How many credit card you have?

Credit card has become one of the thing that most people use daily.
I was originally meant for use during emergency such as when you bang someone’s car, you can use it to pay for the tow car, or when someone in your family suddenly admitted into hospital, you use it to pay the hospital(as you know, hospital nowadays see money first before the want to see your I/C, even though you have a medical card).

But nowadays, people no longer use it for emergency. People nowadays use it as an instant debt card to purchase anything they like without much consideration, hence so much people are in credit card debt without good reason –> overspent.

Some people have more than 2 credit cards, and guess what? They have more credit card debts(most of them…). Credit application requirement nowadays is much less strict than what it used to be. Some banks even only require you to have 1 month salary slip where your salary is more than RM1500 a month, then you may get your credit card in less than 2 weeks time.

A lot of people like to spend like a king and princess using their credit cards. When they go shopping with their friends, they purposely buy expensive branded craps which can actually purchase with cheaper price(cheaper brand) at other place in front of their friends to show off. It is a very stupid thing to do since just because of wanted to show off, you put yourself in debt. Some people who are a big spender without using their brain to do simple mathematics, they spend like hell and they fancy those expensive branded craps while they know they cannot afford it. So what happen at the end of the month? They will found that their credit card statement amount is damn nice!

Some people is even much more sohai, they are having a heavier debts burden because they made a wrong decision. They use their credit card from bank A to pay his/her credit card from bank B. And at the next month, they use bank B credit card to pay debts of bank A credit card. Although they able to solve the problem temporary, but if you think properly, they are actually making them self in a heavier debts without a good reason.

The government now is charging RM50 for each principle card and RM25 for each supplementary card to avoid people overspent and causing credit card debts, but this effort is useless since people will be willing to pay the tax and continue to overspend. Some of those people who have less card but have higher credit limit will still spend a lot as they might not know how much they spent until their card is blocked due to over limit. The real issue will still not able to solve.

The best way to solve this issue is to change the people’s mindset. As long as these people do not change their mindset, there will be no way to stop these people to continue to having credit card debts.

The best way to solve the problem is actually to encourage people to start use debit cards. Example like Maybank, AM Bank, EON Bank, Public Bank etc, they do issue debit cards.

Banks like Maybank and Public Bank do offer debit card service that is joint together with your savings account. They will issue an ATM card which you can use it as a debit card as well. Usually it will be a Visa debit card. While AM Bank and EON Bank offers Master card debit which it has a separate account to be use it as a prepaid credit card only. Both Visa debit card and Master Card prepaid has full functionality as normal credit cards, you can even use it to purchase things online like normal credit cards.

I highly recommend you to use the Visa debit card as usually Visa debit card providers will issue the debit card as your savings account ATM card, such as Maybank. Maybank is currently encourage people to convert their existing ATM card to the Visa debit card. The charges for their debit card is very cheap. Only RM12 for service charge and it is a 1 time charge only, then it will be free for the rest of your life. Unlike others, they request you to use the card for at least 12 times a year to waive the annual fees, like normal credit cards.

Here is how the Maybank debit card looks like. I’m sure you’ve seen this before.

So, how much is your credit card limit? RM3,000 a month? RM10,000 a month?
This debit card limit is RM5,000 daily, not monthly. By default, it is set to RM500 a day, you need to change your credit limit at Maybank ATM machine, then you may swipe your card for RM5,000 daily. Of course, you must have the money in your savings account. Therefore, it can be consider virtually no limit for a month. How much money you have in your account, is mean how much you can spend.

By spending the money that you already have, you do not need to worry about debts. Although you swipe the card like hell, you will just finish up the money you have only, at least no debts.

Debit cards is useful if you intended to spend online, you also have the CVV code behind your debit card, same like normal credit card. Some people might consider about the safety. But it will be just the same, the safety measurement for credit cards payments is same with the debit cards as merchant is considering you are using credit cards although you are actually using debit card. It uses the same transaction method. In fact, your debit card account is actually considered as a credit card account by other banks.

Debit card is also useful for students who want to purchase things online such as web hosting accounts and domain names since they are not able to apply for a credit cards. Usually bloggers who are still studying will get benefit from debit cards like this.

Since Maybank debit card is a Visa debit card, you can actually link it to your paypal account to withdraw money that you earned in your paypal to your debit card account. Although you can also link you Master Card to you paypal account, but paypal only support withdrawal to Visa only.

Some people said that they can’t withdraw the money in paypal to Maybank debit card, some say they can. I’m not so sure as I never withdraw the money from my paypal account to my Maybank debit card before. Usually people recommend to use Tune Card which it is also another debit card service for withdrawal from paypal to debit card. But if Maybank can do it, then I think it is better to stick to only 1 card as it is easier to manage just 1 card where it is directly linked to our savings account and we can see how much money we still have easily by just login to maybank2u website.

A lot of websites which selling things like web hosting and domain name, ebooks, porn accounts etc accepts paypal. Most of these websites also accepts credit cards as you can make your payment using credit card/debit card and pay via paypal. You do not need a paypal account to make payment if you are paying using credit cards/debit cards, there will be a link for you to pay using credit card at the paypal payment page. For example, my domain name selling site at http://domain.kwebserv.com also accept paypal and credit card payment via paypal.

Anyway, people used to think that a person who have a lot credit cards is a very rich person.
I don’t so. I only see them as a person who have more credit card debts.
If a person only own 1 or 2 card which is a American Express Gold/Platinum or Master Card/Visa Platinum, then only I will consider them as rich. Why, because it clearly stated their income is very high, or else they will not be offered to use such high limit cards. Normal credit cards limits is just low, no matter how much cards you have. Guess what? A person can apply another card from another banks by just showing the cards that he/she currently have. So it means the person can have many card easily. Therefore, the number of cards doesn’t show a person’s wealth.

Ok, since you all already know that a debit card can make payment online, go and convert your current Maybank ATM card to the Visa debit card and buy a domain name from me at http://domain.kwebserv.com for your blog.
hehehehehe