Me and credit cards….
I have an Icici bank credit card with a small limit – under US $ 1000 – and I use it to the fullest possible extent. Lotsa travel, cell phone bills, net based purchase…etc – but sensibly pay off in full. I never need to exceed the limit – and most of the times I pay in excess and leave a credit balance.
Having said that I keep getting calls from Icici bank regularly offering a new card. I keep saying No. I do not NEED a new card.
SBI offered me a card and after I filled up the form, and they processed it, they said they could NOT give me a card. I got a little worried – it normally means a poor cibil report, right?
Well in this case they HAD NO CLUE why it got rejected…so they said please RE-APPLY. So I applied again. Result was the same.
Now they are chasing me again….OMG how many copies of all my life documents are they going to need?
Hdfc Bank peacefully gave me a card with a limit of US $ 10000 – and I do not use it much. It is too damn expensive to lose, right? well be that as it may…..I do have a card.
Yesterday i wanted a limit of Rs. 10k for 2 days – I had paid through Net banking – and it takes my credit card company 3 days to give credit…..but I guess they should have been able to see it in their system…..
The call centre (which calls me regularly to give me 75k limit) had NO POWER to give and extra 10k!
Surprised? Well I am not. This is par for the course i was told….
lokesh
Card being denied :
its times you checked your credit score.
Increase of limit Vs limit offer:
differs. You fall in the category where you can be offered a
Higher limit – hence the calls. If you did agree to those calls, there is a process involved which takes time.
Real time increase in limit is not possible.
I had this exp. while shopping. I have a credit card solely to keep my credit score alive. I pay in full and get reward points; which i later redeem for gift or donate it online.
rajivahuja
@ Subra Sir -yesterday I called up Flipkart .Wanted to purchase your book.The telecaller said the said book was availible in Hindi edition only. I wanted the English version. I said I would wait but she said no, (Retire rich..) won’t be availible next week also. Now I see it here. Kindly look into the matter.
Surya
Is 1 credit card not enough ? Better idea is a secured credit card which comes at much lower interest rates plus your money with the bank gets good interest rate .
Sachin
Different department works in banks — one for ‘offering’ new cards and other for ‘issuing actual’ credit card. Agents get commission on per application basis even if the card is rejected for the end customer. So one dept will always call you to submit application to get commission.
Now come to rejection of card, it depends on your credit score. Calculation fo credit score is weird. You get more points for more cards you hold and if usage per card is less than 30%. Their are many other factors but lets keep it simple as of now.
If your usage is 50K per month then you need credit card with limit of 2 Lacs. If you card limit if 50K then credit score will go down. So better to have 3-4 cards and use them as per need to keep usage percentage less than 30%.
kalyan
Rejection of card does not depend on credit score only. I got my application rejected at citi and SBI. Worried I checked my score from CIBIL and it is 829. Citi refused the card with no reason and I didnt bother to find reason from SBI. Finally HDFC issued me a card and I am happy with one card so stopped worrying. With a take home of 1.5L+ per month and a credit score of 829 and with decent balance (citi is my salary a/c and that is where I keep all my cash) I still dont know why my card is rejected
Sachin
Yeah, Credit card company’s logic is the most weird (foolish to be precise). I got card for $2000 limit with 100K salary and my friend got card with for $12,000 limit on 60K salary and both came came to USA on same time (just 2 month ago).
And surprisingly another friend got card for $5000 limit with NO SALARY.
Spartakus
Card companies make most of their money when people become delinquent and start paying interest on outstanding. They make very little money when people pay on time, all the time.
subra
frankly i do not care about my credit score, have not even bothered to get a report for 400 odd bucks. Waiting for it to become free..:-) I have one card which i do not use and 1 card with a very low limit, but lotsa usage..fine with that combo..
Siddhant
Subra Sir,
Excellent article, Same ICICIbank issue with me, They keep offerring either some upgraded card or they want to enhance the limit, most of my friends have taken up the offers to upgrade & now facing fees in the 2nd’ year.Glad my card was taken in the era of Lifetime free….
However about the temporery increase of limit, it requires that you send a fax or scanned mail to these guys they increase the limit within 2 days, I have experienced it 1 time.
increased limit of card is allthough a huge risk I had written about it on my blog I think you can definatelly improve the list of risk would love to see some unknown risks added to this list.
http://www.chintamoney.com/entries/general/risks-in-personal-finance