Adventures in Billpaying

We have many options on how to pay our bills here in Japan. In the States we basically had 2 sometimes 3 and now with web bill pay 4. So in the States it generally was auto-deduct from an account or send a check. In California, I could pay at some liquor stores but not many and it was never clear. Then with Web Bill pay I could pay through the bank but it was still similar to writing a check.

Here in Japan I have a variety of choices and then more as an American with base access. Ok so most Americans use a company with GI in the name that I distrust for that reason alone. They get your bills and send the money from your account and it is entirely hands off which is why most Americans do not know what they pay. I can also pay some utilities and rent in the base exchange but it is in dollars with a generally poor exchange rate.

Now the Japanese options. We have your typical auto-debit, which again I am not comfortable with especially since I can't dispute without a translator, The bank, but I do not have an account and my favorite, the Konbini. I pay my bills at 7-11 or any of a number of other stores. It is great I walk in get a soda and pay $200 worth of bills. Considering there is one so close to my house it is just great and I never have to worry.

There is another option which is where my adventures happen, the Post Office. I have to pay one bill at the Post Office, there is no other option for me. It is not a big deal except the machine only lets you pay in Japanese, it is also an ATM and that works in english. So in the 9 months I have been paying the bill, I have succeeded doing it 3 times without help. My agent has paid it for me twice on seperate occasions because the machine rejected my documents or I could not figure it out. The postal worker has helped me twice, once it took him 20 minutes because we were doing it right, it just didnt like the form. The best time was this month when they didn't send the form and I tried filling one out. The post guy managed to communicate that I needed a bank to use the form. So I went to see my friend who helps me and she was too busy which led me to the translators at housing. Well they tried and got confused so they called and the company is mailing me the form they always do. I got the impression that even the Japanese don't pay their own bills or at least not at the post office. oh yeah and I do know how to use the machine, in fact I walked the hubbs through it once over the phone when I was not feeling well.
So yeah I have tons of ways to pay my bills and i still cannot pay the gas bill on time.