Pathé, a well-known French company that also has a number of cinemas in the Netherlands, will stop accepting Dutch money. From now on it is only possible to pay with a debit or credit card. This decision does not go down well with everyone. Complaints about the company have started pouring in on the internet and a large number of people have said they are ending their so-called “unlimited” (we think quite limited if no cash can be used) subscriptions.
We ourselves contacted a few people who regularly visited Pathé and received the following responses:
Sandra: “Pathé has beautiful rooms and it was always a nice atmosphere, but my privacy is more important. Not everyone needs to know when I go to the cinema and with whom”.
Tom: “I was actually done with Pathé for a long time, but this is the last straw. I also asked them why they did this, but I always got a different answer”.
In the Netherlands, debit cards work with the Maestro system, part of the American Mastercard. In addition to Mastercard, you can pay with VISA in Pathé. At the moment it is therefore no longer possible to pay with Dutch cash (a legal tender) in Pathé.
Too many retailers refuse cash, De Nederlandsche Bank warns. It is important that retailers continue to accept cash as legal tender, the central bank writes in an analysis of the acceptance of means of payment .
Retailers' organizations agreed last year with DNB, banks, catering companies and petrol stations, among others, to make efforts to keep cash payments possible. This so-called Cash Covenant was necessary because cash payments are coming under increasing pressure. At the time, DNB warned of the negative consequences if cash were to disappear. In the event of a major malfunction in pin systems, for example, there would be no alternative to fall back on.