I'm rich...

In 1983 I got a price for being "best student of the class" (primary school). These prices were given each year by the director of the school, and each year it had to be given to a different student. (Which means I got it only once. Not fair.) Anyway, the price consisted of 20 francs (3 euros) to be safely secured for me on a Livret de la Caisse d'Epargne (Booklet of the Savings Bank). It was a whole ceremony, and I remember how I was handed over my precious booklet. It is red with a squirrel on it. Another ceremony was for my father to transfer this account to the bank-branch office closest to where we lived. The banker was not so used to deal with such amounts, and in that time it costed a lot of paperwork.

Seventeen years later, I started to be curious. I never used the account, but surely I would have interests on the original amount? How much would that be? I decided to check. The bank had changed. They now worked with computers. The lady at the reception was a bit suprised, but the computer had no problems calculating the amount: I now owned 13.23 euros. Wow. I even got a special sticker in my red booklet, which could be scanned next time so that the lady didn't have to type my account number in the computer.


We are now eight years later (time flies), and today I remembered my little booklet. Since the bank is on the way of the supermarket (we were going to shop with my mother), I decided to pop in for a little interest-check-up. I was now the proud owner of 16.28 euros. This time, the lady at the reception was even surprised to see my red little booklet: "we stopped using the booklet 5 years ago" she told me. "nowadays we work with creditcards and send receipts via mail or email".

She was kind enough to also tell me a little fact that I had overseen: there is a decree that says that any account that is not used for 30 years is to be closed... in my case the critical date would be 2013... "Since I come here on average every ten years, I think it would be safer to perform an transaction" I said. "I would like to make a withdrawal. What about...15 euros?". The lady apologized with a smile: "In order to keep your account open, you should leave 1.5 euros on it. If you withdraw 15 euros you would have only 1.28 euros left... I am sorry." In order to convince me further, and prevent me to do something foolish (like closing the account I suppose) she hastily added: "Anyway, we can't give you 15 euros. The cash machine only gives 10 euros banknotes or more". [What?? Is that legal?? What if I would like to withdraw my whole 16.28 euros then? It is my money after all! Down to the last centime.]

But I was not in a mood to get angry (and I certainly didn't want to close my dear account): "OK, I said, give me 10 euros then". Since I did not have a creditcard (and therefore could not use the cashmachine), she had to perform what is called an "extraordinary transaction": I had to sign a form, got a receipt, got a credit card with the explanation "put the card in the cashmachine. The card will not be returned to you, the machine takes it. You will get your 10 euros from it.". That worked indeed. I got an new, unspoiled, unfold 10 euros banknote. It smelled fresh paint. I was quite pleased with it. I greeted the lady: "See you in any case before the end of the next 30 years".