There are things that Portugal does better than the US

I’m not here to pretend like Portugal is some perfect utopia, because it’s not, because nowhere is perfect. There’s plenty for people to complain about here. (The neighborhood facebook group reminds me of any Nextdoor group in the US 😬)

But today, a couple of things are standing out as making the US look like a real shithole country.

First, today, Sunday, is election day. They scheduled their presidential election for the day of the week when people are most likely to be off work. What a concept!

Sure, there are still some businesses open. The major chain grocery stores, the big shopping malls, and a lot of restaurants and pastelerias are open. But most local shops are closed today.

If your goal were to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to go vote, today makes a lot more sense than a Tuesday would!

The other thing is the banking system. This came to mind because I bought something online, and that process was a little confusing until I figured it out.

And I’m going to describe what I understand, instead of claiming to be any sort of expert on this system.

So there’s the MB, or MultiBanco network here. There are several banks, but as long as I go to an ATM with the MB logo, I can use it without a fee, regardless of whether I’m at Millennium, Santander, Novobanco, or any other bank.

And, there’s a system called MB Way that lets you pay easily through your bank app. I think there’s also a separate MBWay app you can use, but my bank app has that built in.

It makes it easy to transfer money without having to figure out what third-party app to use – zelle, cashapp, venmo, or whatever.

To pay digitally at stores, you can use your card, or you can open your app, and then scan the QR code on the card reader to handle the transfer that way. I assume you probably could touch your phone to any card readers that accept contactless payment, too, if you use a digital wallet. But honestly, the bank app is so simple and feels more secure.

And I also use MB Way to pay online. Today, I:

1. Entered my phone number into the payment portal
2. Received a notification immediately to log into my app to accept the payment
3. Clicked to accept the payment as was asked for my code

And that’s a whole other thing that was completely new to me here, but that feels so much safer than shopping online in the US!

When you set up your bank account here, you get a 7 digit multicanal code. And then, for a lot of digital transactions, they ask you to verify it by entering 3 of those digits.

So if your code was 1234567, one day they may ask for the 4th, 2nd, and 7th number of your code – 427. Another day, it may be the 7th, 1st, 5th – 715.

I don’t think I’ve needed to verify when I scanned a QR code to pay, but I do have to verify it any time I set up a transfer or make a purchase online.

Not every online purchase here is quite so streamlined. For one past purchase, instead of having their website programmed to connect directly to my phone number, they just showed their info – an “entity” identifier and reference number. I had to go into my bank app and type those into the page to pay that way.

I have to admit that I lean toward luddite in a lot of cases – not anti-technology, but not particularly trusting of those offering the technology. There’s a reason I’m typing here instead of on some social media platform!

So I didn’t jump on every new trend with digital wallets and try every new feature immediately in my bank apps in the US. I never particularly trusted Zelle, and only ever used it when I needed to set it up to pay one particular person that was helping me with some things, so I didn’t want to be difficult!

But when I did use Zelle, it was a pain in the ass and felt less secure than MB Way. Learning my multicanal code has also felt kind of like a pain in the ass, but it seems like a useful extra layer of security.

Of course, Portugal also has universal healthcare! But, they’ve been under-funding that for years, which is pushing more and more people to sign up for private insurance. As an immigrant, I have the private insurance to avoid adding more burden on an already strained public health system. Because the public health option is still there, my private insurance premium is only around $100/month.

And, Portugal has its own far right candidate on the ballot for president today. I really hope for anyone else to win today. But I’ll be looking at those results to see what other parts of Portugal I still want to explore, and where to stay away from.