Change is Not Constant

What a week it's been! It took me longer to get my post out, but here it is. Enjoy!

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Way back in when I first started working, Monday mornings always brought a certain ritual at the food trucks outside of my building.  As a people watcher, I couldn’t help but notice the familiar routine.  Patrons would come up to the truck and order something fairly cheap, maybe a muffin for $1, or if they were splurging, get it toasted with butter and jelly. Then they’d whip out the fresh $20 they got from the ATM after payday last Friday. The food truck vendor always was able to give the right blend of tens, fives, and ones as change. There was no hassle; they knew what their customers wanted and were prepared.

Fast forward to the months right before the COVID-19 shutdown.  The ‘breaking a $20’ ritual was being replaced with QR codes or other stickers showing that the vendors took Venmo, CashApp or some other electronic payment.

What does any of this have to do with me being in India? Like the US, India has embraced electronic payments. You see it everywhere, the little QR code placards for PayTM that users can scan to send money to a vendor or a friend.  From fancy luxury chains to the humble sabzi wallas (vegetable sellers) on the street, from grocery stores to inside of autos, immediate electronic payments are everywhere.

These payments are made possible through UPI, or Unified Payment Interface.  And this convenient way of paying is a proud export to different countries in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have access to it.  What makes this method of payment so secure is what also makes it inaccessible to many foreigners.  In order to set this up, a person’s identity must be verified against a government database.  Think of it as setting up a bank account or starting a job; your identity if verified first to make sure you are you and you’re not stealing someone’s identity or doing anything wrong. As a tourist, I’m obviously not in any Indian database as a citizen, so I’m not able to, at present, participate.

So that leaves me with going old school, similar to the scenes I observed so long ago. Sometimes, though, I will ask a vendor for just the change. I’ve found they’re more willing to do it at the end of the day when they’ve gotten more cash.  I even did something that was pretty obnoxious, but I needed the change. I was at a hypermarket and my things tallied up to Rs 512. Now I could have given the cashier a Rs500 and dug around for change, or maybe even found a Rs20 note. But I gave her two Rs.500 and she looked very annoyed and ask me if I had something smaller. Mind you, the line was very long, and people were waiting behind me. As I mentioned, most people pay electronically and in this particular store, they take my credit card with no problem. I played the dumb foreigner and the guy behind me told the cashier that I needed change, perhaps he thought I didn’t understand what she said.  Either way, I walked out with the change I needed along with the items I needed to buy.

I’m still working on figuring something out.  With the recent G20, I saw reports of foreigners being able to use special UPIs.  When I first arrived at the airport, I asked several exchange places about the UPI and they had no idea what I was talking about (which contributed to my frustration with getting my money exchanged). I talked to one travel agency in Jodhpur that is one of the vendors that do foreigner UPI. He was a bit more knowledgeable but said that it was restricted to only G20 delegates.  So for now, I’m enjoying the adventure and wackiness that making change brings. 

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash