A red card

I HAD thought that the introduction of the debit and credit card with a security number or Pin would have meant that our problems of not having a proper Spanish identification card would have come to an end. But I was mistaken. A reader informed me yesterday that he was asked for proper identification (in the case of British residents, their passport) when paying by card (eventhough it had a chip) at one of the major hyper-markets. It appears that they have changed their policy and all shoppers must now carry their passport if they intend to pay on their card.

Obviously, the big stores don´t want to take any risks but it is not our fault that the Spanish government replaced our residence card with a residence certificate or green form, which is not proof of identity. The new Balearic leader, Jose Ramon Bauza, pledged during the election campaign that he would help non-Spanish European residents by lobbying Madrid to reintroduce our old style cards. But so far there is no news on this front although the Spanish government have signalled that they will make the certificate smaller! Carrying around your passport is not really an ideal solution. In the case of one hyper-store in Majorca they won´t even accept driving licences as a form of identity. So, really it is back to the drawing board again. So be warned, although some staff members may overlook the law in some cases you could be asked to show your passport as a sign of identification.