Since the capital controls stormed into the everyday lives of ordinary Greeks it took us some time to adjust and find our footing. How to go about the mundane tasks of withdrawing some cash to visit the supermarket, or pay the private school for the kids etc. But to paraphrase the saying a little ‘necessity is the mother of inventiveness’. The imagination and adaptability of some Greeks to circumvent the caps is unbelievable (if only we had used these traits to avoid the shambles the economy is in today….):

1. Returning purchases for….cash

During the first days of the capital controls some people started buying as many clothes as possible in stores with their credit cards. If the stores still had cash, the customers would later return the products and get a refund in cash…

2. E-Banking trick….

Some were not so accustomed to dealing over the internet. But those who were tech-savvy would pay off debts of extended family members and then get paid by them in cash

3. United we stand…

Greek families are traditionally tightly knit, which was a benefit during the capital controls. The plan used the round robin method. One member of the family would gather all cards and withdraw cash for everyone else. The next day it would someone else and so on and so forth.

4. Meet you at midnight…

What better place to meet in the hot Greek summer than in front of an ATM. Those smart night owls would go to an ATM just before midnight and withdraw double the cash in a space of 5-10 minutes.

5. ‘Find an ATM” app…

Yes that’s right. When the capital controls were announced, some ATMs were low on physical cash compared to others in the city. This prompted 3 ingenious app developers to launch an Android app called “Find an ATN”, which helped the users to located the ATMs with the cash or bank notes they required.