Credit Card: My Plastic Saviour

Let me explain this piece of plastic which has changed my life, my bank balance and also my spending habits. It is called Credit Card. It has enlightened many lost souls about the importance of financial planning and living within your means. Credit Cards are a very popular source of short term credit for individuals in developed countries and have also established themselves in India to some extent as well.

I have Cards from two banks basically. There is one I got from SBI or 'The State Bank of India' and the other from 'Standard Chartered'. The SBI credit card I got from my father was really cool. It had these reward points scheme which was like this, for every Rs. 100-125 spent, like through the Gold Card, one gets a point for every Rs. 40 spent and 8 points for every Rs. 100 spent on their co-branded one with Tata. The value of every point ranged from 30 paisa to a Rupee. I get reward points on buying fuel as well a fuel surcharge waiver, book my Railway tickets online, pay my utility bills and their ATMs are like everywhere.

Now the Standard Chartered Credit Card gets me a 5 % cashback on fuel and my phone bill. Then the 1 % cashback on everything else. I had gone for this holiday in Jaipur and there I discovered that you get 20 % discount on tariffs through this credit card if I stay at Fortune Hotels. My father has Standard Chartered Credit Card, the business one. The SBI Credit Card is the employee one. And together and separately they are proving to be very beneficial for my finances.

Credit cards are a pretty good alternative and can prove an asset but it has to be used very wisely. They are to be used very sparingly and not as a second source of money. Credit Cards details need to be protected and kept secret. Credit Card details once leaked can be easily misused, so you better stay watchful.

So, if you do not want to play the lead role in the above-mentioned unfortunate chain of events then better try to use your credit card wisely and judiciously. Try to take advantage of the little schemes and reward plans. Use it for the service it provides such as online transactions etc and keep away from expenses you cannot afford. One can actually save a considerable amount of money with the help of credit cards. Just try to maintain distance from the dark side.