Credit card and average Bengali
Let me confess first that I have a strong dislike for plastic money. I thought I am idiosyncratic one with this special distaste. Wrong! A survey proved 90% of my friends share the same phoebia. Only they are smart enough not to reveal it.
In my case there is a reason. Some 10 year back a persistent agent had convinced me to accept a free for life credit card. But after one year they charged me a hefty fee just for possessing it. When I reminded them about the promise, they shamelessly told that free period was only a year. The interest multiplied at circular manner and I decided never to commit the same mistake. My friends were smarter! They learnt their lesson from others experiences.
But this week when I needed to book a journey and did not have the time to stand in the long queue in front of a booking counter, sitting before the computer I was biting my nails. I started understanding the value of a credit card. Finally I contacted friends with the hope that they may help out with the card. None but one had a card who finally got me the ticket. But my effort had not gone in vain. It revealed some hard facts about the unpopularity of credit card. I am listing them in order of severity.
1. The single-most factor that scares people is the credit limit. Credit card givers fix credit limit depending on income of the recipients . Limit is often above Rs. 50000. All my friends opined that in case of theft or careless loss of the card the loss of this amount will be unacceptable. If the option of setting the credit limit was with users , the number of users would have grown exponentially. A low credit limit would have resulted in high turn over.
2. Second problem is security. Most of my friends believe their confidential information may be leaked out if used on net.
3. Harassment. Some like me had a resolution never to own a card because of those unpleasant love letters ( asking to submit the interest or face the consequences).
4. Fear of overspending, which can be controlled by a self imposed low credit limit.
But most of us (the middle class Bengalis) agreed that credit card is a necessity and whichever company offers a card with an inbuilt feature to tackle these problems will have a decided edge. I sincerely hope the credit card companies take note of these facts.
CXO Insights
