by Andy W » 02 Jul 2016, 07:21
The Greek government has never placed any restrictions on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn by holders of foreign-issued cards. You could always withdraw as much as you wanted, up to the daily limit set by your own card issuer, which would be the same wherever you went in the Eurozone. Indeed there are daily limits on how much you can withdraw in your own country too, designed to prevent card fraud.
There was and still is a restriction on the amount that can be withdrawn by holders of Greek issued cards, though that has eased slightly since the height of the financial crisis. This is now as much to encourage electronic payments, which are traceable by tax inspectors, rather than cash payments, which aren't, as down to any shortage of banknotes.
As is very common, the UK press totally misrepresented what was happening and claimed the sky was falling. Lots of photos of empty cash machines in Athens. Strangely no photos of empty cash machines in the UK, even though it happens every weekend somewhere or other and gets sorted out on Monday.
Last edited by
Andy W on 02 Jul 2016, 07:23, edited 1 time in total.