Paying Bills

I imagine I am in good company when I say I don't like paying bills. However, I confess I sometimes envy those of you who can write a check, stick it in an envelope and be pretty sure that the bill is paid.

Today I needed to pay our utility bills before we travel. Let me explain the system here. Each utility- like water, gas and electricity- is paid at a different place. When I say a different place, I don't mean I have to send three envelopes to three different addresses, but have to go in person to three different banks to pay the bills. You are never quite sure when you go if you will actually be able to pay your bills or not. After 4 1/2 years of doing this in the place we used to live, we figured out we could open a bank account that would take out the money each month. But just when we thought we had it figured out, we moved.

Here it is actually not so much that we are paying a bill as that we are "buying water" - it is a prepaid system. We have to prepay a certain amount of units of water or electricity or gas on a card and then physically stick the card into a meter in our apartment to add the money. When you run out of money, the electricity or water or whatever just stops. So it is good incentive to pay your bills. The problem is you aren't always sure how much is left. And you cannot just put money in a bank account to take care of it.

So back to today. We paid enough on our gas meter to last 2 years I think so I just needed to pay water and electricity. I can never remember which bank is electricity and which is gas and they are right next to each other. So i went to the one I thought was electricity, but a man whose job I can only guess is "bank greeter" or "person who tells you to take a number and wait in line" told me you cannot pay electricity here, it must be at the bank next door. So I (well, Austin and I ) went next door to discover a much longer line. Instead of waiting in line, I asked a lady at the wealth management desk if I could pay electricity here. She said, only if you have our bank's credit card, then you can pay at an automatic machine. Well, I didn't and I knew this must be the wrong bank.

So we troop back to the first bank, where amazingly there is only one person in line ahead of me. So I go to the actual counter and ask if I can pay electricity. She says yes. Great! So I hand her the card. After swiping it she says I can't pay it now- I must not have held it in the meter at my apartment for over 1 minute. Sigh... so I decide to come back during Austin's nap (my helper would be at home). He was screaming to get down from his stroller and clearly bored of paying bills (I couldn't really blame him).

So we go to pay water, which is at the office of our apartment complex. Now, there is no such thing as a simple water bill at our current apartment complex. Instead you pay separately for hot water, cold water and toilet water. So they told me how many "dun" (the unit of water, maybe means a ton but how much that equals to I have never figured out) of each I had left. I randomly decide how many "dun" I should add to each- hot water being the one that was about to run out and cold water since I was already there. Good news- last time I had paid the maximum amount of toilet water allowed so I wouldn't have to pay so often. That equaled to about $12, or 100 dun about 4 months ago. Well, as of today, there are still 94 dun of toilet water paid for...which means I won't need to pay for toilet water for years to come. :)

So we go home. After Austin is down for nap I put the electricity card in the meter for well over one minute and walk back to the bank. No line, since everyone is home taking naps. I hand the card back to the same girl and she puts it in the slot.

bank girl: "You still can't pay now"
me "Why"
bank girl: "you must have too much money left on your card. so the card can't take any more"
me: "So how much money can you still have left and pay?"
girl "Well, when it is almost done. The red light on your meter will blink and then you can pay"
me: "sigh. ok thank you"

So, after three trips to the electricity bank, I was still unsuccessful in paying the bill. Or "buying electricity" actually. I was hoping to since we may have friends staying at our place while we are traveling, but i will just have to hope that 300 some units of some kind of electricity will last a month while running A/C. I still have no idea how many units equals how much use of electricity.

So, that is my long story. I won't even share about paying the phone bill in this blog episode. Here are some pictures to confirm the story.

This is our toilet water meter, conveniently located inside the bathroom wall. As you can see, it makes a lovely hole. When we moved in the landlord had duck-taped a large piece of tile over the hole, but it will no longer stick. So even though I have paid the toilet water for the next three years, we still have this lovely hole open just in case we have a sudden overuse of toilet water.

These are the three cards used for paying water, electricity and gas, kept safely in our file cabinet. I shudder to think what would happen if we ever lost one.