Croatia switches to the euro on January 1st, payment traffic difficulties possible during New Year's holidays

(Patria) - Starting next Sunday, January 1st, 2023, Croatia will begin using the euro, and the kuna will become history. Given the holiday and non-working days, financial experts advise citizens to prepare for payment and ATM difficulties. 

Short interruptions in card payment capabilities are expected on the night of December 31st to January 1st, immediately before and after midnight, and during the New Year's weekend, internet and mobile banking will largely be unavailable, and online payments will not be possible in most cases.

Tihomir Mavriček, Executive Director of the Cash Sector at the Croatian National Bank (HNB), emphasized that kuna will be legal tender until January 14th, but merchants must give change in euros as long as they have them in their cash registers, and when they no longer have them, they can give change in kuna or a combination of euros and kuna.

Mavriček advised merchants and citizens to stock up on some euros.

Regarding card payments, there are several ways.

- Classic use is paying with a card on POS devices at points of sale where banks will be temporarily unavailable or will operate in a limited mode, meaning payments will be possible up to a certain amount. Then we have withdrawing cash from ATMs with a card, but if the card system is not working, cash cannot be withdrawn, he said, adding that e-commerce payments will not be possible as it will be unavailable over the weekend.

He emphasizes that a limit of 70 euros for payments is common when systems are unavailable and account balances cannot be checked. This refers to debit cards, while credit cards will function normally.

- Banks have informed or will inform about all limits on New Year's Eve.

Mavriček states that there are currently around 4,000 ATMs in Croatia, which are gradually being prepared for the introduction of the euro.

- Banks plan to prepare about 70 percent of ATMs, or two thousand seven hundred of them, to dispense euros from January 1st, and the remaining approximately one thousand three hundred will be adapted by January 15th for euro dispensing.

Small merchants and market vendors will not be able to deposit kuna into ATMs from January 1st, but there are night deposit boxes for this.

He pointed out that all systems should be functioning by January 2nd, 2023.