Asking a bank to break a large currency bill

I received a 500 Euro note yesterday, and do not have a bank account here in germany, I need to know exactly what to ask the person at the bank to change it to smaller notes...Kleines Wechseln? I think I know what to say, but just wanted to confirm...Any assistance anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.Q

Qozmiq

walk into a bank and ask nicely

Yes But I am looking for a way to ask nicely, auf Deutsch!

I think you can manage that in English with the bank staff. Almost anyone would understand when you ask for change (atleast in cities).

Just ask : "Konnte Ich haben kleine geld für 500 yoyos, bitte!"

On the lighter side:
Just equip yourself with a toy gun, mask yourself and barge into the bank and say this : " Hey du da. Ich will geld."

"Können Sie mir bitte wechseln" should do.

you: "Können Sie mir diesen Schein wechseln?"
they: "Wie wollen Sie es haben?"
you: "Sechs Fünfziger, fünf Zwanziger, zehn Zehner."

You walk out the bank with a wad of cash in your front pocket guaranteed to please any lady until removed. Even then you might get lucky.

Or you could try: "Acht Fünfziger, vier Zwanziger, zwölf Zehner."

You never know, you might get even luckier.

If you want them not to stare at you and roll their eyes, you can also say "Könnten" instead of "Können".

Excellent, thank you all very much...

Wow, this has been educational. Last time I had to break a bill, I just walked into my bank and announced, 'Ich benötige Kleingeld, bitte.'

I guess this is a wake-up call that I am either horribly rude or my German sucks more ass than I thought it did. Probably a combination of both. But hey, I got what I wanted, and with no eye-rolling.

or do you want coins?

Ask for Kleingeld

"Würden Sie mir bitte netterweise diesen Schein wechseln?" is of course even more elegant but you want to keep it simple for now. I am sure they are better trained than to show contempt for someone toting around a 500€ bill.

"Ich Ausländer, nur Hauptbahnhof, nicht bei der Mafia, bitte wechsel mal die falsche 500 Scheine" "Eins, zwei, drei Polizei" "Mein Bruder ist Osama bin Laden".

This thing you posted reminded me of some stuff that I picked up from a kiddie's comic book.

Eins, Zwei - Polizei
Drei, Vier - Rüsseltier
Fünf, Sechs - Alter Hex
Sieben, Acht - Gute Nacht
Neun, Zehn - Wiedersehen

Schön, oder?

Apparantly the 500 Euro is the note of choice now for money laundering as it's the largest value note in the world.

If you go in with a load of them expect to be asked some questions.

And for them to check it's genuine... There are some very very good forgeries in circulation...

My sister learned this version in her German class in elementary school:

Eins, zwei, Polizei
drei, vier, Offizier
fünf, sechs, alte Hex'
sieben, acht, gute Nacht!
neun, zehn, auf Wiedersehen!

I remember on "alte Hex'" she put her hands out like they were claws (alte Hex' = old witch, I think)

Use a bank where you have an account otherwise they may charge you for the "service".

Not quite, the 1,000 Swiss franc note is higher in value (at least for the time being).

I'm only quoting something I read on the plane on the way over.

It was probably the Daily Mail though as you seem to get that free with BA. The worlds worst Airline (possibly tie with US Airways) with the worlds worst paper.

That was probably true sometime back. Maybe this Swiss Franc Note is a new one.

There would be a certain Irony in the Swiss Franc becoming the unit of choice for money laundering...

I was bored intrigued enough to look that up just now. According to Wiki, for "sometime back" we should read "prior to 1907":

The highest value note is not the one with the largest denomination Kay, it's the most valuable, so the "sometime back" refers to exchange rates changing the relative value of 1000 Francs to 500 Euro (certainly there are much larger Rupee and Yen notes than 1000)...

They haven't changed that much since 2002, have they?

Actually, I think it has pretty much held between 1.4 and 1.7 since the introduction of the Euro, so the 1000Franc has always been worth more than 500 Euro, but that is still a lot more recent than 1907.

Besides, from the laundering perspective, you would want to use massively available, readily accepted currencies, so I guess the minor different in the value of these two notes (<30%) is rapidly made up by the number in circulation wider usage of the Euro...

Not sure if similar information is available for Euros, etc... but http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/stats.htm is kindof interesting (slow afternoon)

Maybe I missed something about the English diet, but apparently ~£100,000 in notes is damaged by being eaten each year...

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