I live in Spain. A law just went into effect that bans cash transactions over 1000 Euros unless you pay with a bank card. You also aren’t allowed to have over 100,000 Euros in cash. I don’t know how they are going to enforce the 100k rule but the cash transaction rule is a fine of 25% of the purchase price over 1000. Most of your utilities and government business already have to be paid through a bank and most people use debit cards to pay for things like groceries. That makes even things as simple as buying a new Smartphone illegal unless you pay with a card.
It is one thosuand Euros today. Soon it will be 500, then 250, then 100....
“I don’t know how they are going to enforce the 100k rule”
As you probably know there is an EUR 10K rule for moving between EU/UK countries. While difficult to enforce, you must declare the cash over that limit by law.
So the objective is really to allow the authorities to make you a criminal if you fail to do the declaration. Once you have that criminal record you are really under the thumb.
Sounds like a move designed to prepare the public for re-issuing a currency. Several countries are looking at issuing their own digital currencies — which have a block-chain feature that would allow the tracking of transactions. Perhaps Spain will be used as a test case for the EU?
1,000 euros is about $1,179.
You can’t have that much cash??
I have read elsewhere GB and the EU want to be cashless by 2030 or so.