"Approved"

from Elliott

Getting a cell phone in South Africa can be difficult, especially being new to the country. The biggest challenge we faced when we first got here was that in order to get a contract plan you had to have a bank account for three months to prove creditworthiness, although I am not quite sure how that determines your risk level. They do not accept a credit card as payment so we had to start at the beginning. Without a contract you are stuck with prepaid airtime which is more expensive and you have to pay the full cost of the phone. Needless to say we went cheap!

I thought in three months we would be on our way to a full choice of phones and lower usage fees. Wrong! It took us 3 weeks just to set up the account. All sorts of background checks and special situations given our foreign visitor status. It seems that all foreigners are presumed to be money launderers until proven innocent.

Once I had three full months of statements I was free to get a contract plan phone. Or so I thought...I was just able to BEGIN the process of procuring a cell phone account. First to determine the plan. There are no unlimited plans and the cost of the phone relates to which talk plan you choose. Too many choices for me!

Then apply for the account. No social security number and a 10 minute credit check! Instead it required a mountain of paperwork, passports, proof of residence and a three page application. What was supposed to be an in-store activity required 'headquarters approval' due to my lack of a work permit - as a missionary you get a 'visitors visa for charitable workers' not a work permit - and a weeks worth of other undefined background investigations. Again I felt like a criminal - guilty till proven innocent!

I was getting impatient and frustrated but since I had already told them I was a missionary my hands (or mouth ) were tied! I just had to suffer in silence...

Finally came the call- you have been approved! - I was so proud; you would have thought I just got my first mortgage.