Day 109 - Paying Bills

Paying Bills

I wrote a blog once before on paying bills here in Bolivia.  As the months have gone by, I have become more accustomed to the system and paid attention to little things.  Now I have less of a problem.

I have five local bills I have to pay and here is how I do each.  Most I can do on the same day, so I can kill several birds with one stone.

First is my rent.  My apartment is owned by a lady named Alejandra.  She prefers to be paid in dollars, because it is still more stable than the boliviano.  So I have to change my bolivianos into dollars.  I’ve gotten into the habit of going to the ATM about once a week.  It gives me a mixture of 10s, 20s, 50s, and 100s.  I use the 10s and 20s, and a few of the 50s, to pay for taxis and grocery shopping.  Almost every 100 I save for the end of the month.  The first month I was here, I thought the only place I could change money was on the plaza.  Now I can go next door, literally next door, to the Banco Fassil and change my bolivianos into dollars.  They need my passport to change the money, which makes it a bit harder when your passport is in the Immigration.  But I can get it done now.

Then I walk a block away to the Banco Ganadero.  That is where my landlady has her bank account.  When you first walk into a bank there is a machine that you punch in the service you need.  If you don’t do it right, they will send you back to start over.  So I learned my ticket needs to start with a B.  An F or E will get me sent back.  I give information to the teller and give her the dollars, and I am done.  At the Ganadero I often have to wait a bit, but never at the Fassil.

I have Internet too.  I get it from COTAS, which I was told was the most reliable.  The COTAS office is near the plaza.  I said something to someone about going all the way there to pay my Internet on the first of the month.  I was told I can pay it at any bank.  So I tried next door at the Fassil and I can do it there.  Woo-hoo. 

Here is an interesting thing about Santa Cruz Spanish.  If you want to pay a bill, they use the word cancelar, which means cancel, instead of pagar, which means pay.  So the first time I was asked if I want to cancel my internet service, I said no!  I tried to explain I just wanted to pay the monthly bill.  Eventually I understood that they mean to “cancel” the debt.  It’s the little things that make a culture unique.

My gas and electric bills arrive around the 10^th of the month.  Neither are very expensive.  When I was told my gas bill might be $3 or $4 I couldn’t believe that.  It isn’t that much.  Usually it is around $1 or $2.  The electric bill is higher, around $20.  I have started using my air conditioning more, so I won’t be surprised if it is a bit higher than that.  Both bills I can pay at the grocery store behind my apartment building.  Five minutes and I am done.

The last is the condominium fees.  I wasn’t told about that, but in the back of my mind I knew that those things existed.  So when I got the first bill of around $60 I just took a deep sigh and went and paid it.  In September, when I went to pay it again, I was told that my landlady already paid my fees, as part of my rent and they gave me a two-month refund.  Nice!  My landlady called me the other day to confirm that I do not pay those fees.

So that is basically how it is done.  Not do difficult after all.

Since I wrote this a few weeks ago, I have added another bill.  After three months, I got my iPhone unlocked.  You might not understand that from a US standpoint.  The iPhone you have is locked into the service carrier until you have completely paid off the phone.  I paid mine off a few weeks before I came to Bolivia, but for some reason ATT wants to hold you to them forever, so they would not unlock my phone until October.  I have since gone to TIGO and gotten a chip for my phone so I can use it here.  Everything works Ok, except Facebook doesn't connect well.  Cost?  About $20 a month.