I am living in a city where the only means the banks can come up with to try to limit one's exposure to card fraud is.... to impose preposterously low withdrawal limits on the ATMs.
For most banks, the daily maximum total withdrawal seems to be the equivalent of barely US$600. And the maximum for each individual transaction is only $180!
My rent is around $550 a month (my one extravagance: I treat myself to a spacious and fairly centrally-located 3-bedroom apartment - quite unnecessary, but I enjoy the space!). And I have to shell out quarterly, in advance. In the past, most of my work has paid me cash in hand; but at the moment, my three main jobs are all (supposedly!!!) paying into bank accounts. Thus, I find myself with comparatively little cash lying around the apartment. And I had forgotten the rent was due at the end of November. So, I have to keep my landlord waiting for three days, while I make a series of long treks to an ATM (the one at the front of my building is mysteriously out of commission this week - another piece of wanton persecution for me to endure).
For most banks, the daily maximum total withdrawal seems to be the equivalent of barely US$600. And the maximum for each individual transaction is only $180!
My rent is around $550 a month (my one extravagance: I treat myself to a spacious and fairly centrally-located 3-bedroom apartment - quite unnecessary, but I enjoy the space!). And I have to shell out quarterly, in advance. In the past, most of my work has paid me cash in hand; but at the moment, my three main jobs are all (supposedly!!!) paying into bank accounts. Thus, I find myself with comparatively little cash lying around the apartment. And I had forgotten the rent was due at the end of November. So, I have to keep my landlord waiting for three days, while I make a series of long treks to an ATM (the one at the front of my building is mysteriously out of commission this week - another piece of wanton persecution for me to endure).
Ah, well - it won't kill him. And he is an annoying, miserly little toerag - in a city of notoriously bad landlords, surely one of the worst! He really has nothing to complain of. I am a model tenant. In fact, I often get the impression that I am THE ONLY TENANT in the whole city who invariably pays his rent promptly and in full; nearly all of my foreign friends and many of my local ones are almost permanently a month or three in arrears.
But does my miserable git of a landlord appreciate this? Oh, no. His mantra, whenever politely invited to meet his obligation to carry out minor repairs, is always, "You broke it, you can pay for it."
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