OREANDA-NEWS. August 26, 2011. If you have a Citadele payment card, there’s another great opportunity which the bank is providing – receiving cash up to LVL 50 from the till when you go shopping. This service will also allow you to withdraw a smaller sum of money than LVL 5 from your card. The service is free, without a commission fee, reported the press-centre of Citadele.

“The Citadele payment card is the first for which we are offering this ‘cash payout’ service at stores, but gradually we’re going to implement it for other Citadele cards, as well. The payment card is a handy aide for everyday payments. Users have a range of advantages which similar payment cards in Latvia do not offer. Examples include discounts on food, petrol and medications, as well as cash-back services for purchase that are made. The ability to receive cash not just from AMTs, but also from shop tills will be another fundamental advantage for our clients, because it opens up new opportunities when you need less than LVL 5 and there is no ATM nearby. These are good changes for our clients.

The cash payout service is a new one, and it will take time for clients and retailers to learn how to provide and utilize this service just as freely and simply as it is to use a payment card to make a purchase. Here at Citadele we will always be prepared to help out when information is needed or when problems occur. We will work together with our clients and with the First Data company in Latvia to develop the service further,” says Citadele Bank board member Guntis Belavskis.

Five Latvian commercial banks are offering cash payout services to card users from August, this year, – more than one million people in all. The banks are Citadele, DnB NORD, Latvijas Krajbanka ,Nordea, and SEB. When people use their payment card to pay any sum at the store, they can also receive cash from the till. The minimum sum per purchase is one santims, and the maximum is 50 lats. Where ATMs only issue bills, coins are also available in this new process. For instance, the client can ask for LVL 7.50 in cash after making the purchase. Requirements at various stores will differ, however, and there may be instances in which the till does not contain the necessary amount of cash for the payout.

The withdrawal of cash will not be different from an ordinary purchase for card users. When shopping, just tell the cashier that you want to withdraw cash. You’ll be asked to enter the card’s PIN code, and information about the withdrawal will appear on your receipt.

The shops, which offer the cash payout service will feature a violet and round sticker. It will read “Naudas izmaksa” (Cash Payout), and it will be alongside the stickers of Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Visa Electron and American Express. The process will allow retailers to reduce the amount of cash that is in their tills.

“I use cards very actively every day, and I do not have cash in my pocketbook. I usually remember this only when my kids ask me for pocket money. Now this eternal problem has been resolved, because when I shop for food, I can also withdraw a few lats for the children,” says the Baltic executive director for First Data, Zanda Brivule-Jansone.

The service is already available at nearly 400 retail operations in Latvia. It is provided by retailers such as IKI, Saule stores in Latgale, and many regional petrol stations. More precise information about all of this is available at www.naudasizmaksa.lv.

“We’re proud that IKI is the first network of retailers in Latvia to offer new conveniences for shoppers, allowing them to withdraw cash as easily as from an ATM. We always seek to provide useful services to our clients to make their lives easier, and I hope that this new service will be of particular benefit to people in the country’s region, because there is not always an ATM close by for them,” says SIA Palink executive director Dace Zundure.

Retailers who wish to offer the cash payout service at their stores are asked to contact their nearest Citadele branch.