Adrian Arias | Cogeces de Íscar (Valladolid) (EFE) in 175 towns in Valladolid with the launch of a mobile ATM that will provide cash to more than 33,000 inhabitants of depopulated Spain.
It is noon in the small Valladolid municipality of Cogeces de Íscar -140 inhabitants- and a van circulates among its few winding streets that the few residents who spend the winter in the town do not recognize. Stamped on one of its sides says: ‘Mobile ATM. Easier, closer’.
Painted in sky and cereal yellow, the mobile ATM that started its engine this Monday will cover a total of 175 municipalities with twenty routes, to serve 33,817 residents of Valladolid towns that currently do not have a bank or ATM automatic.
This is the answer that the Valladolid Provincial Council, together with Prosegur Cash, wants to give to the financial exclusion experienced by many inhabitants of the so-called emptied Spain, where they lack basic services such as cash, which is the most widely used payment method precisely because of the older population residing in these towns.
The countrywomen, delighted
This is the case of the countrywomen Pepita Otero, Dorita Sanz and Carmen Cobriego, who were caught unexpectedly by the van, without their bank card in hand when they went to buy fruit, although they admit to being happy with the initiative, it will save them the five-kilometre trip they now have to make to Íscar to get cash.
A trip that they usually make, as they tell EFE Agency, on Wednesdays, which is market day in the main town in the area, where they take the opportunity to get money, something that this initiative will now save them.
Fruit bowl once every seven days, fishmonger twice a week and now, mobile ATM every fortnight will be the new service provided in the municipality, something that will be “quite good for the rural world”, as the mayoress explained to EFE from Cogeces de Íscar, Arantxa Herrero.
“It is an essential service for the towns, since, in this sense, we are somewhat off the hook,” argues the councilor, who explains how this service will allow her fellow citizens, the majority of whom are elderly, to have “greater autonomy to manage their economy familiar”.
One more service for the rural world
In order to reach all the municipalities, the service will be provided between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday and to announce it, the small town halls have resorted to municipal proclamations and “word of mouth” to make the initiative a success.
In addition to withdrawing money, this mobile ATM will also allow users to check the latest movements and balance, change security PINs and recharge prepaid cards. On the contrary, it will not allow the use of savings cards and a maximum commission of 1.35 euros will be applied to them for cash withdrawals. EFE
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