Payday

The teaching job has been keeping me pretty busy, I'm finishing up on my second month now, and I'm getting a better feel for the job and my new life. Man oh man, I am rediscovering the joys of payday! But in Taiwan, even payday takes on a different twist.

Taiwan has a very sophisticated banking system, which in many ways is much more secure, hi-tech, and convenient than in the States. For example, all the ATM/debit cards have the gold chip, which is more secure than a magnetic strip. Bought something online? Avoid getting your credit card number stolen by hackers by simply requesting for the package to be sent to your nearest convenience store and paying for it when you pick it up, and while you're at it, you can pay your phone bill. All of the government-run post offices also have banking services that allow you to pay utility bills. Wire transfers can be done quickly and easily through ATM machines. Swiping debit cards are all the rage, and you can simply swipe the EasyCard debit card when riding public transit (including trains) in the Taipei area, and even use it pay for a visit to the zoo.

Despite all of these advances, Taiwan still remains largely a cash-based society for everyday transactions. Many shops and vendors deal only exclusively with cash, and some places will charge a service fee for using your credit card (credit card companies charge a fee to vendors, and the vendors pass this onto the customer). When I bought my laptop over a year and a half ago, I remember thinking I that I would just charge it, but to my surprise, the shop did not take credit cards! "Most people don't carry that much cash around, how do you expect your customers to pay for a computer?" I asked the clerk. His reply: "They withdrawal cash from the ATM machine downstairs." I guess the ATMs in Taiwan don't have the same daily limit restriction as back home.

So I suppose it is not all that surprising that, when payday came around, my boss handed me a white envelope filled not with a simple check, but a thick wad of cold, hard cash.