Credit, money, and taxes are clearly all very local and complicated issues regardless of the country. Since this blog is about us in Rio, I will try to stick to that, noting that I do not like these issues in ANY country- and I don't think anybody likes taxes in any part of the world either...
Anyway, it seems Brazil has one of the-if not THE- world's most advance tax system. Fernando was showed in detail how it works and I can just see it. Without going into details, it basically works like this:
everybody has a CPF [Cadastro do Pessoa Fisica] number (sort of like the SS# ) on a card, like a blue credit card. We got our cards as soon as -kid you not- we applied for the visa, so even before having a visa I already had my CPF card.
All the registers use your CPF number for just about anything, like an ID elsewhere. Whenever you buy anything at the store, movies, restaurant, etc. the tax is already included in the price, and the moment you pay, that tax is sent to the government first and then the store is payed or whatever. In the case that you have to pay tax for the prodct/service, it acts the same way: the government is immedaitely paid first.
So, if you want to return something, you must show your CPF and they register the transaction. (IT's a total pain and you only have 48 hours to exchange- if at all).
Credit is extremely and ridiculously high here, so most people do not use their credit cards even if they have one. Every time you pay for something the cashier will automatically ask "Credit or debit?".
It was VERY easy for us to open a bank account and have a credit/debit card. They do not do - or maybe they do, but you don't know- credit report checks, if you have the money, you deposit and that's the end of that. We started with some money and the paycheck and we were all set in one or two weeks. WOW and major WOW! We were absolutely impressed.
Your cards need more numbers for the PIN, six vs four. Now, here's the trick: since security is an issue here, they have made their system hard to break into, but also hard to use- especially if you're not familiar with the terms and the language.
Elsewhere, you insert your card, type your PIN and then execute whatever you need (for example get cash).
Here, first of all, you have to understand what type of ATM you need, because if you're at the mall where the bank has at least 6 or 7 of them lined up, one will only give the balance, others will give cash, and yet others are to pay for services.
Second, you must make sure it's working, they don't necessarily have a sign that says otherwise, so you must be observant enough to see which one is the most used.
Third you must equip yourself with a load of tolerance and patience...
The ATM asks you to insert your card, and punch in your PIN, but not the whole 6 numbers, just the first (or last) four. BUT wait: you are not given the traditional number pad, but an aleatory combination of pairs, always in different place as before, and you must choose from those according to your PIN:
Say your PIN is 123456
Then you have to chose 1234 from the following pairs, in the correct order:
0-4 2-6 3-5 1-9 8-7
So you'd choose 1-9 first, then the 2-6 pair , and so on.
Once that is taken care of, you must insert your card again and retrieve it quickly. Type in your password again (the pairs are now different and in another order). Nope, you didn't do it quickly enough.
Again.
Nope, your password is not correct, etc. (remeber to breathe in and out slowly)
Oh! I forgot to mention there are actually two passwords to use... you can see it does get confusing. By the time you have the option to choose different actions, you already forgot what you were there for!
I have only done it with Fernando- you need a whole team doing it together! My option has been simpler: cash a check at the bank! ha ha.
