I shall be spending about 20 days in the US in less than three weeks so, I got to have some cash on hand. I do not plan to carry a wad of cash on myself, therefore, I am bringing a cash card that I will be able to use with a small fee for withdrawals. My bank charges USD 1.5 each time I use an ATM abroad regardless of the amount I take out. The down side is that they do not allow me to withdraw the USD sitting in my USD account but rather take out TL from my regular checking account, convert it to USD and sell me that money. This way the fee seems small but they make money over the exchange rate. Whatever... We are not talking about huge amounts here.
So, yesterday I went to a bank close to my office and told the teller that I wanted to purchase some US Dollars and since I prefer to have small bills such as 20s and 10s rather than 100s, I asked them nicely if I can have the total amount in 50s or smaller bills.
The teller took out a huıge bundle of various types of bills and told me he could only give me 50s while I clearly saw that, there were lots of 10s and 20s hanging from the bundle. I said: "Well, can you at least give some 20s and 10s, may be about 150 USD worth or so?" He said "No. You see, if I give them to you I will not have much left." Huh? Well, HELLOOOO? What is a bank's job? Why do they provide you all those bills in the first place? To sell it to people who need it. Right? Apparently that is not what this guy thought.
As I figured it would be meaningless to argue, I grabbed the 50s and went back to work.
I purchase the currency solely from banks because, I certainly do not want to come accross counterfeit money. The safest thing is to go to banks but, they do not like to carry small bills.... or sell them in my situation. Sigh....
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