Life in UAE.....Cash Only

One day, I needed to get gas so I pulled over to the gas station and told the guy(they fill gas for you and you don't even have to turn the car off)to fill it up.   UAE is totally a service oriented country!

I handed my debit card over to pay, the guy told me that I can only pay with cash! I didn't have any cash with me and my card wouldn't work on ATM machine that day.

(Photo from Gulf news)

I didn't know what to do..do I have to go to the police station because of not paying for the gas? - Because I have heard many bad stories about the penalties (traffic fines are really high and if you have a  bounced check, you go to jail)

Thank goodness, he filled out some kind of form(like IOU form) with my info and kept the copy there with him and told me that I can come back and pay within 24 hours.  Wow...that was very nice system.

All I(James:lol) have to do was paying the money I owe back that evening!

In UAE, some things can be purchased by cash only (gas, phone recharge card, delivery food order,,,etc) so I carry some cash with me since then! Learned by the lesson! lol.....