Well, this dates back to an era when I was on a credit card acquiring spree(really bad mistake). That was the time when I had just been working and hence earning for about an year. It’s only now that I realize the level of pain some of these can be. Here are a few examples:
- SBI Gold and More Card: This rates as the worst in my opinion. I have never defaulted on their payment till date, so they find new ways to make me pay extra. While applying for the card, I am told that it’s lifetime free, but exactly after one year, I get a statement which bills me something called "Annual Charges". On contacting the Customer(No)Care, I am flatly told that these charges cannot be reversed since the card reflects as a "Paid" card in their system. I tell them, fine, if it takes Rs. 500 to get rid of this menace, I will gladly pay and immediately cancel the card, please guide me through the cancellation process.
The very next moment I am given a complaint reference number and the very next day I get a follow up call from them, with a person quoting the reference number, apologizing and immediately reversing back the charges(impressive I say!). But I have made up my mind to still go ahead and cancel this thing(after I redeem the reward points which I have accumulated so far), the simple reason being, why on earth do they have to adopt such unethical practices if the cardholder has a perfect record of paying his dues on time.
Manhattan Platinum Card: This one is actually nice, I once defaulted on their payment and since I had a perfect track record till then, I politely requested them to reverse the charges and they did(have to say, I was impressed). I also get flat 5% cash back credited to my account everytime I shop at a major departmental store, so they do keep their promise. However, the PVR offer(buy one ticket and get another free) never works. Another issue is that once I happened to read the back side of my statement, and it said that Rs. 250 penalty will be charged if I don’t use the card for a year. I was never told about this before, so still in two minds whether to cancel this one.
Duestche Bank Smart Gold Card: Wierd jokers these DB guys are I say. One fine day I get a call from them saying that I am eligible for an upgrade to the Platinum card since I have a perfect track record with their Gold card. I fill the application. The guy later calls and says that I need to cancel my existing Gold card so that my Platinum card application can be processed. I send out an email and get my Gold card cancelled. Later, I learn that my Platinum card application has been rejected because I didn’t satisfy some bank norms. On asking them what exactly these "norms" are, they had no answer. Anyways, I am not disappointed since it was not giving me anything extra other than the reward points. I have an option to re-invoke my Gold card again, but I don’t think I am going to be doing that.
Barclays Bank Times Card: One fine day, they just sent an SMS saying that my card has been cancelled. Live with it and move on.
HSBC Gold Card: Had no issues with it till date, but once the card expired, they did not send across the renewed card. When I realised that the card has expired(that was a month after the card expired), I called them up and asked them the status of the card(if it was cancelled to be precise). They say they can’t find my card number in their database, so will revert back in two working days. Meanwhile they also told me that they are upgrading the existing Gold cards to Platinum card over the phone itself(without any documentation). They also confirmed that it’s a lifetime free Platinum card and the features on their website do look reasonable(they have quite a few tie ups). I will cancel the Gold card(if not already cancelled), and think about if I need their Platinum card upgrade.
ICICI Platinum Card: No issues so far. I got it when it was lifetime free card, now I hear that none of their card is lifetime free. In due course of time, they dropped my insurance cover on the card and also reduced my cash withdrawing limit on the card(though I have never used it). They have also reportedly stopped issueing fresh credit cards and have made all their credit cards paid cards so that not many people take them. Again, I think I will cancel this one after redeeming all my reward points, but only because I have too many credit cards.
Bottomline: If you have just a couple(maximum three) credit cards with you with decent credit limits, it should be more than enough. Ideally, you should be having atleast one Visa and one Mastercard if you travel frequently because you never know what is widely accepted in which country. I have hence applied for the HDFC World Mastercard(their biggest premium offering till date along with the Visa Signature card) and am keeping my fingers crossed that I get it. From the remaining ones I have, I will keep two out of HSBC, ICICI and Manhattan(any advice or opinions on that will be helpful).
By the way, I agree to the saying that credit cards can be a boon rather than a curse if used judiciously and if the payments are made on time(except for cards like SBI which manages to invent a workaround to cheat you even if you have been doing that). So far, I have not had an unpleasant experience with any of my credit cards(touchwood!), but my advice would be to keep a maximum of two/three credit cards which give good value for your lifestyle. My experience is that you tend to overspend if you have too many credit cards.
Hope this helped some folks!