India is still very much a cash money country. Many people don't even have bankaccounts and are perfectly fine using cash for paying their bills. Besides some smaller notes, the most used bills are 100 and 500 rupee notes. When using the ATM it will give you 100, 500 or 1000 rupee notes.
A couple of weeks ago the Indian government decided to take all 500 and 1000 rupee notes out of rotation starting... the very next day! Meaning all those notes would stop being a valid method of payment in less than 24 hours. Imagine the chaos this has caused; suddenly the money in your pocket wouldn't be worth anything anymore until you exchanged it for the new replacement bills of 500 and 2000 rupees.
The next 2 days all banks were closed to get the new bills ready for the public. So basically, the money you had wasn't valid anymore, but there was no way to exchange it into something useful. Also, for a while the ATM machines were not replenished so those were still giving out old/invalid money. And on top of that, the government has determent that all exchanges need to be done before 31 december of THIS YEAR!
Ever since the lines at the ATMs and bank offices are absolutely crazy. The first few days having to wait 4 or 5 or more hours to get a small amount exchanged was normal. But even today, 3 weeks after the change, there are still long long lines to get money.
To make matters worse the new 500 rupee notes are not yet readily available. So you either get 100 bills or 2000 bills. But imagine going to the market to buy fruits and veggies for let's say 150 rupees and paying with a 2000 rupee bill. There is absolutely no one who is able to give you change for such a large note!
A couple of weeks ago the Indian government decided to take all 500 and 1000 rupee notes out of rotation starting... the very next day! Meaning all those notes would stop being a valid method of payment in less than 24 hours. Imagine the chaos this has caused; suddenly the money in your pocket wouldn't be worth anything anymore until you exchanged it for the new replacement bills of 500 and 2000 rupees.
The next 2 days all banks were closed to get the new bills ready for the public. So basically, the money you had wasn't valid anymore, but there was no way to exchange it into something useful. Also, for a while the ATM machines were not replenished so those were still giving out old/invalid money. And on top of that, the government has determent that all exchanges need to be done before 31 december of THIS YEAR!
Ever since the lines at the ATMs and bank offices are absolutely crazy. The first few days having to wait 4 or 5 or more hours to get a small amount exchanged was normal. But even today, 3 weeks after the change, there are still long long lines to get money.
To make matters worse the new 500 rupee notes are not yet readily available. So you either get 100 bills or 2000 bills. But imagine going to the market to buy fruits and veggies for let's say 150 rupees and paying with a 2000 rupee bill. There is absolutely no one who is able to give you change for such a large note!