A good credit score is important. It can provide you with access to a wider range of credit facilities and help reduce the cost of credit. Going forward, your credit score may play an important role in non-financial matters, say employment or taking a house on rent. Fair enough but what are the factors that… Continue Reading
Why do you need a credit card number? I am NOT speaking about the credit card but about the credit card number printed on the card. The merchant clearly does not need it. All the information the merchant needs is encoded in the bar strip which is read by the swipe machine. Don’t need the… Continue Reading
Starting October 1, 2023, you may be able to port your credit Card just like your mobile number. No, you won’t be able to port your ICICI Bank Credit Card to HDFC Bank or vice versa. But you can choose the card network for your credit card. What Are Card Networks? If you look at… Continue Reading
Human ingenuity knows no bounds. And if allowed to operate freely, many of us would behave irresponsibly and misuse/abuse the system to get undue advantage. Let us consider a hypothetical situation. We know credit cards allow an interest-free credit period. You have a credit card from Bank A. Let’s call this credit card A. You… Continue Reading
How do you make UPI payments? 3 broad ways. Link bank account to a UPI app: Your account gets debited, and the merchant/peer account gets credited. You can only spend the money in your account. Link RuPay credit card to a UPI app: Not Visa, not Mastercard. Only Rupay card. You get credit for UPI… Continue Reading
This sounds a bit strange since we usually associate credit cards with overspending and incurring unnecessary debt, which leads to financial strain and difficulty in managing finances. Then, how do credit cards figure here? Well, credit cards can be quite useful if you use them wisely and responsibly. Let’s first look at a question to… Continue Reading
You spend a big amount on your credit card. You do not have the money to settle the bill in full by the due date. You decide to pay off the debt over the next few months. That means you won’t pay the bill in full right away. You will keep paying whatever you can… Continue Reading
You open Amazon/Flipkart to purchase your favourite gadget. You notice you can get a discount if you pay using a credit card from a particular bank. And you get a higher discount if you purchase on EMIs using the same credit card. Interesting, isn’t it? Why higher discounts on EMI purchases? But first, why discounts… Continue Reading
The keyword here is “plan”. We don’t focus on instances when your big purchases are forced, say your mobile phone or laptop conks off suddenly. Or your bike or car is suddenly showing problems and the cost of repair is too high and not justified. There is not much you can do about such instances.… Continue Reading
Swiping a credit card is easy. Repaying credit card debt is not. There will be situations where your cashflows will be stretched and you won’t be able to pay your credit card bill in full. What do you do then? Will that affect your credit score? Well, if you read a card statement carefully, you… Continue Reading