Payday!!!

So in the world of European exchange students the beginning of the month is a glorious time when we are flush with scholarship money (Stipendiumsgeld).  However you must time the acquisition of your precious funds carefully.

I say you have to time it carefully for two reasons.  First, the money is available as of the third working day and before the 10th of the month.  For example.  Monday was the first working day of the month, so I could have picked up my money yesterday, but I chose instead to get my Visa yesterday (that's the topic of another post) and go to class.  So I went today.  However, if I didn't make it this week, for whatever crazy reason, I would have to wait until next week, and then it would have to have been Monday or Tuesday, because Tuesday is the 10th.  I'm not sure what would happen if you somehow missed your money pickup date, but I shudder to think.

The second piece of careful timing involves the time of day.  You see the Cashiers office is only open from 9:00 to 11:45.  I will say, that at least they are open every day unlike some offices, but that means if you've got other morning things to do, that you had better get them done relatively quickly because you need to get there before they head to lunch.

I suppose you're asking yourselves: Why don't they just do direct deposit?  Wouldn't that make things SOOOO much easier?  Well, yes....of course it would.  But I'm sure there are a host of reasons why they do not do this.  Instead, you must actually go to the Universitätskasse (University Cashier) and pick up your money personally.  The German bureaucracy requires this.  You MUST sign a paper that says you have picked up your money, and that money will be in the form of cash.  I think they just prefer to have paperwork.  I mean, who doesn't feel safer having an actual paper that you sign off on, rather than electrons which could just disappear along with your precious Geld.

The other reason, I think is that Europe - and I'm extrapolating from my experience in Germany here - is still a much more cash-based economy than credit based.  That's not to say that direct deposit is somehow associated with credit, but the idea of having a personal connection with the money and knowing that it belongs to you and not just a transfer between institutions seems like it might be at the root of this.  Having a much more cash based society is good for a number of reasons, if only because it forces people to actually know how much money they have, instead of just charging something and not really having any connection with the mounting debt until the bill comes at the end of the month, but sometimes it's annoying.

But honestly, what do I care?  As long as I get my money every month, I'll do whatever they want me to do.