Have you ever used the mini-cash system?  It can be quite useful for small payments when accepted, like buying a book of stamps outside the post office, but no longer for several parking metres for some reason. 

Payment with mini-cash is no longer possible in individual car parks, and in some cases on the streets.   The decade old “electronic purse” system seems to be beginning a slow death.

Cetrel the operating company state that Mini-Cash is used primarily in the sector of vending machines, ie machines for drinks and snacks. Even if parking metres indicate that you can use the card it simply doesn’t work everywhere. 

"Cetrel offer all parking operators, the possibility of  mini-cash,"  stated Stefanie Huels a Cetrel representative.  However new technologies that operate online,  now allow parking fees directly from a normal credit or debit card with no extra charges .  "However, it (mini-cash) is provided free to all parking operators within card schemes for them to choose. The logos on the machines provide information regarding the type of payment” stated Huels.  However, payments using bank cards take much longer than paying with cash mini.

Mini-cash was introduced back in 1999, the idea being able to pay small sums of money and being able to do away with a pocket full of change.  You can top-up the card from 10 EUR to 250 EUR much like a phone card but you have to remember to do it at special cash points.  However there are still some 2,000 shops and service providers around Luxembourg that accept mini-cash.

As for parking, far more practical now in Luxembourg City is “Call2Park” a system where you pay by SMS.   Maybe this is one reason why mini-cash is disappearing from parking metres.