In Istanbul, an interesting trick is widely used: “sorry, your card didn’t go through. Maybe cash?”
Checking into the hotel. Will you pay right away? Okay, let’s. Oh, the card didn’t go through. Alright, I say, then I’ll pay later. I go into the city. Starbucks Reserve. It’s like the coolest Starbucks “in the neighborhood”. Oh, sorry, it didn’t go through. I give another one. “That one didn’t go through either”. I say, I’m patient, I have five more, and now I’ll call my wife, she has.. Hooray, finally, it didn’t go through, they say. We enter a restaurant to eat. We ate. They bring the bill. I hand over the card. It didn’t go through! I give another one. It didn’t go through! I say, no problem, I have five.. A girl comes by: “we have another terminal, maybe this one will work?”. It worked. I return to the hotel. I want, I say, to pay today so I don’t have to worry tomorrow. We tried the same cards, six declines in a row. I say, no problem, now we’ll contact booking, I’ll argue with them, and they will allow me to pay through the personal account. I say, theoretically it might affect the hotel rating, so maybe you can find some terminal that, by chance, will work? They looked – one worked.
The hotel receipt said “Error 14. The number does not belong to a credit card / The card number is incorrect.” (translated from Turkish).
In the cafe — “Error 12. Rejection. Invalid Transaction. Undefined transaction authorization”.
Obviously why. In this country, with the pandemic, small businesses survive however they can, and cash is a classic way to avoid taxes and bank commissions. It has always been like this, I just didn’t notice this particular tactic in my previous three visits.
P.S. By the way, in Istanbul nearly 100% of people on the street — in masks. Here the police fine you for not wearing a mask, the fine — about 9,000 rubles (900 lira).
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 