Euronet ATMs still the worst place for Euro (EUR) Polish Zloty (PLN) exchange.

In my previous post I did not recommend tourists visiting Poland using Euronet ATMs service to convert Zloty (PLN) to Euro (EUR). Hoping that this has changed, over the last two months, I again withdrew Zloty from Euronet's ATM during today's visit in Warsaw. To my disappointment the offered Euro / Zloty exchange rate (1 EUR = 3.73 PLN) was again more than 10% lower than the official bank exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank ( 1 EUR= 4.15 PLN). 

For 500 Zloty I was about to be charged 133.85 EUR. Obviously, despite of a clever program trying to change my mind (see the screenshots below) I did not use Euronet conversion service :) This was a right choice as my bank, ABN-AMRO charged me only 122.06 EUR!

Today the best Euro/Zloty exchange rate was offered by the exchange office "kantor" at Hotel Metropol in Warsaw. Those having Euro in cash could buy 500 Zloty for only 121 Euro.

This is how Euronet offers Zloty withdrawal with Zloty/Euro conversion 

In case you decide to chose the withdrawal without Zloty/Euro conversion Euronet tries to change your mind :)

If you like to know how get most of value from Euro in Poland you might be interested in reading my recent post "Tourists in Poland lose money accepting payments in Euro"

How tourists in Poland can enjoy cheaper holidays

In my previous post I described growing popularity in Poland of mobile payments and various initiatives, as IKO, challenging credit cards companies. The highest  credit card transaction costs in Europe made mobile payments a very attractive option for both consumers and retailers.

In September Polish Parliament passed the amendment to the Act on Payment Services and as result from 2014 the maximum interchange fee of 0.5% will be introduced on all Polish payment cards

While Poles are going to take advantage from much lower , closer to the EU standards, interchange fees the tourists need to be aware of quite common practices of offering Euro payments, instead of Zloty, while using credit/bank cards. The offered Euro payment option comes across as something you at least understand and can trust. However it can be very expensive. How expensive I tried to figure out myself while using Euronet ATM machine in Krakow on 19th October 2013.
While withdrawing  500 Polish Zloty I was offered Euro exchange rate option.  I neglected that option as I found the offered exchange rate too low.
A few minutes later, however, I did decide to use the offered  exchange rate, as you can see in the attached receipt,  1 Euro = 3.775 Zloty (PLN), to find out how bad the offered exchange rate was.
Not choosing the Euro option was very beneficial for me: my bank ABN AMRO applied an exchange rate 4.1397 zl for 1 Euro and I only paid  120,78 Euro (including 2.75 Euro transaction costs) for 500 Zloty instead  of the 132,4 Euro charged by Euronet.
According to ECB the official exchange rate that day was 1 Euro = 4.1808 Zloty. Using Euronet exchange rate you pay 10% more for Zloty than you should using the official exchange rate.

What at first glance came across as an advantage appeared to be a very expensive option.

I found the following  statement on the Euronet receipt very interesting:

"I have chosen not to use the Mastercard currency conversion process and agree that I will have no recourse agains Mastercard concerning the currency conversion or its disclosure" 

All in all you can enjoy your holidays in Poland for even 10% cheaper if you  do not accept payments in Euro and rely on your own bank currency exchange rate, use the country's biggest ATM network of PKO Bank Polski or find a trusted specialised currency exchange office (kantor)

Lexus navigation disappoints , NaviExpert shines

Recently I started to drive the Lexus CT 200h. This fuel-efficient hybrid car is really a pleasure to drive.

Before my travel to Poland -  a week ago - I asked a  Lexus dealer in Eindhoven  to install the newest June 2013 update of the navigation maps,  despite my experience with car navigations described in my previous post

To my disappointment I could not find a lot of places in Poland but it was not due to the bad maps. Apparently the Lexus navigation expects you to use the special Polish characters  which was not the case in my previous navigation which I used in my BMW. It was explained to me by a very helpful and kind  Lexus dealer in Krakow. 

However the way the selection of special characters works is far from being user friendly. First you need to enter a proper sign and then a character on the second screen. I find this very inconvenient especially while you are driving; I believe that the way BMW navigation handles special characters find is much better and safer.

On the way back from Warsaw to Berlin I was completely lost when my navigation tried to “take me away” from the A2 motorway, as the navigation was not aware of the almost 100km A2 motorway between Warsaw and Lodz (Strykow) which has been opened in June 2012!

After finally recognising the A2 motorway the POI of the Lexus navigation could identify only ONE petrol station and NO parking places anywhere on the  400km  A2 motorway from Lodz to the German border!

For that experience I “only” paid 180 Euro.

A good example of a very fast maps update is a Polish smartphone navigation NaviExpert which just two days after the opening of a new part of Expressway S2  connecting Warsaw with A2,  was able to navigate me through this road to the A2. Fortunately I had enough smartphone navigation apps allowing me to drive the fastest way back to Holland. 

This bad experience with the Lexus navigation only strengthened my believe, I described in my previous post,  that the future of the car navigation systems belongs to smartphone based navigation apps.
The recent Waze acquisition by Google shows the importance of engaging driving communities in updating, real time, the status of the road conditions and providing the maps updates.

Convenience of mobile payments in Poland

When you visit Poland you might be surprised with the number of mobile payments opportunities!
In my last post I wrote about the success of the IKO mobile payment app of the Polish Bank PKO BP.
There are however many more mobile payment opportunities...

While in Warsaw, I pay for the public transport using SkyCash. As a matter of fact you have a choice of three different mobile payments services: SkyCash, mPay, MoBILET. So far I haven't seen this many mobile payment services being advertised to pay for public transportion ticket as here in Warsaw.

This month Master Card Mobile has launched a special promotion offering public transportion tickets for 50% of the regular price! MasterCard Mobile is teaming up with several mobile payments services as SkyCash allowing you to also pay for parkings and cinema tickets. Unfortunately the current version of the MasterCard Mobile app only allows you to register with a Polish mobile number.

For over a year you can also buy Intercity  train tickets simply using your smartphone giving you the option to pay with your credit card but also using a variety of mobile payment services. The ticket you can download on your smartphone as the conductors can read it using similar scanners as we are used to at the airports.It saved me a lot of time during my frequent train travels from Warsaw to Krakow.

At the moment most of the mobile services requires you to have a  Polish mobile number, but as the volume of mobile payments  in Poland is growing dramatically I expect that mobile services will soon be available for international visitors.

App replaces bank debit cards in Poland

The Polish Bank PKO Bank Polski is the first one to introduce (in March, 2013) an app allowing mobile transactions, including ATM withdrawal, without a debit card. Two months after the app introduction over thirty thousands bank customers activated the app.

Last weekend, I for the first time withdrew Polish Zloty using the IKO app and issued my first IKO check to pay my friend for Katie Melua 'Cancer? It's curable' concert.
I cant wait trying more mobile transactions with IKO :)

On iTunes IKO got very high 4+ rating. This is how IKO app is advertised in Google store

“Make payments and withdraw money from ATMs with innovative PKO Bank Polski mobile application. Download IKO application now and see how easy is life without a wallet!

PKO Bank Polski application gives you access to fast and secure mobile payments. IKO allows you to pay with your phone in thousands of retail stores and make withdrawals in the Poland's largest ATM network. With IKO application you can also pay in online stores and send money to your friends giving only their cell phone number.”

Those concerned with security of such transactions I recommend a very good article in the Banking Technology Magazine “Wincor-Nixdorf predicts mobile cash withdrawal explosion” .

"There is an opportunity to make mobile banking even safer than internet banking is today" as stated in the article.

The mobile banking explosion is on the way....

BMW 320D EfficientDynamics beats Fiat 500 Twin Air in fuel economy

Coincidentally, at the beginning of this year, both my wife and I started to drive new cars.

We selected new cars based on fuel efficiency, a "green car" with  Energy Label A. Ania was “sold” when she saw the Fiat 500 Cabriolet. I was long awaiting  the BMW 320D EfficientDynamics February introduction.

This car  with an eight-speed automatic transmission has an amazingly efficient engine. My average fuel consumption over the last 46000 km, indicated by the board computer , is 4.6l /100km.  No wonder that it got a 10/10 Green-Car-Guide rating!

Unfortunately, while my wife was enjoying the Fiat 500 driving and its beauty, its fuel consumption was very disappointing. Average fuel consumption reported by the board computer over the last 2500km is 7,2l /100km !

I decided to test both cars myself on the motorway between Best and Amsterdam (111km in total) during a very relaxed traffic conditions ensuring no traffic jams and allowing constant speed between 90 and 110km/h.

The BMW fuel consumption was amazingly low. Far below the technical specification !

The board computer indicated 3.2l /100km but based on the fuel refilling the calculated fuel consumption was 3.93l/100 (average speed 98,2km/h)

The Fiat 500 lost the competition . Indicated , by the board computer fuel consumption was 4.2l, based on refilling data 4.6l despite lower speed adjusted to minimize constant fuel consumption (average speed 86km/h )

BMW fuel costs (6,77 Euro) were 32% less than the cost of the benzine consumed by Fiat 500 (9,96 Euro) !

As I can recommend BMW 320D EfficientDynamics as the best green car in this category I definitely discourage everyone, expecting low fuel consumption, from buying Fiat 500 Twin Air. 

It looks like I am not the only one experiencing very high fuel consumption by the Fiat 500 Twin Air. If you Google for “Fiat 500 Twin Air High Fuel Consumption” you will find hundreds complains. 

In “Eco warrior: Fiat 500 Twinair” you can read “

“But if the drive had been fun and a convincing demonstration of the 500′s ability to be genuine allrounder, it did expose one of the 500 TwinAir’s major weaknesses – fuel economy” 

Real World Car Fuel Consumption v Official Figures describes a case of a Fiat 500 Twin Air driver complaining to BBC about high fuel consumption “he was regularly getting 35mpg and couldn’t understand why when Fiat claim that the 500 will return 68.9mpg as a ‘combined’ figure with up to 76.3mpg on the ‘extra-urban’ cycle.”

My wife complained about the high fuel usage to the Fiat dealer in Eindhoven but she was informed that if this problem is known already on the Internet they can’t do much about it

The only way to put pressure on car manufactures is to start collecting real fuel usage from consumers themselves and publish fuel usage statistics. Smartphone apps open this opportunity and I expect that consumers, very soon,  will be able to confront car manufactures with real numbers, not as individuals, but as driver communities car manufactures won’t be able to ignore anymore.

In the meantime I hope Fiat will provide my wife with advise how to drive Fiat 500 Twin Air economically.

Yesterday (17-11-2012) we agreed with the Fiat dealer at Pietersbergweg in Eindhoven a one week fuel consumption test starting 27-11. However I do not expect much from this, as the dealer confirmed that the fuel usage stated in technical specifications are based on the labs tests and the real-world fuel consumption figures are much higher. The dealer referred to much higher fuel usage by their Fiat 500 Twin Air show model making only 12km on one litre (8,3l per 100km !) .
I agree that the real-world fuel usage can be higher than measured during labs tests. But 80-100% higher usage is misleading consumers and if this is the case Fiat 500 Twin Air should never get a Green label and Dutch tax benefits.

Another great running day

This morning was a lovely Indian Summer. I was running at my usual place, a natural park close to Eindhoven.

When I started my run iRunner was reporting unusually high heart rate and, soon after, gave me a warning about malfunctioning sensor. After a few tries the problem was solved and I could continue my run. 

It reminded me about my frustration caused by Suunto T6 heart rate monitor,for which  I paid at the end of 2007 350 Euro ( more than 500 US dollars !),  reporting also unusually high heart rate without, however, any additional information to help identify possible problems. 

Now 5 years later,  for less than 70 dollars (including smartphone application) , you can enjoy much more intelligent heart rate monitors with far more functionality.

Since I received a replacement for my broken Wahoo sensor ( thanks to a very good service from
i-Mobile.nl in Rotterdam) I take two belts for running,  Polar H7 and Wahoo Blue HR, not to spoil my running by a broken  device.