At least once a week, without fail, one of the major news channels will have a story on its main bulletin about a visitor (or local: they are just as prone) who has been right royally ripped off by one of Bucharest’s not-so-customer-friendly currency exchange houses.
An example:
Usually, the relevant authorities impose a fine on the miscreant and announce some new legislation designed to prevent people losing out. The law is never enforced however and the whole thing carries on until the next television expose when the cycle starts again…
The question we always ask in these situations is the same: why, in this day and age of banks and ATMs on every street corner, are people still using currency exchange offices?
Are locals still afraid of banks? Do visitors lose their critical faculties and think that Romania is unique in the world in having honest currency exchange offices?
Worldwide, currency exchange offices have the worst exchange rates, the highest commissions, and enough small print to ensure they can fleece you for every penny you have and leave you without a legal leg to stand on. Romania is no different.
So why use these places?
People: go to a bank!
Parmalat:
During Communism was there a normal police force as well as the Securitate? I assume the Securitate were not really visible, correct? They didn’t drive around in Dacias with ‘Securitate’ written on the side, right? They were sort of a ghost organization? But did they work with the normal police to monitor people? I mean was the normal police involved with the Ceausescu regime or were they just there like they are today for emergencies and not enforcing the law.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am
@Davin: before 1989 most State institutions had their own Securitate officer who was responsible mostly with counter-intellingence and political supervision.
In every important Police (Militia) station (not the ones from villages, those were too small) there was an office where a Securitate officer performed his duty.
The Securitate had many branches and dealt not only with counter-intelligence in the classical meaning (catching foreign agents) but they were also involved in case the Militia was overwhelmed by a certain situation. For example in the 70’s when the only recognized series-killer in the history of Romania made victims, the Militia was overwhelmed and the Securitate came in and through their informational wires managed to solve the case.
It is important to tell that the informational netting of the Securitate began literally from the street corner: in every neighborhood, that is 4-5 blocks of flats, there existed an informant who would provide informational notes to the Securitate on a regular basis about suspicious things that happened in the past period. These notes ranged from “person X spoke badly about Ceausescu” to “person Y is under suspicion of owning foreign currency” or “person Z is rattling with Kent cigars and whisky”.
Rarely were these informations used against that person, they were stacked in a file and only if the Securitate considered that a certain person would endanger the stability of the regime – only then they would intervene. Otherwise they would use the information to assess the psychological state of the society.
As such, in the 80’s the Securitate knew very well what was the state of the Romanian society and General Iulian Vlad (commander of the Securitate from 1987 to 1989) would inform Ceausescu on a regular basis about the situation. The Political Executive Commitee of the Communist Party considered him to be a “bringer of bad news” and they didn’t like him at all. They preferred to keep Ceausescu blind and tell him that everything is perfect and for this reason not even Ceausescu would listen to Iulian Vlad and he became suspicious on the Securitate.
Otherwise, the Securitate officers (recruited only from the best people available in every domain and after heavy testing) were living and acting as regular people: dressed normally even when they were at work, drove a colorful Dacia 1300, had a wife and a family (compulsory condition in order to be recruited) and were enjoying some privileges like the possibility to buy consumers’ goods from stores in a closed circuit, medical treatment in clinics and hospitals in a closed circuit, vacations in hotels functioning in a closed circuit etc… not to mention the possibility to open most doors in the Romanian state.
The DSS (formal name of the Securitate – “Directia Securitatii Statului”) was part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and all the privileges that the Securitate officers had were also granted to the Militia workers. Similar privileges were granted to the Ministry of Defense.
Being a Securitate officer was considered more important than being a Militia worker or working for the military because the Securitate officers were the best people available in Romania at that time.
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Davin Ellicson Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 10:48 am
Fascinating Parmalat, but it all sounds pretty psycho to me! Just totally messing with people’s minds. If I had visited here as a tourist I guess I would have had a hard time doing street photography then?! Ceausescu shouldn’t have forgotten the cardinal rule of ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’ because ultimately he got a magazine full in the chest.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Yes, the mechanism was projected in order to maintain full control and still allow a certain level of freedom. But ordinary people didn’t know about it until they did something wrong. The ones who speak today telling that the Securitate did God-knows-what atrocities don’t have a clue about what was going on, they never saw a Securitate officer in their life.
So the level of opression instituted by the Securitate back then was very light considering what could have been and people were enjoying social privileges as they are now, except being able to ride across the border whenever they wanted, owning foreign currency etc… which were not essential for their lives. Obviously the privileges were limited by the state of the Romanian society and finances.
Even on the foreign field, the Securitate was between the top-rated intelligence agencies of the world, immediately behind the 3 big agencies – the CIA, the KGB and the Mossad.
I don’t know if you remember in 2006 or so when some Romanian journalists were kidnapped in Irak and the SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) and the SIE (Foreign Intelligence Service) which were both created in 1990 by splitting the former Securitate activated their informational netting in Irak and in 2 weeks or so managed to bring home the Romanian journalists together with a French journalist that was being held for 5 months and nobody knew where she was.
I know a lot about what happened back then because I was very close to the system. There are books written by former Securitate officers in 2000-3000 copies which couldn’t be found in libraries, detailing parts and pieces of the history of the Romanian intelligence, explaining the reasons, explaining the thinking, explaining the actions from inside the system – not what the stupid media wants people to believe. The rest of the information that arrives on regular channels is 90% crap, produced by some frustrated people who were considered enough stupid back then so as to not be promoted on serious positions in the Romanian economy.
The ones who were smart and made a good living by following legal ways before 1989 will never say a bad thing against the system.
Whenever I visit Romania (Cluj) I always use the exchange offices because the rates are much better than those offered by the banks. Not once have I been ripped off, although I have seen one or two places that look a bit suspect.
That said, when I once visited Bucharest I noticed that the rates offered by exchange offices were nowhere near as good as in Cluj, and I just used an ATM to get lei instead. When I got back to Cluj I hit the exchange offices again.
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I see that the police are currently protesting: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/21697/
This bears out my worst fears about the police here. They really are under staffed and under funded. I guess BGS and all the other security firms are here to stay and crazy drivers parking where they want and driving 120 KPH in Porsche Turbos down Magheru are too.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Yes, they are understaffed, the current scheme needs 8000 more policemen to be filled and still the current scheme wouldn’t be able to handle the problems.
Also Emil Boc took away their bonuses together with the housing allowance so many policemen are actually living off 1000 RON / month and they will end up sleeping at the station because they are detached from various regions and they don’t have where to stay except if they rent something.
This is what the PDL and Basescu and Boc have done to Romania in 8 months, with 1000 Euro you can bribe a whole police station.
Under these conditions who’s stupid to risk his life?! Personally if I were a policemen I would steal together with the crooks so I can make a better living.
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Davin Ellicson Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 2:03 am
In the US the basic salary for village police officers across the country is $35,000/year. State police start off at $65,000 and then for both village and state police officers after a few years you get raises. State cops who have been on the force for 10 years or more are making $100,000+. I guess what Romania just needs more of is money!
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Parmalat Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 9:03 am
Wow, those are some salaries!
In Romania a newly employed policeman starts from 850 RON basic wage + some stimulents reaching about 1500 RON. And under the current scheme a Colonel (or Commisary – how it’s called after de-militarization of the Police force) would reach about 5000 RON in hand. If you start a career in the Police you would reach a grade of Commisary around age 50.
But now Emil Boc decided to cut the stimulents so imagine what’s left…
Craig Turp Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Yes if the police go on strike, will anyone notice? It’s like when students go on strike…
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@Davin: and if the fine people what?! The state can’t collect any revenue from fines because they have to go to court with everyone and in court they only have a slight chance of winning because for example if you don’t sign the bill the judge won’t authorize the state to execute your assets
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So fines in Romania are mostly useless, only the stupid pay them. Personally I have fines totalling 2000 RON but many of them became obsolete because time has passed and they weren’t paid. I’m gonna drag the fiscal administration to Court so they erase them from the system
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Davin Ellicson Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Parmalat,
Yes, because the Romanian police does not enforce the law and never has, it would be an impossible task to begin ticketing people know especially since Romanian’s are so used to getting away with things. What I am saying is that in other EU countries there are something called parking tickets and if you don’t pay them you got to jail like in the US. I guess what annoys me so much about Bucharest is that people here gain this false confidence and bravado. I’d like to see someone from here navigate America. Right off they would lose their car to speeding tickets and parking tickets! If a city doesn’t have enforceable laws it is chaotic and creates a bizarre culture where average people think they have more power than they really do. This hurts everyone.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Yes, this is a free society where people can get away with things. Personally I prefer it this way rather than in the US or Western Europe where if you step outside of the border the law’s gonna cut your leg.
Over-regulation hurts, we don’t need it, we prefer to have options. For example if the law would be as strictly enforced as in the US, people would have to accept minimum wages of 530 RON instead of rattling something or doing some dubious half-legal business. So they would end up series killers because of the frustration.
This is one of the last free places in Europe and we’d like to keep it as it is. Romanians who don’t like it may go to the US whenever they want. But considering their level of expertise they wouldn’t be qualified not even to wash the streets in the US so they’d better shut up and enjoy the freedom together with regular stages of picking up berries in Spain or Italy.
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Well I got that one wrong… I assumed everyone gave up cash decades ago. No? Obviously not. Romania is incredibly switched-on for card payment – everywhere accepts them, unlike Germany (just one place I could mention) – so am stunned people still carrying huge amounts of cash around.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Don’t forget that Romania is a country where huge amounts of black money change hand each day. People really can’t put them in the bank because they have to justify them and you can’t go to the bank and tell them that you made 20.000$ from rattling
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Jen Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
indeed, many (most?) places take cards, except for vital ones: maintenance fee, electricity (if you pay when the dude drops by). i’d rather avoid an extra trip to pay bills, so i regularly have cash around the house.
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Exchange houses are like corner shops or what the Americans call “convenience stores” and I use them for the following reasons: when I can’t find a bank that is open (weekends for example); when I can’t face the bank’s queue and bureaucracy; and when I am on the street with Euros without any i/d. These places will change your money without i/d. For example, last week I was at the station with 200 Euro and I had to buy tickets and run. I had no time and no choice, so I succumbed. I know it is better to go to banks but they’re not on every corner and they’re so bureaucratic and slow. Also, you can see the rate outside each exchange office and if you check this first you know what u.r getting into. It’s better than changing money in Romania in the 1990s when the only option was to do it with sleazy guys on the streets, but even that was worth it as the rate were great and I only got ripped off once (for $20) in that whole decade.
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I wanted to add that everyone should avoid the exchange office in the Florence, Italy airport. I did not use it after I saw what the exchange rate was, but I got to sit near it for a few hours a few weeks ago and watched countless tourists amazingly scammed out of huge amounts of money. I would watch Americans try to change dollars into Euros and lose a third of their money in the process! I mean out of 200 dollars they were losing $70!
I went on a 4 hour walk around Bucharest today and did not see one other person with a camera, not one tourist! After all my complaining about the city’s backwardness, today it seemed ok although I think the parking of cars on sidewalks, across intersections and in intersections is really the biggest issue to be addressed by city officials in the coming years. No other city I have ever been to is like Bucharest in this regard. Since when does driving a Mercedes of Porsche SUV entitle you to being able to park in the middle of an intersection?! This sort of behavior is laughable. In West Europe, the US you would have a cop on you in moments. In the US, if you put your wheels up over a curb you would get a parking ticket that could easily lead to the police towing your car for a huge fine. I actually fear the police in the US. Here, I can’t take them seriously. If Bucharest police started fining people they could make millions of Euros which could in turn fund the renovation of all the crumbling buildings. God! the buildings in the back streets here need to be made new! End the sidewalk parking, put the communication wires underground, eliminate BGS security and put the power in the police, and renovate the buildings and Bucharest would be a half way decent city.
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I, as an American expat here in Bucharest, have always used banks to exchange dollars or Euros into Lei and if you go to a smaller branch there is isn’t always too much waiting. Yesterday, at the BCR at Piaţa Universităţii however, I went to change some dollars and the cashier showed me that there was now a machine, like an ATM where you could put any kind of currency and through the touch screen choose Lei or Euros to get back. But the machine took my bills and never gave anything out! The teller was very courteous and actually a bit upset that others at the bank had not told her that the machine wasn’t working. Anyways, it took 20 minutes to finally get my money. Once again, not a huge deal, but this sort of things only happens to me in Romania! I should have ben in and out of the BCR in about 4 minutes max since there was no line. Earlier in the year a BCR stole 90 Euros from when I tried to get 90 Euros out and it gave me nothing! I had to wait a few months and when I was back in the US in the spring, my bank refunded me the money.
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I don’t find it so hard to understand why people still use exchange offices. From my personal experience, I know they have a longer working schedules and better exchange rates than most of the banks. And they open during weekends. Plus, at the bank, whenever I go there are some annoyingly long queues I just can’t face. That never happens to me at an exchange office.
Even though I never had a bad experience with exchange offices, I’ve seen some suspicious ones and I also wonder why there are so many? On Magheru Blv. there are exchange offices every 10 metres! What’s their trick to survive? There are indeed that many people using them?
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i don’t get why a visitor wouldn’t just withdraw lei from an atm, but as a romanian it feels very natural to me to use an exchange office. if i withdraw money from an atm, it’s lei; if i go to another country, i need foreign currency. when i come back from that country, i might have some of the currency still left, so i have to go exchange it.
banks are crowded, and for the amount of money i usually exchange (couple hundred euro tops) i lose such an insignificant sum due to the rate it’s not even worth mentioning.
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Craig Turp Reply:
August 19th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I’d stand an hour in line not to save money but simply out of spite. If nobody used these crooks they would go out of business… Or would they? My guess is there money laundering going on. Only explanation for the continued existence of many of them.
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Parmalat Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 1:33 am
They are either Turks or Arabs or Israelis. And personally I use them quite often as my income is 99% USD and didn’t have a single problem.
The trick is to look carefully at every available information before exchanging your currency. There are some serious exchange houses that offer tight spreads (0,06 RON for EUR/RON) and do not charge commissions. My favourite one is situated at Piata Romana, righ next to the Turabo – BCR Cafe. The only bank that can compete with them in terms of spreads is Raiffeisen Bank, the rest of the banks offer at least 0,1 RON spreads for EUR as if they weren’t making enough money from the poor Romanian consumer…
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