AUTHOR Robert Gillespie

Shock in Cyprus

The news has hit Cyprus residents rather hard, a shock in Cyprus; they woke up the other morning in complete awe as they heard the news of what their countries plans where on how to bail the country out. Why you may ask it can’t be that serious? On Monday banks in Cyprus closed their ATMs from use of the public but that’s not the worse part, the plan is to take a levy.

A levy is basically to collect a tax off its residents; the banks plan to take up to 10% of people’s savings. People where manically queuing outside ATMs in anticipation that they will open, one frustrated man threatened a break in on a co-op bank with his bulldozer. This extreme measure comes after a £8.7b bailout was agreed. Many British expats currently reside within Cyprus and are seeking help from the EU with many claiming this is a form of “robbery”, strong words from the British.

The way this bailout is going to work is that if you currently have fewer than 100,000 euros get a one off levy of 6.75% of their current savings, those with over 100,000 euros will be hit with a whopping 9.9% one off levy of the amount currently within their account. A lot of people rely on their savings and have spent a good majority of their life’s trying to increase the amount they have in their thinking that their money was safe.

The government are taking the view that this is the last chance opportunity and that to bail the banks out rather than the country will help more in the long run. Whether this is the right or wrong opinion this is a severe measure and will affect many people in their overall quality of life.

Due to the devastating news we wish all our British expat customers the best of luck with their situation and every other Cypriot. The situation is a grave one and we wish all the best to anyone stuck in the situation.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller