Credit Card Craze

When I was doing my Master's in Penn State in the late seventies, I used to come across at the shopping Mall called Hillside near State College, PA a big writing on the signboard, " Credit Cards are Bad for Health" little realising the truth being driven home thirty years later. Recently I read a newsreport in a local daily that 40% of credit card holders in M'sia only managed to pay the minimum amount when the bill is due at the end of the month or whatever date that is fixed as the due date for settlement of the debt. It seemed that this habit of using the plastic card without the fiscal discipline by the majority of card holders is ever increasing and some have been sued by the banks for defaults leading to notice of bankruptcy. At the same time, the banks competition for customers have got to a level whereby the minimum annual income has gone very low as much as those who earned only RM 20,000 a year could obtain a credit card provided the applicant is above 18 years old, if I am not mistaken. This craze is becoming a really unhealthy thing happening in our beloved country. Before we did not have this disease of indebtedness for uncontrollable spending because we pay most purchases by cash, and you can't afford to spend more than what you have in the pocket. It's high time that Bank Negara should impose more stringent conditions for card issuers not to simply dish out the plastic cards to all and sundry. Banks seemed to capitalize on credit card business because it charges almost an annual interest of 20% on the unpaid balance which is lucrative for them. Malaysians, especially the younger generation should realize that they are being taken for a ride by the banks when they offer all kinds of incentives to lure them to a life of indebtedness. The recent study shows that you could get into a lot of trouble when the accumulated balance which is unpaid after four years. Due to my unpleasent experience recently about my supplementary card being "lifted" to purchase air tickets from a budget airline, Air Asia which came to several thousand ringgit, it was a great hassle to cancel the amounts shown on my statement of account for that particular card. Eventually since I have found that the trouble taken to get rid of such a fraudulent transaction is touching my raw nerve, I have decided to cancel them altogether. And today when the bank called why I wanted to cancel them, my reply to the caller is that it's unhealthy for me to retain them. So after thirty years of my encounter with that warning at Hills, I am using it as a reason when the bank asked why I wanted to cancel my card which is not expiring until November 2008. Enough is enough.