Credit Cards

At one time owning credit cards was considered something grand. Back then only some people were entitled to own credit cards. In order to qualify for them, one had to have a minimum steady income; and there was a fixed annual fee charged.

But over the years, as the earning power of Malaysians improved, many more people have reached that minimum income level to qualify for the ownership of credit cards. And because of the competition among the many card merchants, the annual fees have generally been abolished. Even if there were annual fees, they are quite easily waived upon request.

Nowadays almost everyone has a credit card. In fact most people have several each. Every now and then we get to see credit card promotions in shopping malls or any other high pedestrian areas. There is in fact nothing special about having credit cards.

There are basically 3 types of cards—classic, gold and platinum. Broadly speaking, each type is meant for a certain income level, and therefore the credit limit would normally increase with each type. For example, the gold card has a higher charge limit over the classic card; whereas the platinum card has the highest charge limit over the rest. There are of course some exceptions.

I have several credit cards too. And I am not paying any annual fee. Each month I would receive an average of 2 phone calls from card promoters, some from west Malaysia. But I turned down the offers. Presently, I have at least 5 credit cards. Perhaps I have more than that, but I kinda lost track of the rest. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy collecting all those cards. In fact I hardly ever used them. But sometimes, because of trying to be nice to some people who I do business with, I had no choice but to accept those credit cards which were forced upon me.

I only use 2 of my credit cards, sometimes when I travel, sometimes when I do my grocery shopping. I am not very crazy about expensive branded goods, so I hardly ever charge a big amount to my cards—at most a few thousand bucks, but even those are very infrequent and far apart. I am also a bit paranoid about leaving a debt hanging when the payment is due. So I make it a point to make full payment when it's due, however much I've charged to my cards. To be very sure, I even signed an instruction to my bank to automatically deduct whatever payments, in full, from my account. That way it's not even possible that I can forget to pay. It's nice that all these could be arranged by the bank, isn't it?

However, as I said earlier, each card has a credit limit. Since I hardly ever charge a big amount to my cards anyway, I can't be bothered about credit limits; I'm not likely to reach those limits anyway. Therefore I don't really care if I hold a classic card or gold card. As far as I am concerned all these cards are the same.

Then about a year ago, there was one time I went to pay my life insurance policies. I have two insurance policies, you see. And I've opted for lump-sum annual payments too. It happened that the amount for those 2 policies came up to a little over RM10,000. I had to use both my cards to make those payments.

More recently, we had our annual dinner. At the end of the dinner, the bill came up to over RM10,000; and again I had to use both my cards to make the payment. Luckily the restaurant manager was kind enough to agree for a credit, which was to be settled by cheque at a later date. After that I started thinking of the inconvenience of the credit limits. It's still true that I hardly ever reach those limits, but it's still better if I have cards with higher limits.

I was having a yam-cha with a friend one day, and I told him about this credit card story. He said why not apply for a platinum card? Platinum cards are supposed to have higher limits. And I thought that's a good idea. But I never really looked into it, so the matter died off there and then.

Then about 2 weeks ago, I happened to be doing a small transaction in a bank wherein I have an account. While waiting in a queue, I noticed the application forms for credit cards. I took one and brought it back to the office. The general requirements for a platinum card are the same, except that the annual income is much higher than the other cards.

I filled up the form, made photocopies of some documents to prove my annual income, and then dropped it off at the bank. I was told that it would take a week or two for processing my application. But I told the clerk I don't really need it urgently, so they could take their time.

About a week later, I received a letter from the bank. I was surprised to have been informed that my application was rejected. I have never missed any payments for any of my credit cards before. I have an existing home loan with another bank, of which I am "over-paying" each month so that I can redeem the loan earlier by about 5 years (of a 15-year loan). As far as I am concerned, I have satisfied all the requirements in the application form. Of all the things that could go wrong with my application, I did not expect that it would be rejected. How embarrassing!

I don't really need the platinum card, and I don't intend to pursue the matter. But I wished the bank would at least give me a reason for rejecting my application. When I asked the clerk at the bank, he told me to call a toll-free number to get the answer. Now why would I make that call?