Mar 06, 2002 12:39 PM
6647 Views
(Updated Apr 05, 2002 11:15 AM)
Am writing this review after reading one on the same subject by cuchillo99, cos I don’t fully agree with him on this.
Approval v/s Risk
A credit card company arrives at a risk mitigation mechanism based on their marketing strategy. ICICI cards are open for the masses, and their approval rate is much higher then Citibank or Stan Chart, in fact, they have a very aggressive growth pattern. If the screening process is not stringent, the 'locking criteria' will be tight.
Delinquent??
In case of all the credit cards, if you don’t pay ur dues for more then 2 months, a warning letter is sent to you. (Either snail mail or an e-mail). If you don’t pay up even after that, your account is frozen. This is when you go delinquent, and it puts your card into a sort of black list.
Limits & Behaviour?
Come on, a plastic is a plastic, its your spending pattern that drives ur credit limit. If your credit limit is 50,000 and your spending pattern and behavior matches with a preset in the bank, they will themselves raise your credit limit. Being delinquent will affect your credit rating and history, and during annual renewal, they may decide not to give you another card!! Or, they may not increase your limit.
Few Things
Take care of few things when you pick up a card,
1. How much credit free time you can enjoy, ie what is the approximate gap between the bill date and pay by day.
What is the % you have to pay as min due.
Annual fee, some are quite high, eg Citibank gold - Jetairways card is 1600 Rs.
Find out whether there is automatic renewal and limit increase facilities.
5.How much is your cash limit, if cash is 10000 and credit is 30000, it doesn'nt mean that you have 40000 limit, cash is a part of whole credit.
End
Do you expect the bank to entertain your credit request even if you are delinquent for 3 months??? I don’t think so. Will you lend someone 5000 bucks if he owns you 30000 for more then 3 months, you can see the similarity in these two cases.
Even though I have never used a ICICI card, I have many friends who have. The facilities and features are pretty 'OK', according to them. Hence, the product rating is Neutral and no comment on service and support or other details (Because I have not used the card).
I have chosen not to recommend the card because I am not a person who has used the product. I wish there was one more status, recommend, not recommend and no comment!!! :-) But, I hope that this review was useful.
Rgds
RR
