The highlights of the trip (apart from the family, of course) were the Dodgers game and Las Vegas. :D So sad that we couldn't make it up to Berkeley/ San Francisco, but maybe next time.
Here are a couple of pictures of the highlights:
Haha, Alexandre, #1 Dodger fan, after a supersize beer and Jamie's present (the foam hand)
Vegas at the beginning of the night...and.... Vegas at the end of the night:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------So yes. That was the trip. But what I really wanted to write about on here today was how going home reminded me how nice it is to be able to take care of things myself, and not to depend on other people. It also showed Alexandre how nice and less stressful it is for HIM when I'm in charge of logistical things (especially money). He's not exactly the king of initiative, especially when it comes to household bureaucracy (calling the landlord to get things fixed, paying bills, etc). I mean, I understand. He spends 60 hours a week at the hospital. He's also a 23 (almost 24!)-year-old Brazilian male, which should speak for itself. :oP But I can't do things if no one teaches me, right?
Alright. So our Objective #1 was to get me a bank account. Checking accounts aren't an option, because I don't work here legally (shh...) and anything from my American job doesn't cut it because it's in English. One reader recommended Citibank, but there's no checking account branch within a 4-hour radius, and the HSBC people here were totally useless.... the perils of being the only immigrant around.
Anyway, Alexandre first taught me how to use the ATMs. Then he went into his bank to actually talk to the employees, and they informed him that a way around the checking account problem would be for me to open a savings account. I'd still get a debit card for it, and I'd still be able to pay bills with it (hold that thought), but my checks would have 30-day holds.
Oh, I'd also like to point out that some Brazilian banks (including Alexandre's) give you a 10-day overdraft grace period on checking accounts. Yup. If you're overdrawn, you can be overdrawn for 10 days before they charge you anything. If you get back up to zero before the 10 days are up, then no fees! (The amount you can be overdrawn depends on your banking history.)
Ok, but I don't need that feature, really. And if a savings account is the only choice, that's the only choice, right? Alexandre can cash my checks in his account and give me the cash. So we started the paperwork.... and then the lady wanted a bill in my name.
SOooOo we put the bank account stuff on hold and went over to the electricity company to change the bill to my name. I don't have a Brazilian ID (RG), so the mentally challenged (literally) receptionist/security guy was giving us a hard time, and wouldn't even let us in to see an attendant. But finally Alexandre convinced him, and the attendant let me use my passport. Once the next electric bill comes, it'll be addressed to me. :D Then I can open a savings account.
Something important (and AWESOME) that I need to point out about bills here is that almost every bill you receive (for anything, even from a hospital) comes with a bar code on it. All ATMs have bar code readers. So if you have a bank account, you can pay bills directly from your account by bringing the bills with you to the ATM and scanning the bar code. Isn't that great?! Very efficient. Bravo, Brazil.
Also, each bill has a specific bank associated with it. If you don't have a bank account (like me), you can go to each individual bank listed on the bills and pay at the ATMs without a card. It's time-consuming (because you may have to go to 4 or 5 banks), but for people who pay everything in cash, it's (what we thought was) the only way.
All right so anyway, I was determined to start taking the bills to be paid myself. We figured out another way, almost on accident. There is another type of place here called "Lotéricos". Yes, they ARE the place where you can buy lottery tickets-- but they're also a place to pay bills that are overdue (bills that your bank's barcode won't read). They're tiny little offices hidden inside of shopping malls and our super Wal-Mart mini-city building. Alexandre knew that we could pay overdue bills there, so he sent me there to pay one for apartment taxes that "we" forgot about last month.
While I was at the Lotérico, I started chatting it up with the clerk. She seemed friendly enough, so I played the "I'm an American" card to get more information out of her. (I certainly didn't want her to think that I was some 24-year-old who didn't know how to pay bills, even though that wouldn't be exactly abnormal here.) She praised me for learning (thanks, tia) and told me that, in fact, I can pay ANY bill at the Lotérico that's not more than 30 days past due! That means that I wouldn't have to go to 5 different banks. So I pushed all of the papers I had in my purse through her window and was like "then I'd like to pay all of these, please!" Took care of the new and old apartment taxes, 2 month's worth of "condominio" (aka robbery, an extra thing we pay with our rent that the rent should already be covering, like common areas), electricity, and internet/cable.
So now with my newfound knowledge of the power of the Lotérico, I'm not as worried about opening the bank account. I guess I'll still do it, just in case, but it's not, like, AS urgent as I thought.
So yes, taking care of all of the bills gave me a boost of confidence. The next project to tackle? A new dining room table.
Since we moved into our new apartment (wow, it's been a year, I guess it's not so new anymore), we've had only one table that we use both for eating and for my private classes at home. I usually have 2-3 people a day here, so that means shuffling the table back and forth, usually twice a day (and...psh... cleaning it after every meal). We've always put off buying another table... sometimes for money reasons, sometimes because I wasn't sure how many students I'd have in the long-term. But I've been saving for it, and today I went ALL BY MYSELF to the area downtown with all of the furniture stores (some sell used furniture). I found a great new wooden dining room set at the price that most stores were charging for dingy used ones with broken chairs. (One of my pet peeves is broken chairs that wobble from side to side.) I decided to get the table and chair set.
Since I paid with cash, the lady threw in a free bookshelf. (Kristin may be the only person reading this who knows what a sorry state our current, wire bookshelf is in.) Delivery's free, and it's all coming, assembled, tomorrow. :D
I was on a confidence roll, and the table was cheaper than I budgeted for, so I stopped in an office furniture store that I had seen and bought a small basic swivel chair with wheels. It's great for my little classroom because I get up and down over and over during the class, and right now I have to scrape our old plastic chairs with the broken feet across the floor every time. Learning from the first store, I asked the girl if there was any kind of special for people paying with cash. She told me that I'd get a 10% discount. Woot!
The initiative doesn't stop there. Another problem in our crappy apartment is that the bathroom pipes are leaking and slowly destroying the wall in my classroom (along with mold building up). (San Diego style, right Danette?) I've asked Alexandre to call the "condomino" people to come check it out a million times (I mean, what else do we pay them for? They just eat up our money! Sorry, I really have a thing against condominos.), but he never gets around to it. So I figured, "if I can buy a dining room set by myself, I can call to report a leaky pipe, right?" When I got home from furniture shopping, I found the number to the condomino office on the bill, and called, asked to speak with whoever deals with our building, and told them about the problem. I explained, "I wouldn't want to wait and leave this mold to grow, because it's only going to get worse for you!" which translates to both "hurry up and get over here" and "don't say I didn't tell you and then try to charge me for it later". The lady said that they'd send someone out tomorrow, which is also when the new dining room set and bookshelf gonna come. :D
So the moral of this story (more for Alexandre than anyone), is that, if I know how to do stuff, stuff gets done! Also, that my independence depends on a confidence snowball. Also, that I need to be patient with myself-- it took years of trial and error for me to learn how to be a grown-up in the US... it certainly isn't going to happen here overnight.
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WOW! I am so very impressed!!! I didnt know that about bills either! (which I am just starting to try and tackle...ugh) I wonder if it works like that here too?? I also like the bar codes on bills! Just not going a million different places each equipped with their very own disfunctional, unorganized, very long lines. Anyway, but seriously, very impressed! That is quite an accomplished day!!
ReplyDeleteI also would like to try and get things done more efficiently since Sidnei seems to have the same constraints as Alexandre....and nothing ever gets done. Hence my internet being cut off since Sidnei forgot (for two weeks) to pay the bill. (which is why I am now tackling paying of the bills) I miss doing things independently. But guess what?? I think we're getting a CAR! Which will make things SO MUCH easier. Enough of my book! Glad things went so well today! Good luck with tomorrow!
Very proud of you. You know you can do these things, but sometimes you just HAVE to get started, and you certainly did.
ReplyDeleteWe all miss you both and was plpeased you had fun. make it longer next time
Love to you
Dani, I am one of your readers here in Brazil. As I work in real estate, I hope I can help you explaining how things are done here.
ReplyDeleteWhy are there both condo fee and rent? Because the first covers the common expenses of the people that live together in the same building (such as water, energy in common areas, employees, cleaning and maintainance), while the latter goes to the apartment owner as payment for using his property. The condo fee is decided each year by the assembly of inhabitants, that elects the administrator (sindico). The condo opens a bank account that receives the fees from all inhabitants and then it pays all shared bills.
When you get a water leak, the condo is responsible only for common areas. So, if the leak is in a common pipe, the condo fixes it. If it is just in your apartment, it is a private pipe and you fix it. How do you know if the leak is in a common pipe? Every bathroom have a tap on the wall. Behind this tap, the pipe is common.
I hope I helped you.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteIn Brazil the condo fee is sometimes negotiable and could be a part of the rent, it will depend on your landlord and how desperate he is to rent you the property.
Usually they try to push this fee on to the tenant.
The argument the landlords use is that the condo fee is usually for trash collection, elevator electricity and maintenance, swimming pool care etc and the tenant will be the one using those services.
Congrats on figuring out these things. They are not easy. I do all the financial stuff in our house, because hubby is really clueless.
ReplyDeleteBesides the Lotéricos, you can also pay bills on line. I do not know if that works for a savings account, but couldn´t you access Alexandre´s account? My husband and I share all our passwords.
Also, you can pay utility bills late through your own bank. It used to be that the fees for paying late other types of bills was on the bill, and you had to go to the specific bank that issued the bill. Now it seems that you have to request a second copy (segunda via), through the internet to get the accurate late fees. Scheduling payments with on-line banking avoids this. Also, you can opt to have some bills automatically deducted from your account, also good if you are bad about paying on time.
It is a good idea to have a savings account and a bill in your name. You need to show proof of residence for a lot of stuff and this is the easiest way. You have a RNE and a CPF, right? These are things that if you have access to them (i.e. are on a legal visa), you really need to have.
I was able to show proof of income with a letter from the university specifying my grant amount (it was a Brazilian grant). It was even good enough for a car loan, so there may be a way that you can demonstrate income enough for a checking account.
I think you took a little bit of that U.S. positivity back with you. I hope everything worked out and that you learn how to do many more things.
ReplyDelete