ago
  
  Which is exactly what’s been going on in Ukraine. Russian hacking efforts have had negligible effects.
  
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graemep 3 days ago

There is a very strong case for people keeping cash because of its resilience.

People will not do it until something happens to make them realise the problems - maybe cyberwar or natural disaster bringing electronic payment systems to halt.

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