Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Money matters in Morocco

I read in a blog, view from fes, that certain AtM machines ate the cards of some users. It wasn't till much later that we finally got hold of some dirhams. It was Sunday and nothing was opened. I was afraid to use the atm's because of the story. I couldn't hold off much longer, I had to use an atm. I stuck my card in the atm of a Moroccan bank, BCME, it didn't give me any money but didn't eat my card. I, then, realise, that I couldn't use a Moroccan bank. I went to one belonging to BCMI, it had a familiar logo, the BNP Paribas logo. I was right, BCMI is a subsidiary of the French bank, BNP Paribas. It gave me money. So I have come to the conclusion that if you need to use an atm, use one belonging to an International bank like Banco Populaire, BCMI (BNP Paribas), Societe Generale or Credit Agricole. These are mostly French banks. We withdrew 2000 dirhams initially but had to return to the atm a few times more to pay for our day tours outside the cities of Fes and Marrakech. We had no problems with our atm cards.
We had a lot of euros between the two of us. We used a money changer a few times in Marrakech.
Most Moroccans speak French, they were a French protectorate in the past. Hence the strong presence of French banks.

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