Pure Credit Card?

I’ve been staying in a developing country for quite a while. The credit card industry seems to be catching on. However, there is less incentive for people to obtain a credit card here because the purchase protection is less and its deposit-like property is less likely to be used.

In the US, we are allowed to cancel the payments made if we have a good reason to do so. I tried to do so here after discovering that the reason for my malfunction internet service is not due to dues not paid.

In a country where motel and car rental are not popular, there’s even less incentive to obtain credit cards over here. In the US, people are likely to use credit card as opposed to other payment methods so that they don’t have to put deposit upfront. Even when debit cards are used in these transaction, a large portion of your money (e.g. $200 to $500) are being transferred to these motel and rental car companies when using their services. There could also be “holds” or “blocks” which mean that an overdraft fees may incur if your bank account is on the red or you cannot spend the held money temporarily.

Purer credit card [merely getting personal loans] in developing country? Does this mean less convenience users?

Online Bill Payment Increase

From http://ow.ly/yVVA 11/3/2009 ….

Consumers will soon be hitting the stores en masse in search of the perfect holiday gifts. And when it comes time to pay the bills for all that joy and cheer, fewer shoppers will be reaching for their checkbook, an envelope and a book of stamps. That’s because the share of American adults who say they “always” pay their bills online has grown by 40% in the past two years. As of mid-September, 14% of Americans said that they “always” pay their bills online, up from 10% who said the same in mid-September 2007.

With credit card companies finding way to increase revenues, expect e-banking to be one of the ways to increase their revenues [Credit card issuers fight for more profit (11.03.2009)]. Other observations:

• This also means less use of checks, which means decrease revenues for the Feds, particularly the Federal Reserve.
• Greener prospective. This is very likely to be related to less paper-use, which is not good for the postal service.
• Interesting to know how many opted for automated payment.
• Be careful when you change your financial institutions. When you are no longer with the bank that you had been used to associate with e-payment, you may get charged if you forgot to change the bank details to the new one.