In the last few years, credit card companies and banks have been tripping over themselves, sending easily approved cards to many customers. I’ve been target of such marketing but lately, it seems this has reduced quite a fair bit perhaps due to banks finally waking up to the fear they might not get their money back from bad customers. I remember those days when applying for a card, you need to show much higher income and they ask all kind of questions before they issue you one.
Just the other day, I received my card statement with the yearly annual subscription. Although the amount they charge is not that big, around $20, money is still money especially in this economy. (That’s also why I never bothered with a gold card, higher fees just to impress someone? No thanks)
So I picked up the phone to call the customer service to have that waived. It seems like a lot of hassle having to do that every year. In the past, it is quite easy to just hint that I’ll, “cancel the card” to have the annual fee waived but banks are also hungry for cash flow these days, and they know the “cancel the card” trick.
It got me looking for alternatives since in my country, there are some credit cards that do not charge an annual fee provided I make 2 or 3 purchases with the card each month. This is quite easy for me since I pay all the utilities and fuel using the credit. It got me on the hunt. It seems the credit sales person have all gone missing. Where are they when you need them?
Anyway, if you are looking to get the most out of credit card companies like I did, you might be able to find one here at credit card deals. I’ve been a strong advocate for being “smart” when using your credit cards. If you are having trouble controlling your spending, I suggest you think twice before getting another one.
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here in India, they started controlling cards of IT pros sometime back, earlier, if you were an IT engineer, you could get card soo easily .. things are changing, it should, I feel
Good article – the face of the credit card industry has certainly changed in the last year. In the past, I would get credit card offers in the mail almost daily. Now I get maybe one per month, and my credit score is steller.
There are still a lot of good cards out there with $0 annual fee, so you don’t have to bother with calling to get that waived. Although in order to keep your business, some card companies will waive that no problem.
It all depends what you want out of your card – things such as cash back or points, or do you carry a balance. If you do not carry a balance, then you have more options. If you do carry balances, you are probably better off finding a card with a nominal annual fee that has a reasonable fixed annual percentage rate.
Thanks
At last! Someone who understands! Thanks for posting!