What Happened to My Reward Points?

Do you use credit cards for cashbacks, discounts, and rewards points? Many of us do. What if the bank were to suddenly reduce such benefits on your credit card? Why Would Your Bank Reduce the Benefits? Yes, the customer may get annoyed and feel cheated. You may use the card less or even stop using… Continue Reading

How to Plan for a Big-Ticket Purchase?

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

Move over BNPL, Here Comes SNBL (Save Now, Buy Later)

We plan for regular monthly expenses. We call it budgeting. We plan for long term goals through a diversified asset allocation portfolio. However, we tend NOT to plan properly for non-monthly but periodic expenses. Common examples are: Insurance premiums Travel and Vacations Birthdays and Anniversaries Vehicle maintenance Gadget purchases Annual Subscriptions We know that these… Continue Reading

Evaluating Payment Options during Checkout

While checking out from your favorite shopping app, you could get one of the following payment options on your credit/debit card or Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). Full payment (no cashbacks or discount) Interest-based EMI (without cashback or discount) No-cost EMI Upfront discount Cashback Upfront discount/cashback and interest-based EMI Upfront discount/cashback and no-cost EMI Over… Continue Reading

Deciding the Best Payment Option for Your Purchase

You want to buy a laptop online and you don’t want to look beyond Amazon and Flipkart for this purchase. Let’s further assume that, on both the sites, the laptop is listed at the same price. However, there are discounts and cashbacks on specific cards. In such a case, unless you have a preference for… Continue Reading

What to Do if You Have Too Many Credit Cards?

That’s a question many of us grapple with. Do we own too many credit cards? Should we cancel some of the cards? If yes, which cards to cancel? What about the discounts or cashbacks you might miss out on? Or should we just keep the cards even if we don’t use them? What are potential… Continue Reading

Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card: Worth It?

Do you shop on Amazon? If you do, you must have noticed this banner about Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card that keeps coming up? Or you must have noticed this card always comes in various payment offers on Amazon. Has this ever intrigued you? What is this card about? What are the benefits this… Continue Reading