Credit cards financially helpful. Review on Credit Cards Financial Help or Financial Hurt

I just thought of writing something. The one topic that came to mind was credit cards. First I checked whether this product was in the list of ms review topics. Well it is. Not only that there are lot of reviews in ms on credit cards. Surprisingly most of these reviews rate credit cards rather very poorly. There was something to learn too. Some cards I was not even aware of, like manhattan credit card(cc), barclays cc and so on. There was no card which was not condemned, given one star rating. Almost all cards had one star rating as also 4 * and in some case 5 . Hdfc bank card is most commented upon and has 5 rating in as many reviews as 1*. Almost similar is the case with sbi as well as citibank card. Almost all banks give credit cards: hsbc, kotak mahindra, american epress, abn amro, icici, and so on.

I have three credit cards. The first was times bank cc which is now extinct. Some of you may know that several years ago there was a bank known as times bank, which belonged to the times of india group. This was I believe the first sort of global bank. You could have account in mumbai and operate in delhi. This is precisely what I did. Times bank issued credit cards and I took it. This was my first cc. Times bank had a branch in chembur, anchorage building on central avenue road and the head office was in times building opposite vt on d.n. Road. Times cc was the one most enjoyed?

They gave lots of rewards in the sense that they provided invitations to theatres to watch drama performances, multiplexes cinema halls all at heavily discounted prices. Also we went to many restaurants and had our meals at discounts and so on. It is difficult to recall everything but times cc was really the best. Times bank was eventually gobbled up by the hdfc bank. The times cc was then serviced by the citibank. So I ended up having a citibank card. With time citibank have upgraded both the limit, I have huge limit now, and the class of the cc. The accumulated reward points on citibank cc were subtracted from the amount due . Now I have further made provision to pay the monthly dues through ecs in my bank. There was trouble a few times in the sense that I forgot to pay in time or something else and the bank charged fine and interest which all amounted to a tidy sum. Again I called them up and all the extra charges were reversed each time. I am happy and satisfied with my citibank bank cc. Now I have a very satisfactory citibank credit card.

I never applied for any other card because I did not need one still I have two more. These people have their agents to pursue you. They do the job of filling up the form and help in making copies of whatever documents are needed. Thus I ended up with an sbi cc though with a small credit limit. I use this in food bazaar and similar places after home delivery. I have had no problem with the sbi card

Similarly the agents of hdfc cc pursued me and I ended up having my third cc. Both these cards have a paltry limit compared to the citibank cc limit. Again I have had problems with the agents of other banks but have successfully warded them off. Again, as such I have no problem with the hdfc cc. But there was once a problem which could be with any credit card.

With the monthly account statement there are always one or two pamphlets offering some merchandise. We fell pray to one such offer from ava merchandising a Delhi/gurgaon based co. They had on offer senoritta jewelry which was liked by my daughter and wife. So we ordered it and it was delivered in no time. Unfortunately it was a defective piece. After much telephoning and reminders it was picked up. But then the replacement took lot of time coming so much so that they won’t reply to telephonic call instead cut it immediately. Finally I lodged a complaint with the hdfc cards. They were not very helpful in the matter but within a few days we received a call from ava and as was promised by them we received a perfect piece of jewellery. Anyway I wrote to hdfc cards to take full responsibility of these offers or not to send these offers to the card holders. Hdfc cards must have taken some action on their part which resulted in this quick response.

Credit cards are a great help in the sense that one does not have to carry lot of cash just that piece of card and one is free to spend at leisure. One very important advice to be followed with cc is that of having control on your spending. Never cross the limit both in erms of money and also in terms of buying unnecessary stuff. International credit cards can be used everywhere. I have done this. Only drawback is that you may be spending more in terms of commission, exchange rate and so on. All said and done cc are a boon and very useful if used with care and caution.