12th day in the eurozone. Signals of various difficulties continue.
How serious are they and what are the most common complaints about? This was commented by Bogomil Nikolov, chairman of the “Active Consumers“ association, to bTV.
“At this stage, the biggest difficulties are caused by exchanging levs for euros. Merchants are returning in leva en masse, and in banks in many places the procedure is difficult and there are queues“, said Nikolov.
Last week, the association conducted an express survey, during which 10 banks in Sofia were visited.
“We came across surprising approaches. Four out of 10 banks do things easily and smoothly, while the rest either collect unnecessary personal information or fill out unnecessary declarations“, Bogomil Nikolov said.
“The most striking case in one of the banks was when they directed us to the website, from where we could download three forms, print them out, fill them out, return to the bank branch and wait in line a second time“, he also said.
“Every person refuses this and goes back to the store with the 100 leva to change the money. There they give him change in leva and so, if we continue, we won't have enough for a year to exchange the money“, Bogomil Nikolov pointed out.
“This situation is obviously a problem, because this will delay the withdrawal of the old currency from circulation. Everyone tries to escape this responsibility and when the law is not strict enough, there would probably be more compliance with this norm. Currently, traders do whatever they want“, commented Nikolov.
He appealed to the BNB to issue instructions to commercial banks so that currency exchange can be easier.
According to him, prices are rounded up and down.
The most striking case for him is with children's attractions that work with coins. There, the rounding is massively in twos.
“One lev becomes one euro. These traders will only lose, because fewer parents will be able to afford such a huge amount for a 30-second carousel“, commented Nikolov.