Feeding the cash recycling machine
To the editor:
Alongside the ATMs here in China you will find another machine with the intriguing title of Cash Recycling Machine. Since living in China, this oddity in the banking machines had been tacked to the wall as something to explore when time was available. With the rent due, the time had arrived.
China is still a country which depends on cash for most day-to-day transactions. Younger people are beginning to embrace the flexibility of cash cards, cell phone transactions, and other new forms of payment. Most people however still use cash.
Bank service is improving but is still a tedious process. What would take less than five minutes to do in the U.S. can often take a couple of hours here in the home of dragons. On pay days or before holidays if you have business to do at the bank, pack a lunch. memories return of the effort to get people back home to start using the ATMs in the banks. For tiny transactions or those of minor importance like making small deposits it is best to wait.
One drawback is how to pay rent on an apartment, store, or car. Landlords may live in one city and rent property in another. For Chinese people, the real estate market is one area where they can earn a decent amount of cash on investments. Property is a hot prospect here in China.
For those who rent this poses a dilemma. How to pay the landlord on time. Enter the Cash Recycling Machine! It looks like an ATM. However, it is the robot version of the teller. An ATM dispenses money. The Cash Recycling Machine takes cash in. If you have a payment to make, instead of writing a check or swiping a credit card, you can present cash to the machine.
Your landlord or note holder gives you an account number. On or before the day that you need to pay the bill you go to the machine, make a few choices on the screen and up pops a request for the account number. Enter the number, and a “mouth” opens. Put your stack of bills into the mouth and release. The machine chomps away counting the bills. Using the same scanning technology that the counting machines do, each bill is tested for authenticity and if everything is OK the total amount is displayed. When finished it burps out a receipt and this becomes proof that the bill was paid. A nice side feature is that you can deposit smaller amounts over several days before your deadline.
As long as you pay before the due date, keep the receipt, and send a text to the landlord’s phone, then you have paid the bill. The cash has been recycled into the bank. Interesting.
Orpheus Allison
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
