Credit cards are today a part of everyones life. When I say everyone I mean every person who files IT returns from 75 k to celebrities.
Remember the posters by Citibank, " Picture yourself in the worlds most powerful credit card" with the twin brother of Anil Ambani in it. Well in those days the silver card was considered a standard credit card and gold card a prestigious card. As time went by the gold card suddenly got too common.
Visa and Master card went on to launch a more privileged cards, The Platinum. These are issued by few banks who have ATM and phone banking facilities and are clubbed with extras like airport lounge access and golf memberships. You would need a cool 1 million in IT return to qualify. The following banks issue platinum credit card as of today. Axis Bank , Barclays , Citibank Bank, Deutsche Bank, HDFC Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank , Kotak Mahindra Bank , SBI Card and Standard Chartered Bank
There are some top paid ceo’s and businessmen who where still not done with the word platinum. Visa launched Signature cards for them and master card followed with World card. These are issued only with wealth management accounts and you would need to invest 5 lakhs to qualify. To differentiated signature is issued to highly paid ceo’s and master world card to highly placed self employed.
Not getting proper attention at a store. Flash out your platinum card and they surround you. Hosting a party and have an unexpected number of guests, well what does the banquet manager say. Sir you would need to deposit more money or we don’t serve further. Visa to the rescue. Flash out you world card and you get one complimentary dish.
Where is going to end. Well for the time being they are done with level of cards. Master does have a elite level and visa has infinite, these are for north Americans only.( to buy a bigger gun, ha ha )
They are still not done with convenience and think a credit card is too heavy to carry. Well what do you do now. Integrate the software that is otherwise in the chip of the card into your mobile phone and pay by entering you account number and merchants code and amount.
Somebody stop them .
What happens if you use the money and cant pay it off. Well fear not, you don’t need to pay the interest or opt for a longer commitment of personal loans. Balance transfer; move it out from one card to another, with a processing fee of 250 rs; money is on zero percent interest for 90 days, there after move it on further.
As you may be knowing there are many banks which issue credit cards. Well how do you chose. On my personal experience I would categorize them in two parts, best spending cards and best balance transfer cards. The Best credit card to apply for in my opinion is Citibank. Good online banking and OK phone banking. Made sure to opt for the higher level card like platinum. The service level varies largely when you go in for priority banking.
The second card to go in for is Deutsche bank. Does not match the service or ATM infrastructure of Citibank but still pretty good.
If your looking for balance transfers the best option would be Icicibank, followed by hdfc and ABN amro.
To the super rich what is the bottom line. Which is the worlds most prestigious credit card, Well its the American Express Platinum which comes at a non negotiable lifetime fee of 50 k. Anyone to beat the service. upto 50 percent discount in hotels around the world. A tie up with most airlines and the list goes on and on
Happy shopping
Best wishes